Help! Betta Fin Rot And Ich!

I got my betta around a week ago. And everything seemed great! I put him in his new 10 gallon tank (has been fishless cycled) and he was looking good. Yesterday I noticed he had white spots on him, and after doing some research I found that he had ich! So I immediately went to the pet store and bought the apI super ick cure powder medicine. I did a 25% water change, raised the temp to 82°, dosed the medicine, and he seemed to perk up quite a bit! He went from being lethargic on a leaf to swimming around at night. However I woke up this morning to find that he was just drifting along the surface of the water. Then I realized his fins were torn, which they didnt appear to be yesterday! I added some aquarium salt to the tank. His color in his fins on his right side have gotten darker in color too. I'm really worried! How do I treat him for both? Should I stop the ich and treat for the fin rot first, or continue the ich treatment and then do fin rot? The fin rot looks pretty bad to me, please let me know what you think!
Tank

What is the water volume of the tank?- 10 gallons
How long has the tank been running?- around a month
Does it have a filter?- yes
Does it have a heater?-yes
What is the water temperature?- around 82° F (normally around 78°)
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.)- just my little betta!

Maintenance
How often do you change the water?- Weekly
How much of the water do you change? -25%
What do you use to treat your water?- seachem prime
Do you vacuum the substrate or just the water?- vacuum substrate too!

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish?- yes
What do you use to test the water?- apI master kit for fresh water
What are your parameters?

Ammonia:0 ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate:
pH:7.8

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? Once a day
How much do you feed your fish? 2 pellets
What brand of food do you feed your fish?aqueon betta food
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? Not yet

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? Around 1 week
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? 1 day ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Lethargic, white spots, torn fins, not eating
Have you started any treatment for the illness? Super ick cure powder and aquarium salt
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Used to swim around a lot, then started rubbing itself on everything, now barely moves at all

Explain your emergency situation in detail. I got my betta around a week ago. And everything seemed great! I put him in his new 10 gallon tank (has been fishless cycled) and he was looking good. Yesterday I noticed he had white spots on him, and after doing some research I found that he had ich! So I immediately went to the pet store and bought the apI super ick cure powder medicine. I did a 25% water change, raised the temp to 82°, increased aeration with an air pump, dosed the medicine, and he seemed to perk up quite a bit! He went from being lethargic on a leaf to swimming around at night. However I woke up this morning to find that he was just drifting along the surface of the water. Then I realized his fins were torn, which they didnt appear to be yesterday! I added some aquarium salt to the tank. His color in his fins on his right side have gotten darker in color too. I'm really worried! How do I treat him for both? Should I stop the ich and treat for the fin rot first, or continue the ich treatment and then do fin rot? The fin rot looks pretty bad to me, please let me know what you think!

I forgot to put in the nitrate reading! I was testing it.It is at around 5 ppm

 

hI and welcome, my fish had ich but I cured it. Use API Super Ich Cure. Apply it and then change 15% of your water. it should help the ich and possibly the fin rot

hI and welcome, my fish had ich but I cured it. Use API Super Ich Cure. Apply it and then change 15% of your water. it should help the ich and possibly the fin rot

also, super ich cure powder does not work as well as super ich cure liquid.

 

hI and welcome, my fish had ich but I cured it. Use API Super Ich Cure. Apply it and then change 15% of your water. it should help the ich and possibly the fin rot

Thank you!! Should I change to the liquid then? If so, do I have to perform a water change to get rid of the previous dose or do I just add it in?
Also, 15% of the water daily, and reapplying the dose? Or just 15% right after

 

Thank you!! Should I change to the liquid then? If so, do I have to perform a water change to get rid of the previous dose or do I just add it in?
Also, 15% of the water daily, and reapplying the dose? Or just 15% right after

what you should do is, is take out 15% of the water, add in the liquid, then put a new 15% of water in the tank. you might want to wait for the other treatment to wear off first


it could also be a type of common fungus, because the head is a different color that normal.

 

Thank you very much! I took out the filter cartridge from the filter for the medicine. Should I add it back to help remove the first dose? How long do you think it will take for it to wear off?
I'm sorry for so many questions, I just want to be as thorough as possible !

 

Thank you very much! I took out the filter cartridge from the filter for the medicine. Should I add it back to help remove the first dose? How long do you think it will take for it to wear off?
I'm sorry for so many questions, I just want to be as thorough as possible !

its ok, I ask a lot of questions too! how long has it been since you put in the ich cure?

 

its ok, I ask a lot of questions too! how long has it been since you put in the ich cure?

I put it in yesterday at around this time of the day.
Also, should I continue adding the salt when I do water changes? I added the salt this morning.

