I was looking in on my beta fish yesterday and noticed that her tail fin seemed to be much shorter then usual -- I searched around the tank floor for any signs of it being ripped off but couldn't find any. After some Googling I discovered that she may have developed a disease called fin rot. It's hard to know exactly what treatment to proceed with to help her since everyone has a slightly different variation on it, and I don't hold the teenagers at my local pet store to be reliable sources of information.
Should I be doing a 100% water change before I start antibiotics? How often should I continue doing 100% changes and for how long? Should I be moving my beta out of the tank for a while and into a bowl or something while the water adjusts? Do I need to keep any of the original water or will that just keep the bacteria that caused the rot?
I have one beta only, and she lives alone in a 20 gallon tank with a filter and heater, and I am a relatively new, first-time fish owner. Please advise as soon as possible. Any help would be appreciated.
Fin Rot usually has a white-ish edge around the source.
It is good that she has a 20G all to herself with proper care. You shouldn't do a 100% change in a tank of that size, beause it will kill the beneficial bacteria in the tank. Do a 25-50%, and replace it with warm, dechlorinated water.
What are your water parameters?
You could use some melafix, but only use 1/4 the dose amount because bettas are sensitive to the ingredients.
Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by water parameters... I keep the water at 79 or 80 degrees, and I do a partial water change once every week or two. My boyfriend helps me clean the gravel with a gravel vacuum when we clean the tank, then I wipe down all the walls with paper towel afterwards.
Originally we cleaned all of the tank decorations too (a log, a palm tree decoration, etc) but we found that we were getting non-stop algea even the day after we'd clean the tank, and a bunch of sites recommended to leave some decorations un-washed because some how algae already being in the tank helps fight new growth. We also limit the tank light to six hours a day only.
When we do water changes we just use water from the tap, then use some water conditioner I picked up along with the fish when I bought her (along with some algae-fighting chemicals now.)
Let me know if there's any other information you need.
When I say Water Params, I mean Nitrates, Nitrites, Amonia, pH, hardness, etc. You can buy a kit at your local pet store.
Algea is often caused from excess light. Is her tank near a window?
Aquarium Salt or Melafix/BettaFix should work. Dont use the regualr dosing, but cut it in half and see what happens. Melafix needs to be 1/4 of the regular dose.
I recently purchased a betta with tail rot also (*sigh* kids...) tail or fin rot isnt always white but can slo be brown and or black.
i couldnt afford melafix so im now using bettaFix remedy
-apply 45 drops per 1 gallon
Ive heard from many professionals that aquarium salt is also f=good for tail and fin rot. I advise 1 tablespoon per 1 gallon. so in your case... 20 tablespoons!!!
FIRST!!! make sure that it is tail or fin rot before using a medication
do a 100% water change now to remove bacteria.
-try to keep the water as clean as possible
-try your best not to stress the betta out
Her tank isn't right under a window, it's in our dining room -- but the room open right onto our living room which does have a window. So no, not under a window or right close, but within sight of a large window, yes.
Thank you very much for your help, I'm going to go out after work and buy some of the antibiotics and a water kit. I won't do a 100% water change, like you said -- maybe just a 50% change? Usually I just leave her in the tank while I change the water and vacuum the gravel -- should I take her out and put her in a separate container instead?
This evening I did a 50% water change, rinsed all the decorations with hot water, and added half a teaspoon of Melafix to my tank, which I will continue doing for the next several days, and then do a 25% water change like it says on the bottle. Just a couple more follow up questions:
1) The Melafix bottle says to "remove activated carbon, if possible" so I took the filter pouch out of my filter and turned off the whole filter to be safe. Should I leave the filter off for the 7 day duration that I'm medicating the tank with Melafix or can I turn it back on?
2) I also bought some aquarium salt and wanted to add some, but on the package it says "filtration should be at peak level" -- so does that mean that as long as the filter is turned off I shouldn't add any of this salt?
activated carbon adsorbs chemicals in the water, so you did right by getting it out before medicating because if not, it would be wasting money
Turn on the filter, it also helps keep the salinity in check because some salt mixes are of poor quality and may make your salinity level change a lot.
In my personal experience, i moved him to an isolation tank(better for me because i had live plants so i can't add medicine readily) and then i add salt and methylene blue to the water and do partial water changes everyday or every other day. Bottom line is I want her to have superior quality of water. It also helps to give her good food, it will reduce stress and speed up the process. I medicate for a full week, even if I see good signs already ,to prevent it from coming back up again full blast. It worked in my case, i hope it will help you Good luck!
Experts please correct me if i'm wrong! )
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