mlinden84

I think betta may have come down with a case of fin rot. The ends of his fins have "split" a tiny bit in 2 places. He won't hold still enough for me to get a good picture of it, but from reading other's posts I am fairly sure it's fin rot. I also read that Triple sulfa is a good treatment for it. I looked on an online sight for it, and they have powder and caps of it. Anyone have experience of which is easier/works better? The caps are a better deal it seems ($10.50 for 25 including shipping). Any help would be appreciated!

Michelle

0morrokh

If you have a small tank, it's easier to get the correct dosage using powder.

Jendayi

I would recommend Trisulfa or Triple Sulfa. I have used most of the products out there by Mardel and API - Maracyn, Maracyn 2, Maracyn-TC (which is tetracycline), Fungus Clear by Jungle Labs, and have had the best results with the sulfa meds. At least for Romeo, anyways. Cujo will show improvement while he is on the meds and then relapse a few days after being treatment. But those are the common meds that are usually available in the pet stores.

So I have Cujo on Ampicillin right now, which I ordered online, and I have a couple things that I haven't used yet - Fungus Eliminator by Jungle Labs and KanaPlex by Seachem (also ordered online). But these are very strong meds and would be a last resort. Apparently whatever strain of fin rot Cujo has is very strong and resistant to most of the common meds.

Since my tanks are small I prefer the medication to be in powder form. That way it is easier for me to divide it up into the proper dosage for my small tanks. I have to crush the tablets first, and that just adds an extra step. I don't know what size your tank is, but if it's 10 gallon or something like that it would probably be easy enough to dose with the tablets.

mlinden84

It's a 10 gallon, and each caplet is for 10 gallons. I think I caught it early enough, hopefully it will work and he'll get better!

(on a side note, my daughter is in love with the 7 smileys that do the wave, she starts laughing and acting like them...so funny!)

chickadee

I have had a lot of experience lately with a couple of my fish giving me fits with finrot so I can recommend two products with no reservations and they are both wonderful! The first and best acting although a bit more work is the Mardel product of TriSulfa. It takes some calculation if you do not have a 10 gallon tank but it works so well it is worth it and it is cheap.
The second is Mardel's Maracyn Plus. The dosing of this product is a dream as it is a liquid and it makes figuring the correct dose easy for different sized tanks and it does a good job but in my opinion, it needs to be used longer than it calls for. It only recommends 3 treatments on days 1, 3 and 5 and finrot is just not over by then. I did a 25% water change and repeated the course of medication and it worked fine.

Hope this is helpful. Thanks, Val for introducing me to the Maracyn Plus. After you wrote about it I just had to give it a try and it is a very fine product.

Rose

voiceless_kat

Hey guys, I found this somewhere....for measuring meds into something other than a 10 gal tank. At first I put 10 ounces of conditioned water in a measuring cup, added the packed of med, stirred and dissolved and then poured 6 ounces or whatever size the tank was into the tank.

Then I Googled dosing of meds for fish and found that if med measures are given for a 10 gal tank : Put either 10 Tablespoons or 10 Teaspoons of conditioned water in a measuring cup, add the med, stir to dissolve and then for a 6g tank add either 6 ( or whatever your tank size is 2g;3g;5g, etc)TBSP OR TSP ( depending on what you started with) of the meds mixture to the tank. So much easier.

Hope it helps! Still I wonder, why don't they make them all liquid?? and show dosage per 1 gallon? Oh wait that would be too easy!! Val

voiceless_kat

Rose, so good to hear from you. I am so gad you tried Maracyn Plus, it seemed like no one else out there was using it!! You are such a well respected fish advisor that now perhaps more will try it.

