New issue popped up while medicating, Betta pros please I need advice - his tail fell off 😢

[Goldie Blue]

A lot of you have been a huge help in a post I made previously this week. Without getting too much into it, I will link here if you need all the info.  The short story is I have a 55g community tank that was having a few issues, but I suspected my betta had fin rot and decided to medicate with Jungle Fungus Clear. This is the second dosing of the medication...you add the tabs, wait 4 days do 25% water change then add second dose. Today is day 7, and tomorrow I was planning on doing the water change and putting carbon in to start pulling the meds out.

Well tonight I went to feed and shut down the lights, at first I thought my betta was dead, thankfully not the case but in the corner of the tank by the filter intake is a huge chunk of his tail. Is this normal while treating for fin rot? I am totally freaked out now, and then I noticed by his front fins he has some red (which was not there before treatment)

What can I do at this point? I am devastated and want to help him if I still can. Other inhabitants of the tank: 5 white cloud minnows, 1 pleco, 1 oto, a lot of assassin snails. 

 

 

 

[nabokovfan87]

Hoping that someone can offer some advice. Here is the link to the meds in question.

https://dailymed.nlm.nih.gov/dailymed/drugInfo.cfm?setid=94474f6b-9742-47c3-b9c4-c980ec6983ac

If possible, I would try to order some Mardel Maracyn from the co-op or the med trio and treat the fish in a QT setup so you don't have to treat the entire tank.  It might be better to treat the entire tank, but keep in mind for a 55G you'll need a certain amount of packets per the directions on the back of the box (photos) or via the website.

If you don't have any, some fritz salt as well.

Edit: They have different active ingredients and Maracyn may work better for this situation.  You can also look into adding it to the food for the betta if they are still eating.

Edited May 22, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Colu]

His fin rot could be turning into body rot that why a large piece of his tail fall off what you want to do is keep treating with jungal fungas clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone and kanaplex following this treatment schedule  if he's not eating if he's eating add the kanaplex to food and treat the water column with Jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone @Goldie Blue

Edited May 22, 2022 by Colu

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 5:33 AM, Colu said:

if he's eating add the kanaplex to food and treat the water column with Jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone

@Colu Thank you for the reply. I want to be totally sure I understand the instructions. I am already on the second round of Fungus Clear, I was going to pull it from the water today (day 8). I was treating it per box instructions: Add 1 tab for every 10 gallons, wait 4 days, do 25% water change. I did that after the first 4 days, today was the final day.

In your instructions you mention adding a single dose of Fungus Clear, do you mean 1 tablet, or one full dose according to box? If I understand this right, you mean 1 tab each day for 5 days? Since I have already back to back full dosed Fungus Clear, is this ok to do?

He IS eating, and eating very well. So, skip adding the Kanaplex to the water column, and do it in his food? Do I feed this as I would his normal food, or is there a suggested amount per day?

I do have Kanaplex on hand, so I will run out and see if I can find Focus in a local store. 

 

[Colu]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:14 PM, Goldie Blue said:

@Colu Thank you for the reply. I want to be totally sure I understand the instructions. I am already on the second round of Fungus Clear, I was going to pull it from the water today (day 8). I was treating it per box instructions: Add 1 tab for every 10 gallons, wait 4 days, do 25% water change. I did that after the first 4 days, today was the final day.

In your instructions you mention adding a single dose of Fungus Clear, do you mean 1 tablet, or one full dose according to box? If I understand this right, you mean 1 tab each day for 5 days? Since I have already back to back full dosed Fungus Clear, is this ok to do?

He IS eating, and eating very well. So, skip adding the Kanaplex to the water column, and do it in his food? Do I feed this as I would his normal food, or is there a suggested amount per day?

I do have Kanaplex on hand, so I will run out and see if I can find Focus in a local store. 

