Update: Betta's Tail Rot

HI there!

Most of you know the story. But I am recording here for posterity. My betta V is in a fully cycled 10 gallon tank filtered and heated. I purchased him with a mild case of tail rot. Clean water and good diet (vitachem and garlic guard) seemed to be healing him.

12 days later, in the span of 2 hours, it returned with a firey vengeance late at night. Most of the damage is on the tail with maybe a little bit on the analfin and pectoral. The rot that's not on the tail has not progressed and is not discolored so it is unconfirmed whether it's actually rot or just paranoia. I am comfortable with never knowing for sure so long as it means never progressing either.

I immediately started dosing the tank with Paraguard and implementing 50% WCs every other day. I placed a rush order on repashy gel food, methylene blue and Kanaplex, hopefully my big gun. While Paraguard alone,which I've been using while waiting for therest, seems to have slowed the progression, it has not stopped it. There are some areas that have been healing but another area where the infection is more severe is not.

To be clear, this is bacterial tail rot. Indicated by red tips and old blood tinged discoloration on the rays. It's very distinct. Red tips on the chewed up rays and a discoloration that looks like old, brownish red blood. The exposed rays look rather raw. It's a very unpleasant sight and looks quite painful. I'm almost glad it's bacterial though, as I have a lot of faith in Kanaplex, which is an antibiotic.

For the most part, V seems unaffected. The first night, where it progressed really rapidly, I thought I would lose him. He was on the bottom of the tank, refusing to interact with me. It was late, all I could do was start Paraguard. The next morning, he was more like his normal self and has been ever since, even flaring from time to time. It's so heart-breaking to see his beautiful tail all chewed up like this. I HATE it. The last couple days his appetite has been voracious, I continue to dose morning meals with VitaChem and evening ones with Garlic Guard. With the baths and medicated food, there's not much more I can do other than treat the tank directly with Kanaplex, which I will do if this fails. I am just DONE with watching tail rot slowly kill my fish, and I will do whatever is necessary to see he gets the happy life he so deserves.

Every 3 nights, the fin rot progresses a little more. Last night it encroached on an area that was healing. Finally my other meds arrived.

This afternoon consisted of...
1) Draining 1 gallon of his tank water into a 1 gallon fish bowl.
2) Adding 10 drops of methylene blue and 1/5 a level measure of kanaplex, mixed.
3) Transporting V by capturing him in a cup.
4) 20 minutes soaking in this bath.
5) Complete a 50% WC while he is in the bath. Condition with Prime, add Fish Protector to replaced water and wait for any temperature changes to be rectified by the heater.
6) Return V to his tank, add a fresh dose of Paraguard. Immediately reinforce stressful experience with Repashy Gel Food (Carnivore Fish) dosed with kanaplex as well.
7) Tank light off for the rest of the night.

This bath is a very stressful experience. Putting him in the bath is not so bad as I can transport him in a cup with his tank water. However since Kanaplex and Methylene Blue are harmful to the cycle, transporting back to the tank means bringing none of the water with him. For this, I got him in the net and scooped my fingers under his body to keep him from hurting himself on the mesh. Any other suggestions on how to do this part safely are welcome.

He hid for a minute or 2 then swam about with his left pectoral fin clamped to his side. I have never actually seen clamped fins before it was very sad.

I reinforced the experience with food, as much as he would eat (boo, overfeeding, I know). The repashy carnivore gel food was a hit. He went nuts for it none the wiser to the antibiotic mixed in. I have never seen him eat anything this aggressively. He is a picky eater, showing little interest in anything other than his NLS pellets, daphnia and, surprisingly, Emerald Entree. He spit out the bloodworms and wouldn't get near the peas so I was really worried about the medicated Repashy but he loved it so much I am considering making it his staple without meds once he heals. He is now swimming around normally and no longer hiding when I approach the tank.

This process will be repeated daily until I see new growth in all damaged areas. After that I will continue with daily water changes and maybe the paraguard or medicated food only, not sure. Only when he is healed will I be stopping daily WCs. If he continues to worsen at this rate, I will begin dosing the tank directly with kanaplex. It is destructive to the cycle so it will mean close level observation, whatever WCs are needed and a new TSS cycle once all meds have been removed.