Did you medicate in a Q tank? And if not, did the Maracyn Plus screw up your biological filter? I am scared to use it now in my cycled tank, and have no spare Q tank. I think it would be good for Storm if the Maracyn TC doesn't do the trick!! I might end up buying another Q tank.......OMG - but Storm is so particular, can't have an airstone, blah, blah, blah. LOL Thanks. Val

Amnagrla

lol THAT is what I want to see video of!!! hahahaha

chickadee

All of my tanks are cycled and none of them had any problems with using the Maracyn Plus. It is equally effective as far as I can see to the TriSulfa but as I said you need to do the 25% water change and repeat the treatment instead of just doing one round of treatment. Finrot is just to hard to treat to give one round of the meds. Nate had the 15 days of Tri Sulfa and then moved into the 12 gallon tank since I had to put AJ into the q tank and he had a relapse. I just used the Maracyn Plus and it cleared right up.

The only problem I am really having right now is that I overcleaned two of the 12 gallon tanks and both are minicycling and cloudy as the dickens. It makes me mad at myself but I wanted to do a really good job as I had new fish coming and I have been really busy with family matters lately and I knew they would not get changed again for a bit. (I actually have Plecos in all my 12 gallon tanks now instead of otos)

Rose

COBettaCouple

[/quote]

lol.. how cute!


Trisulfa has worked the best for us with bacterial and fungal finrot cases. The VitaChem product has been a super help with strengthening our bettas and i have heard good about maracyn plus.

mlinden84

Thanks for all the great information! I'm going tomorrow to pick up some meds for him. I don't need to put him in the q tank if he's the only one in his 10 gallon tank, do I?

COBettaCouple

no.. and with meds like trisulfa, it's easiest to dose in a 10g tank.

mlinden84

The guy at the fishstore (who i always deal with and has a lot of experience with fish) told me to get "SplendidBetta BettaFix Remedy" it's got .2% melaleuca in it. It says it treats fin rot and other problems associated with bettas. It was like $3 so I figured I could try it at least. After dumping half the bottle in my 10 gallon, I realized I didn't wanna have to keep buying it so I moved Betta back into his old 2 gallon tank (which I kept cycled in case anyone got sick). I don't think he's happy with it, but it fits on my desk so maybe the extra attention will help him get better! I ordered 2 boxes of the trisulfa on ebay, figured if it was hard to find it wouldn't hurt having some extra around. I don't think it will ship until monday. Has anyone had experience with the Bettafix Remedy? If I remember correctly the melaleuca is tea tree oil? I haven't seen improvement in Betta's fin yet but maybe I'm just being impatient, it's only been a day and a half! How long does it take to see improvement?

mlinden84

I think I just about had a heart attack! I was reading about different medicines, and saw the article about melafix, and though OMG its the same ingredient. So I did a massive water change hoping I didn't just kill my fish... I've been researching the internet and I found an article http://www.fishforums.net/lofiversio...hp/t57172.html about the difference. I'm still not sure if I want to use this anymore. If anyone could shed some more light on the subject I would greatly appreciate it, I'm kinda freaking out here!

mlinden84

I really don't want it to look like I'm talking to myself but... just wanted to be a little more precise, I used 1/2 teaspoon per gallon for my 10 gallon tank of the bettafix (5 teaspoons total) and 1/2 teaspoon per gallon for my 2 gallon tank, 1 teaspoon total)
Also I wasn't sure if it was considered appropriate to post the link to another forum, but I thought it was a good article and someone else might benifit from it. Sorry if I wasn't supposed to!

Phloxface

I wouldn't bother using Betta Fix. It's a watered down version of MelaFix and it's not particularly strong either. Don't waste time when you have a sick fish. The meds you should always have on hand are: Maracyn and Maracyn-Two, Triple Sulfa, Jungle Labs Parasite Clear, Kordon's Rid Fungus is a good non antibiotic, organic medicine and some Jungle Labs medicated antibacterial food.

I have all of these and a whole lot more, but these are the basics to get your fish pharmacy started and be prepared because some Bettas seem to get sick a lot while others never seem to get sick. It's always best to start medicating a sick fish asap rather than have to wait until you have time to go to the store (and find out they are out of what you need) or wait to order it online.

