dangerflower Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 Hi folks! I'm new to the forum, although I've definitely done some lurking here. I have a lot of questions about some issues I'm having with my betta. He's been suffering from chromic fin loss that doesn't seem to be fin rot. It's been a slow progression but seems to be getting more serious lately. I'm also concerned that he seems underweight, and increasing his feeding has not helped so far. Sorry if this ends up being a long post! The basics about his set up: I've had Doctor Sparkles for just about a year now. He is housed in a heavily planted 10 gallon tank with a sponge filter and a heater with 78-80 degree water. I feed him a rotation of two different kinds of betta pellets (hikari and extreme brands) as well as frozen daphnia. Water parameters are healthy - 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, and pretty much always 0 nitrate which I know is suspicious but I assume it's because the tank has a lot of plants and a small bioload. KH is currently 2 and GH is 4. pH is 7.2 right now but was closer to 7.6-7.8 for a long time. I do a small water change (usually 1 gallon) weekly. I've always used Indian almond leaves in the tank and have recently been adding other botanicals such as alder cones to increase the tannins in hopes that that would be therapeutic for him. His tank mates are two nerite snails and a small colony of blue cherry shrimp. I used to have 5 amano shrimp in the tank as well, but I rehomed them a few months ago because I thought maybe they were nibbling his fins and causing this issues - but it seems that wasn't the case. The first picture is how he looked when I got him. The next 3 are from various times in the past year, showing the way his fins have changed and how the ends frayed and curled, especially his tail. The last 3 are from today. You can also see that he looks noticeably thinner in the recent pictures. Poor buddy looks so bad now 😞 His appetite is good and his energy levels are okay, although swimming seems really hard for him. His fins don't look bloody or blackened or melty like you would expect with fin rot, just shredded to bits. The only weird water quality issue I've had that might have affected him is that for a while my GH was absolutely off the charts. I was adding too much shrimp salt without realizing it, wasn't testing for GH, and didn't notice how bad it had gotten. Once I caught the problem I reduced the GH gradually with lots of small water changes, but I wonder if that could have lasting impacts on his health. Any advice or suggestions about what's going on or how I can help this buddy would be greatly appreciated. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BETTA999 Posted January 30, 2022 Share Posted January 30, 2022 thats weird your parameters are fine this migth sound weird but bettas will bite their fin like a dog chasing his tail keep an eye on him Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerflower Posted January 30, 2022 Author Share Posted January 30, 2022 Oh yeah, I've heard that they do nip their own fins sometimes, especially when their fins are so heavy and bothersome. I thought that might be what was going on for a while, but I've never seen him do it, and even though his tail is the most damaged, his other fins are also frayed and I'm not sure he could be doing that to himself? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 As you have Indian almond leaves in his tank I would do a course of kanaplex in food and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that shouldn't harm your plants 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerflower Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 @Colu thank you for this info! I do have inverts in the tank with him so I may need to figure out a hospital tank situation. Can you tell me anything about salt dips versus adding the salt directly to the tank? Would it be effective/safe to do a salt dip in a separate container instead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Salt dips are effective but there are more stressful on your fish having to catch and move him a couple of times a day as you have a lot of live plants a higher concentration of would harm them kanaplex is an effective broad spectrum antibiotic as most cases of fin rot are caused by gram negative bacterial you could try salt baths if you see no improvement after a week then I would treat with kanaplex in food Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerflower Posted January 31, 2022 Author Share Posted January 31, 2022 @Colu good point about the extra stress of catching and moving him. Do you know if the low, plant safe salt concentration you recommend would harm the snails and neocaridina shrimp in the tank? The snails I could move to a different tank easily, the shrimp not so much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted January 31, 2022 Share Posted January 31, 2022 Snails should be fine I have no experience with neocaridina shrimp so am not sure about a safe level of salt for them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerflower Posted February 14, 2022 Author Share Posted February 14, 2022 Hey again, hope it's okay to bump my thread back up with updates. I thought that would be better than starting a new topic. My poor buddy's fin condition has worsened quite a bit since I posted this 😞 most of his tail is now missing. I have no idea how he managed to get such bad fin rot since his water parameters have always been great. Before doing anything else, I went ahead with a treatment or Maracyn which I had already been planning to use to combat a blue green algae explosion in the tank. Cleared the BGA up really well, but did not seem to help with the fin rot. Today, I moved him into a 5 gallon hospital tank with aquarium salt at a concentration of 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons (I think that's "level 2" treatment on the Co-op's guide) and have started him on a course of Kanaplex mixed into his food as suggested above. @Colu or anyone else who might know, can you tell me the proper amount of medicated food to feed? I normally feed him 4-6 pellets once or twice a day (I'm trying to get him to gain weight, if that sounds a little high). I'm having trouble finding information in how much medicated food to give him each day, and don't want to accidentally over- or under-dose him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted February 14, 2022 Share Posted February 14, 2022 (edited) On 2/14/2022 at 1:35 AM, dangerflower said: Hey again, hope it's okay to bump my thread back up with updates. I thought that would be better than starting a new topic. My poor buddy's fin condition has worsened quite a bit since I posted this 😞 most of his tail is now missing. I have no idea how he managed to get such bad fin rot since his water parameters have always been great. Before doing anything else, I went ahead with a treatment or Maracyn which I had already been planning to use to combat a blue green algae explosion in the tank. Cleared the BGA up really well, but did not seem to help with the fin rot. Today, I moved him into a 5 gallon hospital tank with aquarium salt at a concentration of 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons (I think that's "level 2" treatment on the Co-op's guide) and have started him on a course of Kanaplex mixed into his food as suggested above. @Colu or anyone else who might know, can you tell me the proper amount of medicated food to feed? I normally feed him 4-6 pellets once or twice a day (I'm trying to get him to gain weight, if that sounds a little high). I'm having trouble finding information in how much medicated food to give him each day, and don't want to accidentally over- or under-dose him. A Couple of pellets twice a day is fine if the fin rot got significantly worse I would treat with kanaplex in food for the 7days and jungal fungas clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone to treat the water column together one two punch of treatment is very effective at treating severe infections Edited February 14, 2022 by Colu 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dangerflower Posted March 9, 2022 Author Share Posted March 9, 2022 Wanted to share some good news about Doctor Sparkles' fin rot situation! I know there are a lot of unresolved/ unhappy endings for sick betta threads so I thought an update might be nice. He's doing so well! I kept him in the hospital tank for 10 days and did a 7 day course of kanaplex mixed in his food. I kept the salt concentration in his water at 1 tablespoon per 2 gallons for the first 5 days, and then bumped it up to 1 tablespoon per 1 gallon for the next 5 days. I did small water changes daily, put several indian almond leaves in there, and kept the water at 81 degrees. I thought he would be so stressed in the hospital tank but he perked up almost immediately when I put him in and he seemed so comfortable in there that by the end of the treatment I was calling it his spa tank 😂 He has now been back home in his 10 gallon for a out a week and a half and there is healthy new fin tissue growing back on his tail! And he seems so much more active and happy now. He cruises around the tank and flares at his snails and is generally back to his spicy betta self. I didn't really appreciate how much his activity levels had declined before. Poor guy was definitely sick. I still don't know how he got such bad fin rot in the first place, so I'm a little paranoid that he could relapse, but for now I'm cautiously optimistic that my little buddy is going to recover, and I've gained a lot of confidence about dealing with sick fish! Thanks fish folks ✨ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colu Posted March 9, 2022 Share Posted March 9, 2022 Good to hear he's getting better Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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