I seriously love this fish you guys. I would be heart broken if I lost him. If you can think of a way to make transport from the bath less stressful for him, I would be ever grateful. Please give Viradhadra, my warrior, your healing thoughts.

I will continue to post on progress.

Thank you for your time.

 

It sounds like you are taking the best care of V that could ever be done. If ever I have to be reincarnated, I definitely want to be one of your pet fishes.

Best of luck to V as he continues to heal, I'm glad he liked the treats and sometimes overfeeding is necessary. Kinda like having dessert, ya just gotta do it at times.

 

Hope he feels better soon, you're so good!

keep us posted.

and the stores need to do a better job caring for fish, makes us all have to rescue them. and they think they are selling them... so they buy more
S----T----O----P!!!!!!UHHHHHH!!! poor fish, if only they could bite! lol

 

Haha shayla1 - How is it I keep imagining you coming back as a peach-colored, male, VT?
mg13 - I agree. I was actually really surprised to see him like this, I generally trust my LFS. But a betta cup is a betta cup is a betta cup, I guess, and no amount of water changes will change that, it's still a tupperware where fish are either purchased, or die.

I appreciate the support. I sort of wonder if I should have done a longer bath, but that's what was recommended, and I didn't want the temp to drop too much in there. If it comes down to it, I'll destroy my cycle to protect him and do as many WCs as needed till I can restore it, but I hope that this will be sufficient. It's hard to believe such a little amount of medication like what ends up in the fish food is enough to make a different. But we take our antibiotics in mg and we are big old humans, I guess they would literally have to take their meds in tiny, tiny grains. I did my best to mix up the repashy, I hope he got a good dose of Kanaplex with his meal. He certainly ate a lot of it.

I did notice some of the more severely infected, exposed rays look shorter. I'm not sure if the rot is actually attacking the rays now or if they maybe broke off during transport. I figure if I am going to stress him with a bath, it needs to be worth it. I hope the stress doesn't actually cause the rot to progress :\ He seems himself now and I think I've got a plan for easy transport a little for tomorrow. Of course it makes it complicated for me haha, but if it makes it easier on him then it's worth it.

People talk about handling their fish by hand because it's gentler, and I do this with the goldies, but V wasn't having any of it, poor guy. This is my first sick fishy since starting this hobby, I want to watch him make a full recovery. Bettas live such short lives as it is, I want to make it a good one.

Ugh - One special note for today ...

I added the Kanaplex to the Repashy/dechlorinated water mixture before heating it. This likely degraded all of the antibiotics in there.

There's no chance of mixing evenly once the gel is completely set, either, so, you have to let it cool and before it get too solidified, mix it in. I still may have degraded some, but likely far less than the last batch. Lucky V got an extra meal tonight. He seriously loves this stuff.

Morning Update:

This may be wishful thinking but the area appears less red and discolored. Some of the rays are definitely shorter but that was either damage from yesterday's transport or rot that occurred before it. I see fewer red tips but it's possible that's just from the broken rays

At any rate, no progression. Fed more of the repashy/kanaplex and man he loves that stuff. He has figured out how to skI'm the bottom for missed bits as he is a messy eater. He also sees his reflection in some areas on the bottom as I have only a light scattering of glass gravel so he alternately searches for food and flares. Several bubble nests found this morning surrounding emergent bamboo leaves.

I had a weird nitrite test result. It immediately started to turn a darker blue like when the reading is not quite .25ppm. I don't know if it was accurate, I took it again and it was negative. I don't know if meds are effecting it or test kit is not working right. So tomorrow I will take water samples to the LFS. Until then, extra Prime to keep him safe and this evening the usual water change and medicated bath.

 

He's certainly got plenty of people hoping for his full recovery! Maybe all that psychic energy will help. Hope springs eternal

 

hmmm, ya, I guess we just need to keep hoping, the only thing I think would help maybe a little is if you stopped taking him out and moving him around. Betta stress is a no-no. Let him relax a little, the body is made to heal itself.

It's a good thing he "loves that stuff" this probably means he is feeling ok in his mind... lol

keep us posted!

 

mg13 - He's still actively infected, unfortunately. I tried clean water/good diet, then I tried in-take medication only. Kept getting worse, so that's why I have to do the medicated baths. I knew the baths would be stressful, which is why I waited until I had some seriously effective medication (the Kanaplex) to do it. If I'm going to stress him, it better be worth it.

