Fin rot issues

[Silver1]

Hi everyone!
My name is Silver1 and I'm a friend of Sandtiger. I was hoping you could help me out with a problem I'm having with my oldest betta, a two year old veiltail called Admiral.

He's currently kept in a 1.5 gallon tank, with a 100% water change every three days (every day currently) and with the following water conditions:

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
PH: 7.0
Temperature: 85F

He gets mainly Nutrafin Max betta food, with hakari bloodworms as a treat and a pea once a week for roughage. He's my favorite betta so he's checked over very carefully every day.

Three days ago he was fine, the next day his fins fell off, all at once. His tail is entirely gone and what ever is eating him as reached his body in some places. I have absolutely no idea what is causing this but I'm treating him with Maracyn Plus as I suspect bacteria. Any idea how this happened? He's happy, eating and making bubble nests, but I'm really concerned about him. What is the right course of treatment, and what else can I do to prevent this?

 

[sweetvegan74]

Try melafix or bettafix to treat tail rot. Follow the directions on the bottles and see if that helps. Put in a little amount of freshwater aquarium salt to help keep the water free of problems.

If his fins are just ragged or torn without any brown or white tips and he is showing no signs of distress it sounds like he might of bitten his fins himself. Sometimes a Betta that is bored or feels agressive will go for their fins pretending it's another Betta. You can put in a little more silk plants or a cave for him to explore to keep his mind busy. Bettas are very intelligent and need stuff to do.*thumbsups

 

[echoofformless]

Sigh, try not to use the salt. I'm the "no salt in tanks" guy. Shoot me if you like, but I'm not changing my mind about that.

 

[Silver1]

sweetvegan74: Thank you for your reply! I'm afraid there is no way for him to have just bitten himself, his fins are completely gone, not just a little torn, and what ever is eating him has touched his body. It looks a bit cleaner today, the black bits are gone but the body lesion looks bigger, though it too looks cleaner. I wouldn't be surprised if he's bored, he's pretty much the only betta I haven't trained to do something. (All the rest of them are trained to swim into cups so I don't have to bother netting them.) He's made himself a cute little bubblenest today, so I'm guessing he's still feeling pretty good.

echoofformless: I never use salt unless its for a salt or brackish water tank. It may help in some cases (I've heard good things about salt for fish with Dropsy) but in my personal experience it stresses the fish unnecessarily when there are other perfectly good medications that don't. Salt to me is a last resort.

 

[sweetvegan74]

Alot of fish do not mind the salt. I use like 1/4 teaspoon aquarium salt for fresh water per gallon. It helps keep things in check (like Ich and bacterial infections etc) without using meds and UB doesn't mind it at all. The queen of Bettas from Bettatalk.com Faith recommends it. Everyone has a right to their own opinions. (-;

 

[Big Vine]

in my personal experience it stresses the fish unnecessarily when there are other perfectly good medications that don't

Depends on the specific affliction.
As far as curing ich goes, salt is the way to go. Regular aquarium salt worked like a charm in getting rid of the ich outbreak that I had in one of my tanks not long ago. A few years back, I wasn't aware of the salt method, and I simply relied on meds, which discolored the tank water, necessitated the removal of the carbon insert I was using at the time, and still resulted in fish losses when all was said and done. I didn't lose a single fish using the salt & heat method.

Either way, it doesn't sound like your betta has ich, so the salt treatment is probably not necessary. Still, salt is good for cleansing open wounds, so you may still want to consider sweetvegan's recommendation.
Of course, I hope that your betta recovers regardless of which type of treatment you decide on.

Big Vine

 

[pigs_fly]

Could it be a parasite..? If so, Clout works well. It's what I used to treat my betta for flukes...only one more treatment left!!!

 

[Silver1]

I must admit, I have never heard of treating ich with it before. I've never actually figured out what ich is besides gross white spots that kill fish. The only ich breakout that has ever happened in this house (My sisters tank) was treated with a homemade remedy an aquarist I used to know gave me. It worked quite well.

He's looking better today by the way I can see an edge of white on his fins and there are no more black sections, and his wound at least looks healthier. He's making a bubblenest of unbelievable proportions right now.

 

[ninamarie]

Glad he is getting better.
Post us a picture of that enormus nest