sick betta

[hellothere1]

Hey guys,
I am really worried about my betta. Recently, his tail looked kind of shredded, so I gave him melafix thinking it was fin rot. At first he seemed to get better, but then I noticed his tail is still continuing to look shredded and now its even a little bit on his bottom fin. But he still swims actively around the tank and makes bubble nests. Can someone help me figure out what's wrong?

[Oscar Betta]

do you remeber anytime when he maybe teared his fins?

[wiccansinger]

if you have plastic plants remove them and replace with real, they are delecate and can rip/tear easily. have you looked up fin rot in google images to cross reference it with what your bettas got? if not you should do it now, however it will only be a guide, show the picture(s) to an aquarium place nearby not just your lps though, they need to specialise in fish. put the tank where you can see it most of the time to see if he is biting his fins as well, it is possible he is doing it himself i am not sure on the treatment on that but i think (THINK not sure) that a mirror or a cut out picture of a female betta near the tank where he can see it for a small amount of time each day may make him feel like creating a bubblenest, rather than chew his tail.

[bettalvr]

Look for some of Fishmomma's posts and follow the links in the signature. There's some great info there about fish diseases. After that, if you have questions, contact her as she is the health person to talk to and will help out.

[FishMomma]

Ok, folks, Fish Momma is here!

I'm having the same problem with one of my Bettas right now. None of my others ever had any problems with tail rot so I've started to wonder about genetics or tail biting. Tail biting is actully fairly rare but in Bettas that are REALLY aggressive it can be a problem. Boredom also can cause tail biting. I think that is what mine did this last time since there is no shredding or reddening at the ends of the tail there is just one giant chunk out of it right in the middle! I have all live plants and smooth decor so that's not the problem. Anyway, rattling on about my Betta . . . but let's move on to yours!

If you've tried the Melafix (same thing as Betafix but dosed for larger tanks) and it's not working, it may be time to move on to something else. Your fella may have developed a bit of resistance to it. I would suggest several things that you should do. First of all, since tail rot is often times caused by dirty water or dirty gravel, be sure that you are doing weekly water changes. If you have a filter, change out 25%-50% of the water. If you do NOT have a filter, change out 75%-85% of the water weekly. Make sure that you're using a gravel vaccum or turkey baster to vaccum up the yuckies on the gravel. Bettas love to lay on the bottom of their tanks and drag their tails through all kinds of yuck, so cleaning you gravel with a vaccum on a weekly basis helps prevent problems. Secondly, add some AQUARIUM SALT to your tank. Add 1/2 teaspoon of AQUARIUM SALT per GALLON of water. Remember that salt isn't filtered out and doesn't evaporate so be careful to not oversalt your fish. You can avoid this by adding salt to the tank on every 3rd or 4th water change. *Be sure that you use salt that doesn't contain IODINE, too! The salt acts an an irritant to your fish which causes him to produce a thicker slime coat thus giving him extra protection against disease and infection. For meds, I would move on to the Maracyn Two or Maracyn Plus. The Maracyn Two is usually what is recommended for the tail rot and usually works quite well. It will make the tank water a bit cloudy during treatment but that will go away. If you keep having recurrent infections of the tail rot, use the Maracyn Plus. The Plus version actually binds to the fish itself and helps prevent reinfection while during treatment and healing. The Maracyns are good since they haven't killed off all the beneficial bacteria in the tanks, either, when they've been tested for that. *Be sure to remove the carbon in your filter during treatment, too, or otherwise it will remove any of the meds and just make useless treatment.

Hope this helps! Keep me updated on how things are going! I always wonder about the Bettas I try to help! Good luck!

[bettalvr]

One thing that comes to mind and Fishmomma talked about it in a different post, is using the meds as prescribed - DON'T just stop using them after a couple of days if it says to use 5 days. The dosing information is there for a reason. We can manipulate dosing some, but it's not always the wisest decision. When in doubt, ask . . .