5 Gallon Tank Help -- Fin Rot and Self Fin-Biting? Best way to treat?

[bcan]

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 5.5 g
How long has the tank been running? 2 months
Does it have a filter? Yes, TopFin SilentStream PF-10
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 78 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 1 Betta, 2 Mystery Snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 1/week
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? Mostly water

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Not fully
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater Master Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm ppm
pH: 8.2

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? once daily
How much do you feed your fish? a small amount, which he consumes in around a minute
What brand of food do you feed your fish? I feed API tropical flakes
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? I feed freeze-dried bloodworms once or twice a week from Tetra

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 6 weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? A week ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Ragged fins, some rubbing against plants, most recently biting his own fins
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Still eating and swimming regularly, but biting his own fins

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
I just noticed these issues pretty recently, but didn't notice how bad his deterioration has been until I looked at his fins from when I first got him. Here are some pictures.

Here is when I first got him (6-ish weeks ago)



A month ago:


Here is yesterday


Here is today


Whole tank shot for reference:



I was upset when I realized something was wrong, and at first was not sure if he was just getting caught on something in the tank (I witnessed him get stuck under an Indian almond leaf once and come out with red torn fins) but since he has fin deterioration all around it seems most likely that he also has fin rot. I've been doing research on how to best treat him and was going to order something to treat him with soon, but I just witnessed him bite his own fins, and from what I've seen (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's pretty bad when it gets to that point. I just went to PetSmart and got aquarium salt. I'm prepared to treat him now, but I wanted to make a post here for any advice

I have seen so many mixed things about treating fin rot. Mainly I see a lot of people saying that the main source of fin rot is poor water quality. However, my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are consistently good, so I don't think that's it.

Some sources of stress I've identified are a too-strong filter flow, which could definitely be it. I added an intake filter sponge to combat this since I noticed it when I first got him, but I think it's still too strong. It's slightly adjustable but barely. I'm not sure what steps to take to improve this more than I already have.

Additionally, I know my pH is way too high. I noticed this a while ago, but I also know steady pH is better than a pH within a range. However, this is FAR outside the range. I've been adding Indian almond leaves because I've heard that they can lower pH slowly over time. They're not doing a great job, though.

Besides these sources of stress I am not really sure. If anyone has any suggestions of things to check or correct in my tank please let me know.

One final thing is that my current tank is actually cracked very slightly. It seems fine, but I'm also working on replacing it. It's kind of off topic, but if anyone has any recommended online stores without crazy shipping where I can buy JUST a 5.5 gallon tank, I would appreciate that information. My PetSmart sucks and it's the only pet store within 100 miles. And I don't drive.

Anyway, I made a plan to treat my betta, after I saw him biting his fins and panicked. Please let me know if I'm thinking through this correctly, if I'm thinking of doing this the wrong way, or anything along those lines.

I have one small pet carrier (around a gallon), one 1.5 gallon bucket, and one 5.5 gallon fish tank.

Step one is remove all of the plants from my main tank and add them to the pet carrier, fill the pet carrier with tank water, and temporarily (for two days) house my mystery snails in that small tank.

Next I plan to remove another 3.5 gallons from my main tank for a 90% water change. I will then add enough conditioned water back to fill the tank. Then I will dissolve 5 teaspoons (one for each gallon of water) of (API Freshwater) aquarium salt in a separate cup/container before slowly adding it into the tank. I will do repeated 90% water changes every day for no more than 10 days before slowly de-salting the water (kind of iffy on this part, clarification here would be appreciated) at that point, I would re-add the plants and the snails.

In two days I have someone bringing me an old 2.2 gallon aquarium, into which I plan to transfer my snails so they have more space. Since it won't be filtered, I will likely be doing 25%-50% water changes for them as well for the duration of my fish's treatment.

Does this sound like a good plan considering what I have available to me? Do you think this will be effective for healing my fish? Am I overlooking anything?

One other thing I'm curious about is if there are any signs that I should stop the salt treatment earlier than 10 days. My fish is plenty active and still eats currently, his fins are just extremely ragged.