That said, today's bath was still stressful even though I found an easier method of transport. His one pectoral fin is only just starting to unclamp and I returned him to his tank awhile ago. It's not the transport into the medicated bath that causes the problem, that part is so easy, it's the return trip. The good news is, the area does look less infected so I think I am going to skip the bath tomorrow and just do the Paraguard re-dose/medicated food, trying the baths every other day instead of every day.

If he gets through tomorrow night without the infection moving forward, this will be the longest he'd have gone without the rot progressing. I do think the severely infected area looks less red and I can only see one remaining red tip on one of the rays. I THINK I see new growth but I'm not completely sure. There's still some active infection, but he just doesn't look as bad as he did.

Skipping the bath tomorrow but continued with Paraguard in-tank and Repashy food.

Fingers crossed.

 

Good luck!

 

Thanks!

Here's the other thing - I think his pellets were making him constipated. It's hard to see his belly because of the giant pectoral fins and it's not so clear from above but I thought he may have been a little bloated, though activity and appetite remained normal. I just hadn't seen a poop in awhile and was not noticing any during cleaning the last couple days. Anyway, he's been on the Repashy only for 2 days now and today he has a long, food-colored poop dangling from him. It's not white or stringy, it's the color of the pellets/repashy. It's basically got a large plug at the end and a long string of it still hanging from him. Don't mean to be so descriptive here, I just want to be clear it doesn't look like parasitic infection. So either the pellets were making him constipated OR he had some kind internal infection blocking him up which the Kanaplex is now resolving. Either way, I don't think we'll be going back to pellets once this is all done. I'll need to find a new way to give him a balanced diet. Is Repashy fully balanced? Can I use it as his staple?

I think I see a pinkish patch on his pectoral fin I hope it's just a trick of the light and not the rot.

EDIT: Definitely fin rot starting on the pectoral fin. I don't know what to do for him. I think maybe it's time to start adding Kanaplex directly to the tank. It'll destroy my cycle, I'm aware, but I am running out of options and worried that the baths are too stressful and therefore causing worsening as much as they are healing it. So upset.

 

I was reading about the Kanaplex and it might not be a bad idea to run through the whole dosing process. It looks like you would use the medication once every two days with a maximum of three applications, so you would be done in six days.

Just be sure to remove any carbon (if you have it) from your filter... that's something I'd forget.

 

Yeah carbon has been out of the filter since I started with Paraguard. It looks like the pink area that was starting on the pectoral MIGHT be fading but I also think I may have seen a tiny hole in the fin where it was. I am going to see where it's at when I get home. If I decide to destroy the cycle and treat in the tank I will have to run the carbon again first to pull out the paraguard unless they can be mixed. I will have to look it up.

 

Good thought! So I haven't really used a whole lot of medication in the past, but if the Kanaplex is going to wreck your bacteria colonies... is it possible to pull your biomedia before dosing the tank, then return the media so you don't have to recycle? I guess you would have to place that media in another running tank to keep the colonies alive. Not sure...

 

Yeah I would have to place them in the goldie tank. Which would risk cross contamination with the bacteria causing the rot and I have a goldie in there with a torn fin that's healing. Unless I can run it over an air stone and dose with ammonia. But honestly I cycled his tank with TSS last time and it was totally painless. I way overdosed the bottle size and I had one barely readable, brief spike of ammonia and one of nitrite and the whole thing was mostly cycled instantly. So it wouldn't be the worst thing to have to recycle. I have to double check on the kanaplex I am not sure what kind of bacteria it kills but I am pretty sure it interferes with cycle.

 

Is he better then when you got him though? Poor thing, He's really been blessed with an awesome person like you to take on this sad challenge.

lol, I just had a funny thought. Every time one of us has to rescue a Betta. We should ask for the manager of the store, show them the condition and ask what he/she is going to do about it. lol. I imagined the look on their face, lololol

take care!!!!

 

You can always count on the fish at the lfs to give you a good cry.

 

Is he better then when you got him though? Poor thing, He's really been blessed with an awesome person like you to take on this sad challenge.

lol, I just had a funny thought. Every time one of us has to rescue a Betta. We should ask for the manager of the store, show them the condition and ask what he/she is going to do about it. lol. I imagined the look on their face, lololol

take care!!!!

