Betta inflammation and white tips: fin rot? Seek treatment advice.

[Christina CC]

12/28/2022
   Posydew arrived home last month with pristine cellophane fins (first photo).
01/20/2023
   Move to quarantine tank as main tank is disinfected.
01/20/2023-02/05/2023
   01/20/2023 Treatment in quarantine tank with salt and one course of Kanaplex. Not eats on day 1. Possibly due to stress of change of environment. 
   01/21/2023 Start eating. At some point during course of treatment, become inactive and possibly not eating / eat less. Stress of change of environment and Kanaplex?
    01/26/2023 Back to main tank. Quite inactive.
    01/27/2023 Mild inflammation of ventral and dorsal fin rot at front. Resume activity, eat, swim normal.
    01/28/2023 Treatment in main tank with salt for 8 days. 
    02/01/2023 Fin rot looks the same. Eat, swim normal, makes bubble nest every now and then.    
    02/04/2023-02/05/2023: Methylene Blue dip once per day. No blue stain noticed on fins indicating no open wound.
    02/06/2023-Present: Eat with reasonable and less appetite than first arrive. Swim normal but less active than before. Still makes bubble nest every now and then.

Tank: 16 gallon divided into two, housing two betta
   Ammonia: <0.003 ppm
   Nitrite 0
   Nitrate 0
   pH ~7
   Hardness 80
   Carbonate 0
   Total Alkalinity 80-120
 

Since he got sick during quarantine shortly after arrival, I was not sure if his getting mild symptoms of fin rot was due to his being sick after travel or stress induced by changing environment in quanrantine tank. Thus I opt to treat him with salt in the main tank and do frequent water changes (now 80% twice a week). While his inflammation and white tip has not progressed, it is not getting better neither. Worse, I notice the slight decrease in appetite and swimming activity. I am at a crossroad of whether I should just continue frequent water change in main tank to wait it out, or proceed to take more aggressive treatment plan, such as courses of Kanaplex in quarantine. Your perspective is much appreciated!

 

 

[TheSwissAquarist]

@Colu @xXInkedPhoenixX

Poor betta! 

[Goldie Blue]

This looks like it could be an ammonia issue. What level of aquarium salt were you using to treat him with? 

I would put him back in a QT tank, and start with aquarium salt, possibly brew some Indian almond leaves and add the tea to the water.

Were you feeding the kanaplex in food? 

Have you tested your tap water out of the tap? Was the QT tank cycled or had a cycled filter in it at least? 

On 2/14/2023 at 12:05 AM, Christina CC said:

Move to quarantine tank as main tank is disinfected.

What does this mean? Tank is not cycled, or you mean that the other inhabitants of the tank were doing well and you didn't want to infect them with possible illness?

I'd try getting some frozen brine shrimp to entice his appetite. 

I had a betta that died from a combo of ammonia and nitrite before I knew better, and this is just what he looked like. Red streaks in the fins, turned red, swollen, and died. There is something going on with either your water or your cycle.

[nabokovfan87]

On 2/13/2023 at 10:05 PM, Christina CC said:

01/20/2023
   Move to quarantine tank as main tank is disinfected.

why?

On 2/13/2023 at 10:05 PM, Christina CC said:

 01/26/2023 Back to main tank. Quite inactive.

Noting, move #2.  Acclimation #3

On 2/13/2023 at 11:08 PM, Goldie Blue said:

This looks like it could be an ammonia issue.

Alright....

So my untrained eye, the betta is naturally pink / red and simply colored up given new diet and environment?  The red "streaks" you can see on the original photo and the fish itself is very pale in color.  I can't say that the betta is supposed to be white, or really tell where the red streaks, wounds, or blotches really are.  I do see a bit of the frayed edge on the fin, location tells me it's probably nothing more than gravity and the fin hitting the substrate and a little bit of damage being caused. 

The thing that actually concerns me here is the behavior of the fish indicated, lack of eating, lethargy. 
-What is the filtration, is it too strong for this fish, causing lethargy?
-What is the diet of this fish, is it krill based which would bump up the red coloration pretty heavily?

In terms of what to do....
Change water, keep things stable, monitor, adjust flow with a baffle output if required, and make sure the fish is eating regularly.