 

I put it in yesterday at around this time of the day.
Also, should I continue adding the salt when I do water changes? I added the salt this morning.

the salt will not help the ich, but hold help fin rot. I think if you keep adding the salt, the fin rot should get better. would say at this time tomorrow is when the salt should wear off. so tomorrow you could add the liquid ich cure

 

the salt will not help the ich, but hold help fin rot. I think if you keep adding the salt, the fin rot should get better. would say at this time tomorrow is when the salt should wear off. so tomorrow you could add the liquid ich cure

Okay, will do. Should I add back the filter cartridge for a while before adding the ich cure?

 

Okay, will do. Should I add back the filter cartridge for a while before adding the ich cure?

you should add back the cartridge for now

 

you should add back the cartridge for now

Alrighty! Thank you so much for all your help!!

 

Alrighty! Thank you so much for all your help!!

no problem!

no problem!

hope your fish gets better!

 

I just wanted to say, salt doesn't "wear" off whatsoever. Please be careful dosing with salt because salt builds up in the water and is only removed thro water changes. Are u 100% sure its ich? Its hard to tell from the pics. And I think u need to keep the charcoal cartridge out while medicating. Check the directions on the bottle. Do u have any other media in ur filter of just the cartridge?

 

I just wanted to say, salt doesn't "wear" off whatsoever. Please be careful dosing with salt because salt builds up in the water and is only removed thro water changes. Are u 100% sure its ich? Its hard to tell from the pics. And I think u need to keep the charcoal cartridge out while medicating. Check the directions on the bottle. Do u have any other media in ur filter of just the cartridge?

Just the cartridge! The ich looks a lot better today, but his fins look a lot worse now that I checked on him. I'm wondering I should focus on treating him for fin rot first?

The fin rot just keeps getting worse, those dark patches werent on him yesterday.

The fin rot just keeps getting worse, those dark patches werent on him yesterday.

This is how he looked yesterday

hope your fish gets better!

Thank you so much!
I actually just posted a few more pics of the fin rot to a reply. Can you take a look at them? I think it is getting worse, and I don't know if I should treat that first before the ich

 

Personally id treat for the ich first, but from the pics it doesn't look like ich, tho I'm not there and the pics are hard to see. Fin rot should get better if his water is clean. The torn fins could b cuz hes sick, so treat the sickness first. Ich can kill, fin rot won't kill him but I know ur worried since its getting so bad. Also, id put the cartridge back asap since its holding ur bacteria, just cut a slit in it and dump the charcoal out and keep treating for ich as the directions say to.

 

Personally id treat for the ich first, but from the pics it doesn't look like ich, tho I'm not there and the pics are hard to see. Fin rot should get better if his water is clean. The torn fins could b cuz hes sick, so treat the sickness first. Ich can kill, fin rot won't kill him but I know ur worried since its getting so bad. Also, id put the cartridge back asap since its holding ur bacteria, just cut a slit in it and dump the charcoal out and keep treating for ich as the directions say to.

I've been trying to get a better picture of the spots, but I haven't been able to, this is from yesterday where you can kind of see some of the spots on his fins. I will keep treating for the ich, he seems a little more animated now but still drifting around. Hopefully the fin rot doesn't get worse. Thank you!

Personally id treat for the ich first, but from the pics it doesn't look like ich, tho I'm not there and the pics are hard to see. Fin rot should get better if his water is clean. The torn fins could b cuz hes sick, so treat the sickness first. Ich can kill, fin rot won't kill him but I know ur worried since its getting so bad. Also, id put the cartridge back asap since its holding ur bacteria, just cut a slit in it and dump the charcoal out and keep treating for ich as the directions say to.

After the ich treatment, do you think I should start him on something for the fin rot if it gets worse?

 

Most people here I think just do lots of water changes to keep water clean for fin rot. If hes healthy and not sick (once ich is gone) then it should get better but I'm not an expert with fin rot. It might be hard on him if u treat him with meds again right after ich. Get rid of the ich and see how he does for a bit with lots of good water and food.

 

Most people here I think just do lots of water changes to keep water clean for fin rot. If hes healthy and not sick (once ich is gone) then it should get better but I'm not an expert with fin rot. It might be hard on him if u treat him with meds again right after ich. Get rid of the ich and see how he does for a bit with lots of good water and food.

Will do, thank you for all the help!

 

Good luck! Keep us posted

 

Feed him metroplex. It cured ick in my betta. If you have any doubt, check seachem website and call tech support line. Pretty much what it does is booby trap your fish so when the free swimming stage tries to latch on to the fish they would eat a mouthful of metroplex and die. Feed metroplex for at least 28 dayS.