No he's worse He just had mild, almost indiscernable fin rot when I got him. It started to heal up with clean water, enhanced diet, then one day it came back. I think it's an opportunistic infection and any kind of stress provokes it. Now he almost looks like a crown tail but not with a lot of web reduction (the rot, at it's farthest, goes MAYBE a third of the way down the length of his tail and so far it's not going deeper, it's just affecting more rays, turning a bunch of single areas of tail rot into one big area). That said, much of the infected, bloody, red-tip discoloration is gone on his tail. There's still some suspicious looking areas, but it looks far less infected. The area on the pectoral fin is definitely a little affected by the rot, but it doesn't looks pinkish red anymore, just a little bit of missing membrane but no more of the infected discoloration. So I skipped the methylene blue/Kanaplex bath today because it obviously stresses him out A LOT and just re-dosed his Paraguard and fed the Kanaplex dosed Repashy Carnivore.

I also definitely think he is a little bloated, which is surprising after the enormous poop from yesterday. I really think the pellets caused this. That said, he doesn't behave as if he is bloated. He has a voracious appetite, can't even wait for me to drop the food in the tank and skims the bottom for missed bits (a recently new behavior), and his energy level and buoyancy are great. So, I don't know, maybe he's supposed to look like that. It's been a long time since I've owned a betta. I know their organs are mostly up in the belly so it's supposed to be bigger I'm just not sure how much bigger. I'm thinking of taking all of my fish off of pellet food period.

If I see anymore progression, I'm just going to start dosing the tank with Kanaplex and maybe do the 5-10second methylene blue dip at the higher concentration on the bottle. The longer I drag this out, the longer it'll take him to heal up which will only produce more stress and more illness. I don't think he has a very good immune system to begin with.

But it's hard not to have hope, especially because he doesn't seem at all bothered by it. He's obviously not the healthiest fish, I think he has a compromised immune system for sure (maybe he was crossed with a rosetail or something), but he's not showing any signs of being miserable. Except, of course, after the baths haha.

 

hmmmm...

is your food freeze DRIED? people keep thinking I am saying frozen...

"just a heads up for your next fish, if the bloodworms are freeze dried, stay away, only if you have the time to fully Hydrate it back to normal you can use it, but freeze dried food makes a fish constipated and bloated, if the box/bottle/bag does not say freeze dried, then check the ingredients."

copied from another page.

sorry, I have to go now. that's why it's so abrupt.

 

hmmmm...

is your food freeze DRIED? people keep thinking I am saying frozen...

"just a heads up for your next fish, if the bloodworms are freeze dried, stay away, only if you have the time to fully Hydrate it back to normal you can use it, but freeze dried food makes a fish constipated and bloated, if the box/bottle/bag does not say freeze dried, then check the ingredients."

copied from another page.

sorry, I have to go now. that's why it's so abrupt.

No, I never feed freeze dried anything to my fish. I know it causes constipation if not soaked REALLY but it also loses a lot of its nutritional value in the freeze-drying process which doesn't come back by soaking so it really is pointless. He doesn't even like frozen bloodworms though. Frozen daphnia, his pellets, some Emerald Entree on occasion and, now, the Repashy. I think it was his pellets that caused the bloating, so I'm taking him off of pellets and researching DIY betta food.

But thank you

By the way, I saw the post you wrote that on. I don't think she was challenging you by thinking you said frozen, I think she was just adding to what you said, by clarifying that the frozen bloodworms are okay, for the benefit of the OP

UPDATE:

Okay, so the good news is that his tail is really looking better. Almost all of the discoloration is gone and I THINK I see new growth, even in the really infected area. Also, as long as I've had him, one of his ventral fins has been only half the length of the other. Basically, the full ventral fin is crimson halfway down and has a long, white tip the rest of the way. The white tip is missing on the other fin except a very tiny bit that's always looked kind of funky. I think I see new growth here as well, it's curled a little but new growth is good, if I'm really seeing it.