 

Put the kanaplex in food feed a small amount twice a day for 7 days store any leftover medicated food in the fridge and for jungal fungas clear add full dose following instructions on box following the  treatment schedule 

Edited May 22, 2022 by Colu
Typo

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I think @Colu means for 7 days. 🙂 

I'm really sorry to hear about your poor Betta @Goldie Blue

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 3:42 PM, Colu said:

for jungal fungas clear add full dose following instructions on box following the  treatment schedule 

Thanks @Colu I'm sorry to keep asking questions but I really want to make sure I don't mess anything up even worse than it is. It's alright to do a third round of medication in the tank with the Fungus Clear? I'm on the last day of a second round. 

[Colu]

Yes you can do a third course of Jungal fungus clear fizz tabs what I would do is water changes out the medication over the next day or two then start a new course of treatment 

[Goldie Blue]

I was able to find Focus locally, so I am going to make the food, get the water changed out here in a moment, and I will let you guys know how it goes. Fingers crossed! Thank you again!

[Wrencher_Scott]

On 5/22/2022 at 5:10 PM, Goldie Blue said:

I was able to find Focus locally, so I am going to make the food, get the water changed out here in a moment, and I will let you guys know how it goes. Fingers crossed! Thank you again!

I would stop with everything except antibiotics in the food if he's eating. Just keep the water changed and clean. I feel like he has probably had enough. 

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 7:43 PM, Wrencher_Scott said:

stop with everything except antibiotics in the food if he's eating. Just keep the water changed and clean.

Okay, there's no harm in trying that. I'll add the carbon and start removing the meds and observe him with only the food. Thank you for your help! 

[Goldie Blue]

Wanted to share this pic of poor Goldie Blue. Literally in tears. I mixed up the food and gave him his first dose. I'll keep you guys posted. 

[nabokovfan87]

Do you have any aquarium salt on hand as well?

I am really hoping the food helps, that you start to see some improvement. I'm sorry for all you and the fish are going through.

Edited May 23, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 8:47 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

Do you have any aquarium salt on hand as well?

I do, but the tank has a lot of assassin snails in it. Can you still use salt if you have snails?

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2022 at 6:59 PM, Goldie Blue said:

I do, but the tank has a lot of assassin snails in it. Can you still use salt if you have snails?

From what I'm reading, you might need to treat with bacterial and fungal, and treat the tank itself as well.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fin-rot

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

Your best bet is to setup a QT tank for the betta specifically with an airstone or something.  This way you can use the meds you need to, without risk of the snails having issues.

You can use a small plastic sterilite container if you need to in a pinch for a QT tank.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/quarantine-tank

I know it's a ton of information, but I think there's a lot of good people here willing to help walk you through or answer any questions you may have.

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:05 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

I know it's a ton of information, but I think there's a lot of good people here willing to help walk you through or answer any questions you may have.

I love this community, if not for all of you I am pretty sure my fish would be long dead. My head is spinning from all of this, and I have been so stressed out over it. After all the medications in the tank and the old aquarium/filter issues, I am stressing about how to get my filter and water quality back up, on top of this poor guy falling apart. 

I don't have another filter on hand for a QT tank, I do have everything else I would need. If I can go get a filter tomorrow would it harm him even more to put him in a QT tank with an uncycled filter? 

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2022 at 7:16 PM, Goldie Blue said:

I don't have another filter on hand for a QT tank, I do have everything else I would need. If I can go get a filter tomorrow would it harm him even more to put him in a QT tank with an uncycled filter?

You can run the QT tank itself, 100% water changes daily, if you're worried about something like that, try to find a larger size 10G or so (black sterilite from home depot or something

 

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:51 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

You can run the QT tank itself, 100% water changes daily, if you're worried about something like that, try to find a larger size 10G or so (black sterilite from home depot or something

Okay great, I might just do that then. I think the salt would help him a lot. Also, after looking at the links you sent about fin rot, I am pretty sure the med I was using the Jungle Fungus Clear treats both fungal and bacterial, if someone with more knowledge can chime in that would be awesome. I don't want to over medicate him after going through two rounds of it already.

