Strange red appeared on my bettas fins

I've noticed my betta has been a bit lethargic lately but some very strange red has appeared on his fins and he is swimming sporadically. So my guess would be that he has a parasite but I've never seen anything like it before. Any help would be appreciated asap I feel as if I have very limited time to treat this. He is in a heated 82 degree 3 gallon tank with driftwood and moss and I've had him for only a few months. All other water parameters test well the water is clean. The red is attached to his fins and is on both the top and bottom not coming out of his anus.

 

It’s fin rot, either bacterial or fungal. Edges of the red areas look fuzzy so likely fungal. I would do a Methylene blue bath in a bowl and float it in the tank to keep him warm. You can let him soak all day, it’s a very gentle treatment.

Methylene blue is a great product to have on hand, works wonders for minor skin/fin issues but should not be added to the tank. Kordon super Ick cure is a good med too and it’s safe for the adding to the tank.

 

It’s fin rot, either bacterial or fungal. Edges of the red areas look fuzzy so likely fungal. I would do a Methylene blue bath in a bowl and float it in the tank to keep him warm. You can let him soak all day, it’s a very gentle treatment.

Methylene blue is a great product to have on hand, works wonders for minor skin/fin issues but should not be added to the tank. Kordon super Ick cure is a good med too and it’s safe for the adding to the tank.

I do have that on hand I keep a few general cures just in case. I also had a sorority of young females all got along amazing who up and died. A white fuzzy ring appeared around their mouths and they were dead within a few hours so assumed that was also a bacterial / fungal infection. I have a lot of experience keeping fish including bettas and have never had multiple tanks get sick for seemingly no reason. The parameters of my tanks are

Ph: 7.8
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: approx 20ppm right before water changes depends on the tank
50% water changes every week
I have well water with a softener and iron removal.
Total of 7 bettas and 5 tiny neon tetras. My 5 females and 4 tetras seemed to have died from a bacterial outbreak all in the same heavily planted 10 gallon tank. I recently got them all from our local petsmart discounted because they were in terrible condition but were nursed back to health.

 

Hi,

Sorry about your female bettas and tetras! That kind of sounds like an outbreak of columnaris. There are some really fast moving strains, so that might explain those quick deaths, but that's just a guess on my part.

Do you have aquarium salt? You could do a few baths with that for your ill betta. And I agree totally with Demeter about the methylene blue. It is really a great med to have on hand.

 

Hi,

Sorry about your female bettas and tetras! That kind of sounds like an outbreak of columnaris. There are some really fast moving strains, so that might explain those quick deaths, but that's just a guess on my part.

Do you have aquarium salt? You could do a few baths with that for your ill betta. And I agree totally with Demeter about the methylene blue. It is really a great med to have on hand.

Thank you, it spread so fast and was immediately lethal after they caught it I hardly had time to react. I do have salt I'll try that out too.

 

Yep, was also going to say methylene blue.