For finrot I would recommend you start with Maracyn-Two or Triple Sulfa and see how it goes from there.

mlinden84

I'll have to order all those meds to keep in case something happens. Luckily I've been blessed with some pretty healthy fish. What's the difference between triple sulfa and trisulfa? thanks for your help!

Phloxface

Triple Sulfa is made by Aquarium Pharmaceuticals (API) and Trisulfa is made by Mardel. Both are the same meds but I've found that Triple Sulfa by API mixes better in the water. Trisulfa seems to take a while to dissolve and leaves chunks floating around. I'd get the Triple Sulfa if you can. I just mix it in a small cup of tank water and stir it well with a spoon and pour into tank. It doesn't cloud the water at all.

Jendayi

My LFS recommended bettafix as well. I used it for a little bit and saw no improvement for finrot. It didn't hurt Cujo, but didn't help either. It's just not really a medication, imo, and waste of money.

I have said the same thing about the Triplesulfa before, too. I prefer it because it mixes/dissolves whereas the trisulfa floats on the top of the water and looks cruddy. I have used both, and they both seem to work for Romeo.

mlinden84

Well I already bought the trisulfa on ebay, hopefully it'll work. Is there something I can use on him until I get it in the mail? His fins are starting to get a little worse it looks like. Will the bettafix help the splitting from going any further until i get the meds? Or do I need to pick something else up tomorrow?

Phloxface

Maybe you could try Fungus Clear by Jungle Labs while you wait. Almost every place sells it and it's cheap.

COBettaCouple

One thing you might try with the trisulfa is to scoop some tank water into a bowl and pour the trisulfa in that so you can stir it really well, then pour it in the tank.. we would drop it in front of the filter flow and it did pretty well, but was a better product IMO when it came in tablets.. i think we'll be using the API version after the last course of Trisulfa is gone.

yea, Bettafix is one of those products like 'cycle' that amount to an overpriced bottle of water and when we started out, sure enough we bought both.. some of the money wasted on junk products before we started participating in fishlore.

armadillo

Man! I wish I lived in the US. You guys have all these great meds.

mlinden84

I had thought about doing exactly that, mixing it up good then putting it back in.


I'm headed out to get some fungus clear today, and I should have the other meds by weds at the latest.

Can I use the Bettafix for any other fish?

Phloxface

BettaFix is too weak to be of any use. Just throw it out. I made the same mistake when I bought my first Betta. I know it seems like a waste of money but it's not that expensive and it's not worth risking the health of any fish treating with a useless product.

mlinden84

okay. thanks for your help!

COBettaCouple

Best of luck with all of your Bettas!

mlinden84

Thanks! It is truely an addicting hobby!

mlinden84

As I was giving Betta his dinner, I noticed his back "tail" fin (sorry i dont know what they are called) had split all the way up! Before it was just a little notch out of the same fin in a different spot. I also noticed a small pin sized hole in the fin on his back. Today was the 5th day of treatment with the Trisulfa. Should I do a water change and do another 5 days treatment? I'm ordering some Triple sulfa right now, but I thought it would be better to keep him on something until it arrives. Also, he's in a divided 10 gallon with another betta (renamed Scuba). Will it be ok for Scuba to be in the tank while I treat Betta again? Or should I move Betta back into the 2 gallon?

Phloxface

Don't take him off meds until it's healed and showing regrowth. This could be 3-4 weeks. Never medicate a fish that isn't sick. If he's in a divided tank he needs to be moved to another tank for meds. Is the 2 gallon heated? It's important that his temp be kept stable. A fluctuation of even a couple degrees throughout the day can stress him and worsen the finrot.
Good luck! Rocky is also on his fifth day of Triple Sulfa and so far his fins are looking good. I also have him on medicated anti-bacterial food (Jungle Labs) http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Produc...&N=2004+113021 You can find it at most pet stores. Maybe it would help Betta too. It seems that treating Rocky with both meds is helping so far.