The bad news is that this is a really aggressive infection. I kill it in one area and it moves to another. Latest target is the right pectoral fin, which has a chunk missing and the pinkish infection. The problem with these fins in that they are enormous and feather delicate. I don't even think they have rays. Since these fins are his primary method of movement, their size makes them ripple endlessly and puts a lot of strain on the edges. So the edges have always looked jagged and not in a patterned, systematic way. It's like the force of wiggling them in the water puts strain on the very end of the fin and causes them to tear easily since the ends are least supported by the musculature/tendons that move them. So there's not a lot I can do about that, put it does mean that when fin rot consumes them, it does it fast.

So I've decided to stop the Paraguard and the baths and just treat the tank directly with Kanaplex. Time to watch my water parameters. I hope I won't have to go the full 3-dose course of treatment, but I may just do it since the infection is so aggressive. If the infection isn't gone after that, SeaChem says you can do a second course. However, I'm going to give him a week break. Antibiotics can be hard on the liver and kidney, so he will need time to recover. I'll be doing WCs before each re-dosing of the Kanaplex (every 2 days). In a 10 gallon tank, even if the Kanaplex affects my cycle, there's no way enough ammonia will buildup that I can't add some extra Prime until the WC. This is a long-range commitment. If it takes out my cycle, it's going to mean daily water changes until he is 100% healed, at which point I'll recycle his tank with TSS. I am waiting because he is completely healed because I don't think it's fair to make him go 14 days with a WC when he is healing from fin rot.

My hope is that the Kanaplex does the trick here, guys, and I have faith it will. Assuming it was the Kanaplex more than the Methylene Blue that has had such amazing results in the baths. If you have the means to do tI without stressing the fish too much, I really recommend the baths. I saw results IMMEDIATELY.

You know I've also been wondering if he's bloated. Though his appetite and behavior suggest it's not bloating/constipation (he's voracious and totally energetic), I was not finding much poop and what I could see of his belly looked somewhat swollen (no pine-coning). 2 days ago, he dropped a really big poop, but still looked bloated. This morning, I think his tummy looks more normal (still kind of big, but in looking at photos of healthy bettas I'm not sure it's not how he is supposed to look) and I think I spotted some more fresh poop. His appetite has never wavered, in fact he's been crazy hungry the last 5 days, and his energy level is excellent. So maybe he never was bloated. But he seems better today.

So today I did a large WC and dosed the Kanaplex. We will see how it goes. I really wish I could have just continued with the baths, but they were so stressful. I need to come up with a better way to do medicated baths in the future.

 

I'm so glad he is looking better. I have nothing to offer as I have no experience with meds or bettas, but I will be following to see how you make out.

I'm wishing you the best of luck.

 

KarenLM - Thank you! I have a lot of faith in the Kanaplex, it's a med I will forever keep on hand after this. If I can stop the rot on his pectoral fin and keep it from spreading elsewhere, then I think we'll be okay. I think it's going to do the trick!

 

UPDATE:

The fin rot on his pectoral fin appears to have stopped, but not before doing some damage, it looks like someone took a bite out of it There is still a tiny bit of infection on this fin, but it appears smaller. The tail rot looks much better too. The really badly infected area has returned to normal coloration (except for a single ray which still appears a little discolored) and I think I see some new growth there too. There is one spot on his tail that looks less like fraying/ray stripping and looks more like someone took a bit out of his tail (like on the pectoral but bigger). This area appears to be healing too, sealing up from the outside of the chunk and inward. The point where the 2 edges of the missing piece converge (like a triangle with the tip pointing toward his body) still looks a little funky. Not discolored but otherwise still infected.

V remains undeterred. Fierce appetite, excellent energy.

I dose his tank directly with Kanaplex yesterday so I'm watching his levels closely. I feel like the ammonia result looks a little less golden yellow but isn't anywhere near .25ppm yet. I added an extra dose of Prime. Tomorrow, he gets 4.5g WC just before the second dose of Kanaplex. Since this has been an aggressive infection, I am going to do the full 3 doses of Kanaplex. Then I'm going to do WCs every day or every other day or whatever is necessary to keep his levels pristine until he is healed completely, at which point I will recycle the tank with TSS. I want him to be fully healed before I do that though, as 14 days with no WC might just bring the infection back. We have a very long road of recovery ahead of us, but that's okay

 

Glad to hear he is looking better. He's in good hands with you by his side. Karen

 

Thank you. I hope the 3 doses of Kanaplex does the trick, I cannot imagine it won't. But even if it doesn't it will be time to give his poor little liver/kidneys a break to recover since it will be 2 weeks of treatment by the time I administer the third dose. It's annoying, just a desperate infection. Kill it in one place and it grabs on somewhere else. That's why I went ahead and treated the tank. No more miss nice fish keeper haha.