Any help, input, advice, ANYTHING is appreciated. Thanks in advance for helping to save my buddy Ghost <3

 

[Pwilly07]

Tank
What is the water volume of the tank? 5.5 g
How long has the tank been running? 2 months
Does it have a filter? Yes, TopFin SilentStream PF-10
Does it have a heater? Yes
What is the water temperature? 78 degrees
What is the entire stocking of this tank? (Please list all fish and inverts.) 1 Betta, 2 Mystery Snails

Maintenance
How often do you change the water? 1/week
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? Mostly water

*Parameters - Very Important
Did you cycle your tank before adding fish? Not fully
What do you use to test the water? API Freshwater Master Test Kit
What are your parameters? We need to know the exact numbers, not just “fine” or “safe”.
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 0-5ppm ppm
pH: 8.2

Feeding
How often do you feed your fish? once daily
How much do you feed your fish? a small amount, which he consumes in around a minute
What brand of food do you feed your fish? I feed API tropical flakes
Do you feed frozen or freeze-dried foods? I feed freeze-dried bloodworms once or twice a week from Tetra

Illness & Symptoms
How long have you had this fish? 6 weeks
How long ago did you first notice these symptoms? A week ago
In a few words, can you explain the symptoms? Ragged fins, some rubbing against plants, most recently biting his own fins
Have you started any treatment for the illness? No
Was your fish physically ill or injured upon purchase? No
How has its behavior and appearance changed, if at all? Still eating and swimming regularly, but biting his own fins

Explain your emergency situation in detail. (Please give a clear explanation of what is going on, include details from the beginning of the illness leading up to now)
I just noticed these issues pretty recently, but didn't notice how bad his deterioration has been until I looked at his fins from when I first got him. Here are some pictures.

Here is when I first got him (6-ish weeks ago)

View attachment 784598

A month ago:
View attachment 784603

Here is yesterday
View attachment 784599

Here is today
View attachment 784600

Whole tank shot for reference:
View attachment 784604


I was upset when I realized something was wrong, and at first was not sure if he was just getting caught on something in the tank (I witnessed him get stuck under an Indian almond leaf once and come out with red torn fins) but since he has fin deterioration all around it seems most likely that he also has fin rot. I've been doing research on how to best treat him and was going to order something to treat him with soon, but I just witnessed him bite his own fins, and from what I've seen (please correct me if I'm wrong) it's pretty bad when it gets to that point. I just went to PetSmart and got aquarium salt. I'm prepared to treat him now, but I wanted to make a post here for any advice

I have seen so many mixed things about treating fin rot. Mainly I see a lot of people saying that the main source of fin rot is poor water quality. However, my ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are consistently good, so I don't think that's it.

Some sources of stress I've identified are a too-strong filter flow, which could definitely be it. I added an intake filter sponge to combat this since I noticed it when I first got him, but I think it's still too strong. It's slightly adjustable but barely. I'm not sure what steps to take to improve this more than I already have.

Additionally, I know my pH is way too high. I noticed this a while ago, but I also know steady pH is better than a pH within a range. However, this is FAR outside the range. I've been adding Indian almond leaves because I've heard that they can lower pH slowly over time. They're not doing a great job, though.

Besides these sources of stress I am not really sure. If anyone has any suggestions of things to check or correct in my tank please let me know.

One final thing is that my current tank is actually cracked very slightly. It seems fine, but I'm also working on replacing it. It's kind of off topic, but if anyone has any recommended online stores without crazy shipping where I can buy JUST a 5.5 gallon tank, I would appreciate that information. My PetSmart sucks and it's the only pet store within 100 miles. And I don't drive.

Anyway, I made a plan to treat my betta, after I saw him biting his fins and panicked. Please let me know if I'm thinking through this correctly, if I'm thinking of doing this the wrong way, or anything along those lines.

I have one small pet carrier (around a gallon), one 1.5 gallon bucket, and one 5.5 gallon fish tank.

Step one is remove all of the plants from my main tank and add them to the pet carrier, fill the pet carrier with tank water, and temporarily (for two days) house my mystery snails in that small tank.

Next I plan to remove another 3.5 gallons from my main tank for a 90% water change. I will then add enough conditioned water back to fill the tank. Then I will dissolve 5 teaspoons (one for each gallon of water) of (API Freshwater) aquarium salt in a separate cup/container before slowly adding it into the tank. I will do repeated 90% water changes every day for no more than 10 days before slowly de-salting the water (kind of iffy on this part, clarification here would be appreciated) at that point, I would re-add the plants and the snails.

In two days I have someone bringing me an old 2.2 gallon aquarium, into which I plan to transfer my snails so they have more space. Since it won't be filtered, I will likely be doing 25%-50% water changes for them as well for the duration of my fish's treatment.

