My betta's finrot will not heal

[Liquidsky]

My betta's fins and scales have been changing for a while. I have posted about it before here:

Now they are frayed and just yesterday started turning black. When the fraying started I treated with Kanaplex in his food for one week and put one tbs salt per 3 gallons in his water. It just got worse. I put catappa leaves and one tablespoon of salt per 2 gallons in his water and observed for a week to give him a rest from medication. I noticed his scales started looking a little translucent. I thought maybe it was a parasite like flukes so I treated with Paracleanse. He did start moving around more so I was hopeful. Unfortunately a few days later his finrot got much worse. He now had holes in his tail and the rot was much closer to his body. Two days ago I started treating the water with Seachem stress guard. Yesterday I treated with the stress guard and upped the salt to one tablespoon per gallon. Today his scales and fins are much more black. I haven't treated for fungus or used gram positive antibiotics. I'm not sure what to do now. Any advise?He seems to have a tiny red sore at the side of his mouth too.

He is in a 3 gallon hospital tank with a well cycled sponge filter.

Ammonia: 0

Nitrates: About 5ppm

GH: 150ppm

KH: 150ppm

pH: 7.6

Edited December 13, 2022 by Liquidsky

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

Oh man @Liquidsky, I'm so sorry. I didn't see it, confirming 0 nitrite too? 

You treated with Kanaplex, any improvement? How many rounds did you do? 

You might want to treat with Metroplex (since it's covers the other half of what kanaplex doesn't) which needs to be dosed in food. I mix Focus with some Metro, *just* thawed bloodworms, mix it up, put it in a container (I use the plastic mold  the worms come in, it's easier to get out). If the Kanaplex seemed to help, do that in the water column (this is fine). His water needs to be SUPER clean. The black is also part of finrot, not sure what the red might be but looks like burn, so water parameters must be watched closely! I really hope he pulls through for you, poor thing!

[Hally M.]

It’s highly unlikely but Irene from the channel Girl talks fish posted a video. I forget what it’s called But it explains how she could never get rid of her bettas fin rot and later down the line it was because her heater was lightly shocking the fish. Again I seriously doubt this is the cause but just to rid of all possible factors, if you stick your hand in the water and it shocks you than you should sort through the equipment. 

[Odd Duck]

There is no point to adding Kanaplex/kanamycin to food since it is very poorly absorbed when given orally.  It is better to mix kanamycin into the water for treatment.  If you only want to do an antibiotic in the food, Maracyn 2 would be a better choice since it is absorbed very well orally.  It is possible to do both treatments at once but you will almost certainly wipe out your BBA badly with that combo and it would be higher stress on your fish.  You would need to watch behavior very closely and be ready to do big water changes if you choose to do both at once.  Personally, I would pick one or the other, see what happens over several days.  If no improvement, switch to the other.

[Liquidsky]

On 12/13/2022 at 5:57 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:

Oh man @Liquidsky, I'm so sorry. I didn't see it, confirming 0 nitrite too? 

You treated with Kanaplex, any improvement? How many rounds did you do? 

You might want to treat with Metroplex (since it's covers the other half of what kanaplex doesn't) which needs to be dosed in food. I mix Focus with some Metro, *just* thawed bloodworms, mix it up, put it in a container (I use the plastic mold  the worms come in, it's easier to get out). If the Kanaplex seemed to help, do that in the water column (this is fine). His water needs to be SUPER clean. The black is also part of finrot, not sure what the red might be but looks like burn, so water parameters must be watched closely! I really hope he pulls through for you, poor thing!

Zero nitrites yes. I only dosed the kanaplex for 7 days. Thanks for the info on the antibiotics. 

On 12/13/2022 at 8:21 PM, Hally M. said:

It’s highly unlikely but Irene from the channel Girl talks fish posted a video. I forget what it’s called But it explains how she could never get rid of her bettas fin rot and later down the line it was because her heater was lightly shocking the fish. Again I seriously doubt this is the cause but just to rid of all possible factors, if you stick your hand in the water and it shocks you than you should sort through the equipment. 

That is a great idea. I'm going to switch heaters and switch to just the sponge filter. Thanks.

[Liquidsky]

On 12/13/2022 at 10:06 PM, Odd Duck said:

There is no point to adding Kanaplex/kanamycin to food since it is very poorly absorbed when given orally.  It is better to mix kanamycin into the water for treatment.  If you only want to do an antibiotic in the food, Maracyn 2 would be a better choice since it is absorbed very well orally.  It is possible to do both treatments at once but you will almost certainly wipe out your BBA badly with that combo and it would be higher stress on your fish.  You would need to watch behavior very closely and be ready to do big water changes if you choose to do both at once.  Personally, I would pick one or the other, see what happens over several days.  If no improvement, switch to the other.

Thanks. I think I'm going to try the maracyn 2 next. Would it be better to put it in the water column or mix in food?

[Odd Duck]

On 12/14/2022 at 12:02 AM, Liquidsky said:

Thanks. I think I'm going to try the maracyn 2 next. Would it be better to put it in the water column or mix in food?

Mix into food, for sure, on Maracyn 2.

As long as you can get him to eat it.