 

I hope your little betta pulls through! I hate it when they get sick. As you know, I'm struggling with my betta as well currently. They do a good job at stressing us out.

How were you giving the baths to him? I mentioned on my thread that I just just a tubaware container, scoop her into it, and let it float in the tank. The only time she gets stress marks is after it's been about an hour of being in the medicated bath or right after I pour her back into the tank. Otherwise it's a non-stressful way to give baths, and much better than even trying to catch her. I wish I could offer you more advice but I haven't got a clue. I wish you the best!

 

sophI - I was transporting him to a 1 gallon fish bowl beside his tank, in a cup of his tank water. But the methylene blue is very cycle toxic so I could not just scoop him up to bring him back in a cup and set him in. I had to net him. That was the stressful part. He never got stress stripes from it but did clamp his fins. I loved the floating idea when I read it on your thread I just wasn't sure I could do it with the methylene blue being so toxic I would still need to net him to get him out.

At any rate, he looks good today. I think the rot is gone on his pectoral! There is just 2 little areas totally about 2 rays that I am still wary of but it does appear he may be on his way to healing.

 

Great news.

 

Great news.

It is, thank you

The downside is that the Kanaplex is definitely affecting his cycle. An ammonia reading at or maybe somewhat below .25ppm (I checked it after a few minutes, not watching the 5 minutes closely and it looked like .25ppm but a couple minutes later it looked less, I'm not sure which was closer to 5 minutes, that was bad of me). He gets a 50% WC today anyway and then I'm adding the second dose of Kanaplex. We'll see if I end up needing the third.

After that, I'm going to start doing 50% WCs 1-2x daily to keep his water pristine as he heals and then, finally, recycle his tank with TSS when he is healed enough to go 14 days without a WC. Long, long road ahead haha.

 

You are working so hard for your little guy!

I'm so glad he's fought and stayed strong through all of this!

Too bad that you had to destroy your cycle, that's just adds stress on you! Haha!

I'm glad he's healing, and I hope that after this that nasty fin rot never returns for a visit!

 

You are working so hard for your little guy!

I'm so glad he's fought and stayed strong through all of this!

Too bad that you had to destroy your cycle, that's just adds stress on you! Haha!

I'm glad he's healing, and I hope that after this that nasty fin rot never returns for a visit!

Haha well I'm hoping it's not completely destroyed, but I needed to do it. You can only drag a treatment out for so long before prolonging with a gentler intervention has a worse effect than just knocking it out by treating directly.

He's in a 10 gallon tank, so I'm thinking managing the parameters won't be too hard until I can recycle. But I'm not putting him through 14 days with no WC until he is completely healed, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty rough on me, lots of water changes and Prime and all that. It seems I'm not happy unless I'm fish-in cycling a tank haha. That's not actually true, but somehow I always end up doing it. I was so happy the TSS worked so well the first time, pretty much instantly cycled his tank, but of course I couldn't just be happy with that.

He's been a real trooper through the whole ordeal. Since the first night where it got bad really fast, he's shown no signs of stress or unhappiness, they are such tough fish, for real. It's me whose been so stressed I should be the one with tail rot or Ich haha.

 

Haha well I'm hoping it's not completely destroyed, but I needed to do it. You can only drag a treatment out for so long before prolonging with a gentler intervention has a worse effect than just knocking it out by treating directly.

He's in a 10 gallon tank, so I'm thinking managing the parameters won't be too hard until I can recycle. But I'm not putting him through 14 days with no WC until he is completely healed, so the next few weeks are going to be pretty rough on me, lots of water changes and Prime and all that. It seems I'm not happy unless I'm fish-in cycling a tank haha. That's not actually true, but somehow I always end up doing it. I was so happy the TSS worked so well the first time, pretty much instantly cycled his tank, but of course I couldn't just be happy with that.

He's been a real trooper through the whole ordeal. Since the first night where it got bad really fast, he's shown no signs of stress or unhappiness, they are such tough fish, for real. It's me whose been so stressed I should be the one with tail rot or Ich haha.