Does this sound like a good plan considering what I have available to me? Do you think this will be effective for healing my fish? Am I overlooking anything?

One other thing I'm curious about is if there are any signs that I should stop the salt treatment earlier than 10 days. My fish is plenty active and still eats currently, his fins are just extremely ragged.

Any help, input, advice, ANYTHING is appreciated. Thanks in advance for helping to save my buddy Ghost <3

Adding salt is good. I use Kosher salt and I dose at 1 tbs. per 3 gallons and every 18 hours I increase it to 2 tbs per 3 gallons and finally 3 tbs per 3 gallons or 1 tbs to 1 gallon. I keep it there for 7-10 days. If water changes occur, you have to add salt back in to keep up the salinity. If that does not work, I would try Fish Cipro (Ciprofloxacin). I have had that sure Columnaris and fin rot. It does an amazing job at gram negative bacteria and even some gram positive bacteria. Fin rot is using caused by gram negative bacteria from my experience. It has relatively little resistance to it as it is not used as often. Here's where I found my meds at: I use 500mg once per day for at least 5-7 days, but can do 10 days.

 

[bcan]

Adding salt is good. I use Kosher salt and I dose at 1 tbs. per 3 gallons and every 18 hours I increase it to 2 tbs per 3 gallons and finally 3 tbs per 3 gallons or 1 tbs to 1 gallon. I keep it there for 7-10 days. If water changes occur, you have to add salt back in to keep up the salinity. If that does not work, I would try Fish Cipro (Ciprofloxacin). I have had that sure Columnaris and fin rot. It does an amazing job at gram negative bacteria and even some gram positive bacteria. Fin rot is using caused by gram negative bacteria from my experience. It has relatively little resistance to it as it is not used as often. Here's where I found my meds at: FISH AID ANTIBIOTICS Ciprofloxacin Tablets Fish Medication, 500-mg, 30 count - Chewy.com I use 500mg once per day for at least 5-7 days, but can do 10 days.

Thank you so much for your response! I'll start with the salt and hopefully that will work! Any ideas about when I should stop the salt treatment? Also how do you slowly lower the salinity after the the period of treatment, and how do you decide when to stop treatment (if you stop earlier than the 10 day limit)?

 

[Pwilly07]

Thank you so much for your response! I'll start with the salt and hopefully that will work! Any ideas about when I should stop the salt treatment? Also how do you slowly lower the salinity after the the period of treatment, and how do you decide when to stop treatment (if you stop earlier than the 10 day limit)?

Stop treatment when fins are healed, but don't go over 10 days. Just reduce as you increased. So change like 1/3 water and wait 18 hours or more and then change 1/3 water again, etc.

 

[Rachaeljuno]

I rescued a betta with fins that were pretty similar to this, maybe even a little worse (Same exact fish, Hm Opal Male). To treat him I just used lots of tannins and 20% water changes every other day. His fins are almost fully grown back now. Here’s a picture of when I got him vs. now:

 

[bcan]

I rescued a betta with fins that were pretty similar to this, maybe even a little worse (Same exact fish, Hm Opal Male). To treat him I just used lots of tannins and 20% water changes every other day. His fins are almost fully grown back now. Here’s a picture of when I got him vs. now:

Wow, that's a beautiful recovery! How did you add tannins? Through a concentrate or through almond leaves or driftwood or something else?

Also, you mention that you rescued your betta, so I'm wondering what his conditions were like before you helped him? I'm curious because my betta's conditions have been pretty good and he still got sick, and I don't know how I could really improve his conditions any more than they are. Do you think going a similar route could still help my better and that the aquarium salt is over-kill? Thanks for your input

 

[Rachaeljuno]

Thank you! I kind of feel bad for him though because his fins are SO LONG now and therefore very heavy for him to haul around .
I used driftwood to get all of the tannins. His water conditions when he was with his previous owner were terrible, I ended up finding him because I was looking for a new tank on FaceBook marketplace, and this guy was selling his whole setup, including the betta and 2 nerite snails. He told me that he almost never changes the water, didn't have a heater in the tank. He also was using the filter that comes with that tank's setup, but in the pictures of the tank the waterline was so low so the filter was definitely pouring into the tank at a really fast rate, making the current way to strong for him to swim in. In his case I'm 99% sure that his fin rot was caused by bad water parameters. It could have been that he was biting his own fins as well, I just don't know for sure. I did see in some of the pictures the seller sent me that he previously lived with dalmation mollies, (in only a 5 gallon) so they could have been biting his fins as well.

