Early case of fin rot?

I just got a new betta fish last week that I decided to take to college with me. I've named him Ciel and he's a very beautiful butterfly betta fish.

Before moving into my dorm for school, I had him in an unfiltered 1 gallon tank with a small heater for 3 days and I partially changed the water once while he was in there. When I moved into my dorm room last week on Sept 4, I put him in a 3.5 gallon tank with a filter and heater.

A couple of hours ago I did the first 30% water change and he looked completely fine when I took him out of the tank into his little cup. The only thing that worries me is that he always freaks out when he goes into his cup. He was super stressed out for quite a while last time I put him in it to move to the dorm and just now as well and I don't know how to fix that because he can't be in the tank when I'm changing the water and cleaning the rocks.

This was him literally Thursday Sept 8 2016. His fins have always been transparent and slightly curled at the edges (especially his ventral fins) ever since I saw him at the store and he looked exactly the same up until I did the water change this morning.

This is his fish tank. It is a 3.5 gallon tank with a filter and LED lights at the top and a heater to 80ºF. He also has a marimo ball buddy. The decorations in his tank are the same but I just moved them around a little when I cleaned the tank.

This is what the tank looks like right now. While I was changing the water, it looked extremely cloudy but I searched online and some people said it would clear up. It cleared for the most part but now it's just a slight fog. Not really 100% clear.

This is what his fins and tail look like now. I just noticed about an hour ago after I did a 30% change and swiftly searched online for probable causes. I'm suspecting it could be super early fin rot but I don't want to do anything extra that I don't have to if he's completely fine. Also, I don't know how his fins could have changed so much so quickly? I just don't know if that's normal.

He's not acting strange at all. He's always been very active and he's still actively swimming and very aware and curious about his surroundings. No clamped fins. No lethargy. Nothing. I'm not seeing anything else that is wrong with him other than the dark tips on his fins.

I'm sorry I can't provide ammonium or nitrite/nitrate levels seeing that I haven't acquired a kit to do so yet (used all my money trying to make the tank look nice), but it's the same treated tap water (I use API Stress Coat+) that he's been in for the past week. I'm sure that if he had an issue with the water then it would have come up sooner and not right after a water change.

 

Welcome to the forum, he is gorgeous!
He doesn't have fin rot, that's just his colors coming in
Do not take him out when you do water changes, you do not have to clean the rocks at all. You just need a gravel vacuum to get rid the waste, as you can see, being taken out during water changes is very stressful for them.
The cloudy water you are experienced is most likely a bacterial bloom due to an uncycled tank. I would pick up some seachem stability and seachem prime to cycle with. Tetra safestart plus will also work. Do you now about the aquarium nitrogen cycle?
I would pick up the API master test kit as soon as possible, as well as seachem prime, a gravel vaccum, and either seachem stability or tetra safe start plus.
Does he have a heater?
Here are some links worth reading
Betta care sheet- https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/betta-care-guide.226842/
Nitrogen cycle- https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

 

Welcome to the forum, he is gorgeous!
He doesn't have fin rot, that's just his colors coming in
Do not take him out when you do water changes, you do not have to clean the rocks at all. You just need a gravel vacuum to get rid the waste, as you can see, being taken out during water changes is very stressful for them.
The cloudy water you are experienced is most likely a bacterial bloom due to an uncycled tank. I would pick up some seachem stability and seachem prime to cycle with. Tetra safestart plus will also work. Do you now about the aquarium nitrogen cycle?
I would pick up the API master test kit as soon as possible, as well as seachem prime, a gravel vaccum, and either seachem stability or tetra safe start plus.
Does he have a heater?
Here are some links worth reading
Betta care sheet- https://www.fishlore.com/aquariumfishforum/threads/betta-care-guide.226842/
Nitrogen cycle- https://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

omg thank you for letting me know, that helps me feel so much better about the color change. I always tend to be a worried mother, haha.

I know about the nitrogen cycle and have gone through it for both of my family's guppy tanks at home but I found him so soon before going to college that I didn't really have a good set up ready when I got him.

I will definitely have to get all of those items when I go out next time, especially a gravel vacuum. He hates his little cup as much as I hate putting him in it so that would completely fix that problem.

He has a Tetra HT10 50W submersible heater at 80ºF. Sorry I didn't provide that in the post. I edited it to include that now

 

No problem
It seemed like he has a great home!

 

how big should the bottle of safestart plus be for my tank? I bought a 8.45floz but it says it treats up to 500gal which is insane compared to my 3.5 gal tank. I'm also planning on returning it because it was super expensive. Can I just buy a small 3.38floz bottle? Even that one says up to 200gal on the front. do I even need it? I'm sorry just very confused as to why these bottles are used for such huge tanks and there is nothing available smaller than the one for 200 gallon tanks.

 

That's a nice little setup nice fish also

 

That's a nice little setup nice fish also

Thank you

 

You really shouldn't put him in a cup to clean it, just leave him in and be careful! Also I believe those decorations will tear The circle one I had as well and that one tire fins even though I thought it would be fine. And I'm sure the castle would too. Their fins are very fragile and will rip on most aquarium devote and can become infected. I use only natural decor like driftwood and stones and the anything that says betta on it is okay. There's a section at most pet stores. So I would take those out and replace them, I did the same thing with my first boy! And it's silly but I've had bettas for years and the all time favorite decoration is this betta plant from petco with a suction cup and having it stuck to the side of the tank near the top! They LOVE it all my boys sleep in them every night. My one boy is on it right now actually (his is growing algae because he lives with many snails and shrimp who clean it for him).



Obviously that's optional but I thought I'd share the bettas top picks lol. Also notable mention is the floating log it's like $15 and about 50% of my bettas over the years love it the other 50% could care less. You have to really scrub the life out of it when you first get it though because the paint chips.

 

When I was buying the decor I made sure to bring an old piece of hosiery to test everything on and they all passed, including the circular one that I also thought would fail. I've seen Ciel rest on it just fine and swim in and out without any damage to his fins. Same with the little treehouse. However, I will definitely check again the next time I go into his tank to change the water.

 

I thought so too, I had that circle one and my boy ripped his tail and I got sandpaper and sanded the inside of the hole and put it back and he still had rips and I took it out and he healed up. you could leave it and just wait and see if you have a problem. I didn't have a problem at first either but it's your choice in the end

 

I have the same tree house in my betta tank It was the first thing I got it has been his tank with him since day one he's going on two years now I also have almost the same rock as you and it has been in there since about the second week my betta is fine and always has been it's your tank put what you like in it sorry I just don't like people that tell others what to put in their tank I would understand if it was a broken class or something like this but what you have is fine very beautiful fish and tank good luck with your little guy

 

I really appreciate having a second opinion on this My little Ciel really loves his tree house. He's constantly exploring inside and around it. I would be so sad to have to take it out.

 

Yea he will be fine with that in there most fish don't like changes once they get used to things so taking it Will just stress a little