Lol! I feel the same. First sign of something wrong and I'm instantly stressed to the maximum. I can't stand when my fish are sick or something is wrong.

Especially since I had no idea of the nitrogen cycle or any of that prior to resetting up the 75gal. Which, obviously I bought a bottle of TSS and only added half and it actually instantly cycled, I kid you not. I have no idea why or how, but I'm thankful to the fish gods who blessed my fish LOL.

Water changes on a 10gal are much easier than a larger tank too. Even my 20gal long isn't that big of a hassle (when I'm not trying to change the water with my 3 year old being a crazy and on Friday the 13th with a full moon)

 

I am SO GLAD he is feeling better, you're amazing! keep going guys!! lol you'll get through!!!!

 

Thanks mg13.

I did a 50% WC and put in the second dose of Kanaplex, I took my water to the LFS and they interpreted my ammonia as negative. I have been so paranoid about the Kanaplex destroying my cycle it is possible I'm seeing green where there is only yellow haha.

It's possible that the visible infection might actually be totally gone, but I'm not taking my chances. He has red in his fin colors and the tank light gives off a pinkish hue so I think it's affecting the way the fins look, making me think there is infection where there is none. But I'm gong to see the Kanaplex treatment through. There's definitely some new growth popping up. One area that was less severely infected is almost completely healed The new rays grew in a tad crooked haha but it's okay. Battle scars reflective of my betta who is willing to fight for his life

EDIT: There is a new split in his tail fin. Honestly, I'm not sure it's the rot. It's long, yes, a lot longer than any of the degradation from the rot, but also very very clean. It looks like a clean split, as in the membrane is just cut but not missing, like if I could glue it back together (if only) there would be no gaps, and I don't see any infection. But now he's certainly vulnerable to it. I'm just so devastated and worried for him. I don't know what he would have torn it on, I worked HARD to design a tank that is fin-friendly, maybe one of the new leaf shoots on the bamboo, they kind of come to a point? I honestly just don't know. And I'm trying so hard to treat him, I feel sick over this. And completely devastated. I just cannot win. Every time things start to get better, something else comes up. I feel so bad for him. This sucks. I have this beautiful, wonderful fish and ALL I want is to keep him happy and healthy. I feel like I'm doing something colossally wrong here and am too inexperienced to see what and it's hurting him.

I guess I'll try removing the bamboo, at least most of it, and find some other plant for him to rest on at the LFS, maybe float some water wisteria. It's not doing too well anyway as it's not very emerged. This is so disheartening. I really don't know what I'm doing wrong here but at this point is has to be something I am doing. It's crushing to not be able to figure out what the problem is.

 

Keep the faith - keep on keeping on. Remember how poorly these fish are treated their entire lives until we get them in our tanks. He may just need time to build immunity as well as heal. You are giving him the very best chance. And we are all hoping right along with you!

 

Yeah I mean, that's the plan, that's always the plan. I don't give up unless the fish has. But it's hard to watch him keep taking a beating. His appetite and energy are good, but he won't flare. I'm guess that's because of what's going on with his fins. Fin rot infection nearly cleared and now he's got a tear? Jeez. It's frustrating.

 

you're doing such a good job!!!

I know I keep saying that, but, really, I can't help it. it makes me so happy to see people care for these fishies!!

keep trying!

excuse my grammar, i'm in a hurry

 

Thanks, I'm really trying here, and kind words are encouraging. They weren't kidding when they said fin rot was a long ordeal. And it's easy to lose sight.

I'm taking him off of the meds tomorrow, skipping the third dose of Kanaplex. He's had so much stuff in his tank lately, I want to give his poor little organs time to rest. Back to the regular diet (by regular I mean super-enriched still, just not medicated), he'll be sad about that haha, so maybe I'll make some medication-free Repashy as a treat. So far I haven't seen any changes to his parameters following the use of Kanaplex, but I've been doing 50% WCs every other day (between doses) so I don't know if I'm getting an accurate idea. It's not like the goldie tank, which was overstocked, so ammonia was visible within 3 days of adding them, it's a 10 gallon with one betta. Water changes every other day should keep his levels negative and, when he is healed, I'll see how his cycle looks. Sometimes I could swear the ammonia reading looks a little more green but I just realized it's only at night so might be the lighting haha. At any rate, I'm going to see if he can heal himself this time. If it comes back, I'm going back to the Kanaplex in-tank with 10 second high-concentration methylene blue dips.