So I think tomorrow I will get him set up in a QT, feed him the medicated food, and add salt to the QT set up. That way I can move forward with getting the 55g tank filter/water quality project running while trying to help him.

At what point can he go back into gen pop, providing he survives? After the 7 days of medicated food? Or once I am sure his fins are healing?

Also, the last of my 4 Oto's just died. 😭

Edited May 23, 2022 by Goldie Blue

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2022 at 8:00 PM, Goldie Blue said:

At what point can he go back into gen pop, providing he survives? After the 7 days of medicated food? Or once I am sure his fins are healing?

I don't know the situation you're in, but I'd order a nano/small sponge filter from the co-op, the meds just in case you NEED it.  It's a different anti-bacterial med (erythromycin).  API sells it as well, locally.  But all I am trying to say, I would get the nano sponge thing, whatever you need to setup the QT longer term. It'll end up being at least 30 days in QT I would estimate. The fish in your tank may also be sick, this is where you kind of have to treat the tank as well, large water changes to get the parameters up, and then cleaning it well was what I say.  It's hard to do all that with snails. so whenever the fish shows signs of improvement you can let them recover a bit and then run the med trio on the tank and the fish, especially on a 55G, then put the betta back whenever you're ready to do that. It would likely be several weeks out.

 

Dosing these other meds is going to be *very different* than using those tabs that dissolve over time. You might see improved results from that as well. generally speaking.

On 5/22/2022 at 8:00 PM, Goldie Blue said:

At what point can he go back into gen pop, providing he survives? After the 7 days of medicated food? Or once I am sure his fins are healing?

The other thing too, from what we were discussing was that you had temp / flow issues with the betta?  The fish in the tank wanted one temp, the betta another, right? (I might be mixing up threads, so I apologize)

Edited May 23, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Goldie Blue]

On 5/22/2022 at 10:33 PM, nabokovfan87 said:

The other thing too, from what we were discussing was that you had temp / flow issues with the betta?  The fish in the tank wanted one temp, the betta another, right? (I might be mixing up threads, so I apologize)

Yeah that was me. I do have the med trio on hand, but not enough to treat the whole tank, so ordering more is a good idea for sure. 

I honestly know nothing about snails, but in theory if I can pull them out of the tank could they live in a QT tank while I treat the 55g with the salt baths and then med trio? That way I can just keep the betta in the tank. I honestly just want what is best for the fish and I'll do whatever I need to to get them healthy and get my tank in a good place, I'm probably over thinking all of this, but I really don't want to screw anything else up at this point. 

Edited May 23, 2022 by Goldie Blue

[nabokovfan87]

On 5/22/2022 at 9:40 PM, Goldie Blue said:

Yeah that was me. I do have the med trio on hand, but not enough to treat the whole tank, so ordering more is a good idea for sure. 

That's the #1 reason to move the fish right now.  You can move the betta, you have reduced flow, easier to observe and control, and you can get in the new meds / filter (if that's what you need).  Then you can treat the betta, treat the tank, and have the filter for QT tank for any future use where you need to have that again.

So there is less meds used.  It's different in this case because you're actively treating a disease / issue.  Running all 3 meds at once is how you get ahead of this thing, if you can. (plus salt)

 

On 5/22/2022 at 9:40 PM, Goldie Blue said:

I honestly know nothing about snails, but in theory if I can pull them out of the tank could they live in a QT tank while I treat the 55g with the salt baths and then med trio?

Yes you can, but just keep in mind what equipment is used and try to clean it (at the very least air dry it thoroughly).

On 5/22/2022 at 9:40 PM, Goldie Blue said:

That way I can just keep the betta in the tank.

Part of the biggest reason to move the betta is to reduce stress and flow.

Edited May 23, 2022 by nabokovfan87

[Wrencher_Scott]

Please just give him clean water and leave him be. All he needs is clean water. No salt either. 

I would do a huge water change on the tank he is in and leave him alone, let him be sick in piece. Hopefully he can recover on his own. Clean water is the key.