I would start doing more frequent water changes, and to get the most out of using almond leaves for tannins (I saw you had one floating in the tank in the full tank picture) I would boil them first, wait for the water to cool, and then add the water (it will look kind of like tea) as well as the leaf. I also noticed that you're feeding tropical flakes. I would recommend switching to a betta specific food. This is because bettas are strict carnivores, and tropical food is made for omnivores. Betta's digestive systems don't know what to do with plant matter, so it can weaken them. I'm currently using the Fluval Bug Bites Betta Formula Pellets, and both of my bettas love them. You could also increase your heater, I keep mine at 79ºF, I know that's not a huge difference, I just wonder if it might help even if it's just helping a little.

I don't really want to give you any advice on whether or not you should do salt since I haven't had any personal experience with it. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews though, so I would do more research into that either on here or youtube, etc.

Best of luck! And come back here if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help

 

[bcan]

Thank you! I kind of feel bad for him though because his fins are SO LONG now and therefore very heavy for him to haul around .
I used driftwood to get all of the tannins. His water conditions when he was with his previous owner were terrible, I ended up finding him because I was looking for a new tank on FaceBook marketplace, and this guy was selling his whole setup, including the betta and 2 nerite snails. He told me that he almost never changes the water, didn't have a heater in the tank. He also was using the filter that comes with that tank's setup, but in the pictures of the tank the waterline was so low so the filter was definitely pouring into the tank at a really fast rate, making the current way to strong for him to swim in. In his case I'm 99% sure that his fin rot was caused by bad water parameters. It could have been that he was biting his own fins as well, I just don't know for sure. I did see in some of the pictures the seller sent me that he previously lived with dalmation mollies, (in only a 5 gallon) so they could have been biting his fins as well.

I would start doing more frequent water changes, and to get the most out of using almond leaves for tannins (I saw you had one floating in the tank in the full tank picture) I would boil them first, wait for the water to cool, and then add the water (it will look kind of like tea) as well as the leaf. I also noticed that you're feeding tropical flakes. I would recommend switching to a betta specific food. This is because bettas are strict carnivores, and tropical food is made for omnivores. Betta's digestive systems don't know what to do with plant matter, so it can weaken them. I'm currently using the Fluval Bug Bites Betta Formula Pellets, and both of my bettas love them. You could also increase your heater, I keep mine at 79ºF, I know that's not a huge difference, I just wonder if it might help even if it's just helping a little.

I don't really want to give you any advice on whether or not you should do salt since I haven't had any personal experience with it. I've heard a lot of mixed reviews though, so I would do more research into that either on here or youtube, etc.

Best of luck! And come back here if you have any questions, I'd be more than happy to help

Thank you so much!
I'm sure your betta is so grateful to be out of those conditions, and I hope mine has as good of a recovery as yours. And yeah, that definitely sounds like poor conditions caused the disease, but it's definitely hard to know since you rescued him.

I actually had the same thought about the food and bought him betta pellets, however I just looked at the ingredients, and ... they have barely more protein than the tropical flakes. Pretty annoying. I will definitely look into the Bug Bites and see if I can get those ordered. I'll also definitely try boiling the almond leaves, and maybe getting some driftwood for my tank. I really appreciate all of your input!

 

[Rachaeljuno]

Thank you so much!
I'm sure your betta is so grateful to be out of those conditions, and I hope mine has as good of a recovery as yours. And yeah, that definitely sounds like poor conditions caused the disease, but it's definitely hard to know since you rescued him.

I actually had the same thought about the food and bought him betta pellets, however I just looked at the ingredients, and ... they have barely more protein than the tropical flakes. Pretty annoying. I will definitely look into the Bug Bites and see if I can get those ordered. I'll also definitely try boiling the almond leaves, and maybe getting some driftwood for my tank. I really appreciate all of your input!

I ordered the bug bites off of amazon so that was super easy. If you do get driftwood definitely boil it first. I didn't boil it first lol and in turn had a HUGE outbreak of biofilm and brown algae. But the driftwood really did release a lot of tannins so that is a great way to get tannins. Depending on the flow of your filter that might also be contributing, I switched from the kit filter to a sponge filter. There's ways you can adjust the flow for HOB filters though