My hope is he'll be able to heal himself from here on out. I figure water changes every other day or every 2 days to keep his water perfect. I'm trying to keep even the nitrates negative. My hope is that will get him healed. Interestingly, I think I'm seeing growth in areas that weren't impacted by the fin rot, areas I thought were old battle wounds that had healed funny. The partial split in the analfin appears to be growing, and the half-length ventral fin looks like it's starting the grow the long, white tip that's on the other one. Fingers crossed that we're now in the healing phase.

The other good news is I've decided what I thought was bloating/constipation is just his tummy. I looked at other photos of healthy bettas and many of them have little tummies. I always thought he was supposed to be completely svelte but compared to the photos he looks normal, and I'm scooping waste plus not lethargy or appetite loss (quite the opposite...crazy appetite lately) makes me think his tummy is normal. I can also see his body appears to be growing. His head looks bigger and, despite the rot, is developing new color. This time he's developing more crimson red and this gorgeous indigo purpley midnight blue on his dorsal fin, really gorgeous. And he started flaring again today, something he hasn't been willing to do in awhile. He would just run away from his reflection, which was sad to see, but I caught him all puffed up and showing off his beard several times today. Weirdly it looked like he was flaring at the sealant in the tank corners haha, but I imagine he was seeing some kind of reflection there. I think I might need to baffle his filter a little more. When I took the carbon out, I threw out the entire cartridge (filter packed with biomedia) and put a sponge I cut to fit inside. Now I'm thinking I'll try to squeeze another carbon cartridge in there as well as the sponge, that should slow the filter more.

I didn't make it out to the LFS but I think I figured out what his fin split on. A couple of the bamboo leaves had brown tips and the brown was much more firm than the green. I cut off the tips. The split occurred right around a lot of new growth so I imagine the fins were week there. Hopefully no more tears.

Hopefully nothing but healing from here on out.

 

yup, lots and lots of it

 

UPDATE: I took him off of the medication today. Didn't run the carbon but did a 50% WC with an extra dose of Prime. Not sure if I'm seeing ammonia in his water or not, the reading is too low, so I'm adding an extra dose of Prime to the non-replaced water. I feel like I can smell a little ammonia in the water. Since my primary concern is his healing and not his cycle because I'm going to be doing too many WCs not to upset it (even if the Kanaplex hasn't), I'm vacuuming everything and swishing out the filter cartridges to minimize any buildup. Once he's healed, I'll restart the TSS cycle.

That said, I'm so nervous about ending his medication and wondering if I should add the third dose in just to be safe. I'm terrified it's going to come back and be resistant to this course next time around so if, that happens, what's the best way to treat it? I'll probably start doing methylene blue dips again with the Kanaplex if it comes back.

I just hope it doesn't. FIghting for his life has made me that much more attached to this fish, and I was already attached, always have been, but when you've fought to save them, well, it's that much more.

 

I wish I could offer you the advice you gave me, but I haven't got anything different to tell you than what you're already doing. You seem to be doing pretty much all you can. I might have missed you mentioning this, but what is his diet consisting of? I know with my female betta, I had already fed her 3 weeks of a super high protein diet (brine shrimp and bloodworms) before she became sick, and I continued feeding her this diet while soaking it in garlic. Not only did she keep her appetite but her activity as well. I think that had a lot to do with how she's now recovering, seeing she's winning the battle against the fungus mostly on her own. Not exactly sure if upping his diet would help, but it could give him an extra boost to keep fighting and hopefully win. Again, I'm sorry I can't be of anymore help. Keep us updated on his progress.

 

sophI - I'm all about good diet. And he gets plenty of it. NLS Betta is the staple pellet, but I offer bloodworms, daphnia and other frozen goodies. I also soak everything in VitaChem in the morning and Garlic Guard in the evening. That's just the way I feed everyone,

This morning, I might be seeing a second chunk coming out of the pectoral fin but hard to tell when they are always moving so fast. His tail fin looks to be healing, no progression there for now. I'll have to catch him when he's idling and try to get a look at the pectoral haha.