concerns about fin regrowth

My baby, Sir Gawain came home with me in April, got him home only to discover he had a really bad case of fin rot (eeww) So I put him in the only other tank I had (a 1.5g) and medicated for a week was off for a week, but then it didn't look like he was getting better so I medicated again for another week (both treatments were a merycin/mericyn 2 combo) Looked like I got it beaten so I left him in the small tank for one more week just to be sure. no more splits or tears so I moved him back into his main home with his buddies (I understand the controvery with "friends for bettas, but there have been no problems with fin nipping from anyone - guppies and corys and of course Sir Gawain) But after almost two months I'm not seeing any more fin regrowth!! I have been treating with Vita-Chem since he was in the ht. Shouldn't something have come back by now? His beautiful tail is doing a very good impression of a double tail and there are a couple of lonely rays in his dorsal fin. and all of the ends of his fins still seem a bit ragged. Am I being overly concerned? Is there anything else I can do??

sorry for the long post but help, please

 

I believe sometimes regrowth is limited by the damage to the 'ribs' of his fins. do you have a close picture of him? does it look like he's got enough ribbing to spur regrowth?

 

I believe sometimes regrowth is limited by the damage to the 'ribs' of his fins. do you have a close picture of him? does it look like he's got enough ribbing to spur regrowth?

unfortuantely no, I don't have any good pictures showing this as 1. he won't stay still long enough for me to get a picture. 2. even if he did he doesn't keep his fins up long enough to get a picture, and 3. even if I could get around problems 1 and 2 my camera and my computer don't talk nicely to each other My computer only has USB 1.5 and my camera demands USB 2.0

If my ribbing you mean "skin" between the rays, I would think he has enough as there is some there on the tail fin and one of the places on the dorsal it would be fairly easy to measure, on the other ray maybe, maybe not, I can't really tell.

 

the rays are the ribbing, they're needed to grow the fin inbetween ribs.. one of our bettas ripped his tail fin in half and it'll never fully restore due to that.

 

There is not much you can do to make the fins grow back at this point. Unfortunately, after a bad case of finrot a fish's fins will usually never look the same. I'm glad you got the finrot stopped though--it can be a nasty disease with Bettas.

 

One of my Bettas (Phlox) had come to me with some fin damage due to finrot. I thought his fins would never grow back but suddenly, six months later they started growing like crazy and he grew a beautiful tail and fins! Adding vitamins such as VitaChem or Kent Zoe will certainly help things along faster.

 

It took 6 months? Man, that must take a lot of patience.

 

It isn't important to me how long it takes. As long as the fish is healthy and the fin rot has stopped then it's all good. If the "spines" (the bones of the tail/fins) are damaged it will never grow back. The "webbing" (the skin between the spines) will always grow back eventually.

 

It isn't important to me how long it takes. As long as the fish is healthy and the fin rot has stopped then it's all good. If the "spines" (the bones of the tail/fins) are damaged it will never grow back. The "webbing" (the skin between the spines) will always grow back eventually.

yea, we're just happy if they're healthy. we'll encourage fin regrowth but mainly want them happy & rot-free.

 

ok, this makes me feel better=) Thanks for the encouragement.

 

ok, this makes me feel better=) Thanks for the encouragement.

even if they don't get the whole lost finnage back, I notice ours strut around as if they had. they really are encouraging little fish and can be happy even when we worry about them.