Fin Rot, Or Fin Tears?

[DarthRevan]

So my betta used to be in a 40 gallon community tank with a bunch of platies. He started losing his fins after about 2 months in there, and I assumed it was platies since it seemed like perfect half circle bites had been taken out of the fins. Unfortunately I didn’t have money to set up another tank at the time, so he ended up losing his dorsal fin. During that time he did get fin rot with the classic cottony growths, so I treated that with Maracyn packets as directed and it seemed to stop (the fin rot at least). Then he started having bites taken out of his tail fin (it didn’t seem like fin rot anymore cause whole sections would disappear overnight), but I finally had the money for another tank and set him up on his own in a 9 gal Fluval Flex. 
 

He seemed to be doing better for about a week, but now it’s progressing even worse. His tail fin is almost halfway gone, and his bottom fins are starting to go too. I don’t think there’s anything sharp enough for him to tear them on in there. He does sleep right on the sand and it is a courser grain (imagitarium black sand from Petco) but in my opinion it doesn’t seem rough enough to be causing the damage (also his tail fin doesn’t touch the sand, in his bottom fins.) Also today he tried to jump and smacked his head on the lid, which he has never done before (I work from home for 10 hours a day and both my tanks are in my office so I have a pretty good idea of normal behavior). I’m pretty sure he doesn’t bite his own tail either because he’s a dumbo plakat so his tail isn’t super long and flowy. I’ve posted water parameters and photos below. I’m not sure what to do at this point. 
 

Side note: he is much less active in this tank, I think cause it’s smaller and he’s alone. I’m getting 5 Pygmy Cory’s as soon as I can, but he does eat normally and interact with me when I come up to it. 
 

Water:

• pH 7.6
• Nitrates 5ppm
• Hardness ~250 on an Aquarium Coop test strip 
• Nitrite 0
• Ammonia 0
• KH/Buffer 161 ppm (API master kit reading)
• Water Temperature 79-79.5

 

Also here’s what he looked like about 1 week after I had him. 
 

[Colu]

As his dorsal fin has nearly recede to his body that can turn into body rot What I.would do is treat with kanaplex as most case of fin rot are caused by gram negative bacterial if you see no improvement after the Frist course of kanaplex I would do another course of kanaplex and also feed aquatics foods premium flake containing nitrofurazone

[DarthRevan]

On 12/1/2021 at 7:57 PM, Colu said:

As his dorsal fin has nearly recede to his body that can turn into body rot What I.would do is treat with kanaplex as most case of fin rot are caused by gram negative bacterial if you see no improvement after the Frist course of kanaplex I would do another course of kanaplex and also feed aquatics foods premium flake containing nitrofurazone

He did initially have fin rot after the first two chunks had been taken out of his dorsal fins, that was treated and went away. The platies in his tank at the time kept taking chunks out of it though and that’s why his dorsal fins are gone now. They are actually looking ok now, they’re still gone but getting better. The issue right now is his tail fin and parts of his bottom fins, they’re deteriorating and I can’t see why. It doesn’t seem like fin rot, as it’s only affecting those specific areas. 

[Colu]

Fin rot doesn't always affect all your fish fins it can just affect some of the fish's fin that what your seeing that I would treat with the meds  I recommend 

[DarthRevan]

On 12/2/2021 at 5:46 AM, Colu said:

Fin rot doesn't always affect all your fish fins it can just affect some of the fish's fin that what your seeing that I would treat with the meds  I recommend 

Definitely worth a shot! I was just hesitant to medicate him again if he didn’t need it. Also will Maracyn work or should it be Kanaplex? I used Maracyn before because it was snail and bio filter safe. 

[Colu]

Maracyn treats gram positive bacterial while kanaplex treat's gram negative and some gram positive bacterial it a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment if your worried about your snails you can add it to his food @DarthRevan

Edited December 2, 2021 by Colu

[DarthRevan]

On 12/2/2021 at 8:53 AM, Colu said:

Maracyn treats gram positive bacterial while kanaplex treat's gram negative and some gram positive bacterial it a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment if your worried about your snails you can add it to his food @DarthRevan

Thank you!! I will try this ASAP