Sharkitty

Finny's fins are shredding again. Water params are good, he's been getting vitamin soaked food (pellets and freeze dried brine shrimp) and as well as drops in the water, and I put garlic in 12 days ago with the new tank, water, and TSS. I never see him bite his tail, and even if there were something catching his tail in there it would not make it evenly screwed up like it is.

Just changed about 50% of the water, extra stress coat, and more garlic juice than usually recommended.

What do I dooooo?

MaddieLynn

Do you have a stocking or something covering the intake end of the filter?

Sharkitty

Nope. Guess that's my next project. I hope that's it, but I don't think it is.

Lucy

Wha kind of substrate are you using? Is it took rough?

Sharkitty

It's just basic Conga Rock. it's not rough at all. Plus, his fins were perfect for several weeks when I first got him, and then were healing great for a week. Then suddenly scrappy again. One day I watched as they just deteriorated right in front of me.

prairielilly

I had a good look at my male VT's finnage last night, and he has a new hole and a bit of shredding at the end of his tail. Same as you - water's ideal, he gets Vitachem, nothing sharp in the tank. I dunno. I gave mine some stresscoat and I'll be doing some extra wc's, maybe that will help some....

Sharkitty

Glad it's not just me, I guess, though sorry to hear your little guy is having trouble.

Finny had an awesome tail - especially for being a cup betta - with a thick blue "cuff" at the end of the red. I was so excited that it was doing so well in growing back. But then not.

Sharkitty

How about this guys - I just retook my pH. It was 7.2 a few days ago and now it's 6 or less again. Could a drop in pH cause enough stress to shred fins? I assume that water, all by itself, would not crash that quickly, e.g. we can safetly change pH for a new fish in one hour, and nothing in my tank is going to change the pH in less than an hour (I wouldn't think).

prairielilly

What I was thinking in my own case, I try of course to keep Ivan's tank super clean, but what if there was *possibly* something in the gravel I missed, that would then rot, which would change the water chemistry - not the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates, but other chemicals, rotting things produce tons of fun stuff...some of which muck with pH? I think if the change were extreme enough it might stress them enough to screw up their fins, but I'm not sure...just throwing out ideas...

Sharkitty

Yeah, it certainly bares remembering that there is more going on than we could test for. I'd pay a lot of money for a test that would tell me if I had fungus, bacteria issues, or none of the above. I don't think I could have anything rotting in Finny's tank since the whole thing was brand new 13 days ago, and I only feed him a pellet at a time to make sure he gets them.

Anyone else want to postulate with us?

MaddieLynn

You said "a nice blue cuff" at the end - I've never heard of a red betta with a blue edged tail. Could it have been fin rot?

COBettaCouple

Sudden changes like that could be significant. What are you using to test for pH? Do you have any Prime? Is ammonia and nitrites completely at 0?

Sharkitty

CO - I use the API Master test kit, all bottles nearly brand new according to their production dates. Ammonia and Nitrite are at 0 for sure.

MaddieLynne - The cuff was definitely part of his tail. You can see it in my photo of him, except that it got thicker and more even (that photo is the day I got him, I believe, and he really improved for the first three weeks). I will go look and see if I have any better examples.

prairielilly

Well, in my case I found the probable cause - faulty heater Nothing was 'rotting' thankfully, but the Hydor mini Theo (that was set at 69 F, as anything higher was giving extremely high temps) was cooking my poor Ivan yesterday at 84 degrees - it's officially kaputsky. Slightly stressful for a betta - yeah that heater's gone, and better fins are hopefully in the future!

Tony G.

That happened to me too, only i lost my Moushu, my heater went crazy and cooked him, i now have a dial heater which is totally great!

Sharkitty

Fins are worse today that Friday, but Finny seems happy enough. Looks like .25/0/5 (seriously, I can't catch a break), pH 6.4

I'm have no idea what to do.

Tony G.

Cross that out, flo, shelly and tommy just passed away bc of the same thing

Sharkitty

84 shouldn't kill your tropical fish unless the temp spikes really quickly. Finny's tank is always 80, and I think they can live in up to 85 easily. Maybe you have a fungus or bacteria?

I'm sorry you lost your fishies.

prairielilly

I'm very sorry to hear about your fish.

prairielilly

I don't know that tonyluvshisfish's temp was at 84...that was mine, stupid Hydor. He did say the temp was too high though, and higher temperatures will speed up the growth of bacteria/fungus, so that's possible...

Sharkitty

Sorry guys, got my wires crossed. Can you take your heater back? So scary to think that anyone's technology could flare out and kill fishies like that.

catfishlover123

So sorry you lost your fish.