Raising temp will accelerate the progression of fin rot. Lower it slowly and target 75 F. At that temp the life cycle of ich will slow, but not so much that it will take forever to eliminate ich.Read up about ich life cycle.


While feeding metroplex for ich, use furan-2 and kanaplex in the water column to treat fin rot. Dose furan 2 every 24 hours and kanaplex every 48 hours. You could also add malachite green to this mix ( dose every 48 hours) to target ooportunistic fungal infection.

Watch your cycle as you do this. Prepare to do 50% waterchange everyday if it crashes.

Diseases piggyback on one another. A wound from ich even though super small will be prone to bacterial infection which will then eat through the tissue, dead tissue gives opportunistic fungal infection a chance to feast on your fish. This is why they have to be treated together.

All these meds can be mixed safely. I have done it, it worked. For further reference just google up the combo and you can see it used by other people.

Also seachem has a page on mixing med. while it does not reference furan 2 some google-fu will confirm you can throw that into the mix
FAQ: Can I use the Seachem medications together?

While doing this, keep fish stress to the minimum and slow its metabolic rate so the body has energy to heal. 75F, keep the tank dark, do not overfeed. Soak food in vitachem.

Raising temperature to kill ich does not work. I tried it. Despite vacuuming aggressively over the period of two weeks while maintaining 86F in the tank once I lower the temp ich came back. Ich can also get used to higher salinity. Plus 80 something degree speed up fish metabolic rate, and helps bacteria grow faster. You don't want that.

Supply an extra airstone. Keep the tank well- oxygenated, as more medicine tends to deplete O2 and ich also causes inflammation if they latch onto the gill making it harder for fish to breath.



This guy does salt water but it is the same principle. I know another site that endorses the same medicine mix for freshwater. Unfortunaely that site is banned on fishlore so I am unable to give you the link.

 

Feed him metroplex. It cured ick in my betta. If you have any doubt, check seachem website and call tech support line. Pretty much what it does is booby trap your fish so when the free swimming stage tries to latch on to the fish they would eat a mouthful of metroplex and die. Feed metroplex for at least 28 dayS.

Raising temp will accelerate the progression of fin rot. Lower it slowly and target 75 F. At that temp the life cycle of ich will slow, but not so much that it will take forever to eliminate ich.Read up about ich life cycle.


While feeding metroplex for ich, use furan-2 and kanaplex in the water column to treat fin rot. Dose furan 2 every 24 hours and kanaplex every 48 hours. You could also add malachite green to this mix ( dose every 48 hours) to target ooportunistic fungal infection.

Watch your cycle as you do this. Prepare to do 50% waterchange everyday if it crashes.

Diseases piggyback on one another. A wound from ich even though super small will be prone to bacterial infection which will then eat through the tissue, dead tissue gives opportunistic fungal infection a chance to feast on your fish. This is why they have to be treated together.

All these meds can be mixed safely. I have done it, it worked. For further reference just google up the combo and you can see it used by other people.

Also seachem has a page on mixing med. while it does not reference furan 2 some google-fu will confirm you can throw that into the mix
FAQ: Can I use the Seachem medications together?

While doing this, keep fish stress to the minimum and slow its metabolic rate so the body has energy to heal. 75F, keep the tank dark, do not overfeed. Soak food in vitachem.

Raising temperature to kill ich does not work. I tried it. Despite vacuuming aggressively over the period of two weeks while maintaining 86F in the tank once I lower the temp ich came back. Ich can also get used to higher salinity. Plus 80 something degree speed up fish metabolic rate, and helps bacteria grow faster. You don't want that.

Supply an extra airstone. Keep the tank well- oxygenated, as more medicine tends to deplete O2 and ich also causes inflammation if they latch onto the gill making it harder for fish to breath.



This guy does salt water but it is the same principle. I know another site that endorses the same medicine mix for freshwater. Unfortunaely that site is banned on fishlore so I am unable to give you the link.

Thank you so much! I'll look into that right away!

Thank you guys for all the help. But sadly I woke up this morning to find that my little betta friend has passed away... the fin rot got all the way up to his body and it got really bad. I don't know if maybe it was a fungus or a bacteria. Thank you for all the help.

 

Thank you guys for all the help. But sadly I woke up this morning to find that my little betta friend has passed away... the fin rot got all the way up to his body and it got really bad. I don't know if maybe it was a fungus or a bacteria. Thank you for all the help.

I'm sorry to hear that, rip little guy

 

I'm sorry to hear that, rip little guy

sorry to hear.