I would keep things consistent right now.  I would focus on clean water right now.  I would feed something like frozen food or flakes with tongs right now if the fish is able to eat from tongs without being afraid.

 

[Christina CC]

On 2/13/2023 at 11:08 PM, Goldie Blue said:

This looks like it could be an ammonia issue. What level of aquarium salt were you using to treat him with? 

I would put him back in a QT tank, and start with aquarium salt, possibly brew some Indian almond leaves and add the tea to the water.

Were you feeding the kanaplex in food? 

Have you tested your tap water out of the tap? Was the QT tank cycled or had a cycled filter in it at least? 

What does this mean? Tank is not cycled, or you mean that the other inhabitants of the tank were doing well and you didn't want to infect them with possible illness?

I'd try getting some frozen brine shrimp to entice his appetite. 

I had a betta that died from a combo of ammonia and nitrite before I knew better, and this is just what he looked like. Red streaks in the fins, turned red, swollen, and died. There is something going on with either your water or your cycle.

Water is pristine, so not ammonia / nitrite / nitrate problem. Tank is cycled and is running for two years

Tank: 16 gallon divided into two, housing two betta
   Ammonia: <0.003 ppm
   Nitrite 0
   Nitrate 0
   pH ~7
   Hardness 80
   Carbonate 0
   Total Alkalinity 80-120

 

[Christina CC]

The tank was disinfected because I got tired of the bladder snails. They were a few I see and remove everyday. The population is smaill but I don't want to deal with it. Then I found several small worms - likely planaria. So I decided to just disinfect the tank and start anew. The biomedia was kept to keep beneficial bacteria.

There are biological, mechanical and chemical filters. Flow is small. Water is kept pristine with good range of water parameters. Environment is good.

I keep about 10 different brands different types of betta food, mostly bought from Aquarium Co-op. I feed them twice a day rotating the food each time. Food is of high quality and variety.

I am pretty sure it is not damaged fins by hitting some decor. First I only use real or silk plants. The stones in this nanoscape are round smooth stones. Second, there is clear inflammation around the tips of his ventral and dorsal fins at the front, when the red color meets cellophane. There is no such red inflammation at the other part of his fins. I am sure something is up. I just do not know if I should proceed to next level of treatment in fear that may further stress him out.

[nabokovfan87]

It looks like the pattern name on your Betta is a pink orchid Betta.

I don't know if that helps or anything, might just be the name one store uses to class these. It could give you something to look at and try to find a similar looking fish to see what does and doesn't look quite right. As an example:

 

The only thing I see as far as signs of an issue on the fish is this section here in a few spots. To clarify, I don't think this is abnormal, the fins on these fish are ridiculously long and can easily get damaged just by swimming. Friction or something along the substrate could cause this...

The question marks above indicating areas where potentially is what you're saying are the obvious signs of inflammation? I just wanted to clarify we are talking about the same segments.

The parts circled in blue could be indicative of fin rot issues or fins regenerating/healing.

Hopefully others can chime in here and we can get this sorted out as far as best advice for the fish and your situation.

On 2/13/2023 at 11:46 PM, Christina CC said:

I just do not know if I should proceed to next level of treatment in fear that may further stress him out.

Kanaplex + salt is pretty mild. I would opt to do another treatment of that.

Adding in cattapa leaves or botanicals as well would be a good idea.

[Colu]

The clear edges are usually a sign of fin regrowth  what I would suggest is adding Indian almond leaves as they have antibacterial and antifungal properties depending on the quality of the leaves you might have to add one leaf per gallon to get a beneficial effect and I would keep the salt at 1 table spoon for 5 gallons and monitor for a couple of week give an update if it starts to get worse @Christina CC

[Christina CC]

Thanks all for the reply. 
 

Postdew is rose gold vanda cellophane. His color is more warm than the photo shows. The cellophane is semitransparent and meets the rose gold fins.

Inflammation is circled in blue - redness where rise gold fins meet cellophane. I notice this on him after he was put back to main tank from  quarantine tank, thus ruling out swimming and hitting something. I have several long fins rosetails with even longer fins than Poaydew. None has this issue even they swim in the same tank.

there will be no sign of regrowth because only inflammation is observed and fin rot if it is fin rot has not started.

I will weigh the option of proceeding with Kanaplex and other treatments. Thanks!