Why do so many of our bettas get finrot?

Mmmmm. Interesting that, about the earthing wire and the vibrations from the air pumps. That's all stuff where there is definitely room for improvement in my tanks.

All my Bettas came from questionable sources but only one has ever had finrot, and considering the appalling conditions he was living in, I'm surprised that's all he had. I am pretty sure a fancy show Betta probably wouldn't survive such bad treatment for very long. I have read of many Bettas coming from good breeders who get sick just as easily so I don't think that's the biggest reason. Fancy Bettas are often inbred to develop certain colors and fins. That weakens their immune system. It would be nice if breeders focused more on health and temperment (a more docile Betta) rather than color and fins.
I think it may be something in the water supply too since many times those with finrot problems often have multiple Bettas with the same problem. Maybe something that dechlorinators don't remove?

Another thing to consider is random electrical current generated by heaters and filters. I've read this is more common than most people realize (with all brands of heaters, even good ones) and over time can stress the fish and cause finrot and other problems. A grounding wire can be bought and placed in the tank to prevent this and I am getting some for all tanks soon. Big Al's carries them.
Another source of stress is the vibration of air pumps. I keep the pumps off the table the tank is on and make sure the cords are not touching the table or tank as much as possible. I noticed it causes quite a vibration that the fish can feel right through the water. I can't imagine that it wouldn't stress them. I once noticed Noelle had stress stripes and couldn't figure out why. Then I noticed the cord of the airpump had gotten pushed over and was touching the stand she was on. I could feel the vibration just by touching the side of her tank. I moved it away and within minutes her stress stripes were gone.

 

But what about your bettas with finrot, Dave? That's what I don't get. Am sure you give them the same vitamins, safe deco and weekly cleans but yet, they get it.

the long fins are a huge factor - they're not meant to be like that, as much as we love the pretty WOW factor! our females don't have fin rot problems and neither have our wilds, but our butterfly male and combtail male have been good too - the only have things with ZERO chance of fin snags in their tanks and we clean the tanks weekly and add vitachem every day or 2 and that's the reason they've done so well I think. safe decorations, clean water and vitamins help reduce the finrot-causing factors tremendously.

 

But what about your bettas with finrot, Dave? That's what I don't get. Am sure you give them the same vitamins, safe deco and weekly cleans but yet, they get it.

our only bettas to get finrot were the 1st 2 that we had. they're also the only 2 that ever had gravel for substrata. their fin rot was part of our changing to flat glass marbles.

 

Dave, you have said before though that you don't have a gravel vac... That makes ALL the difference as it is not possible to deep clean gravel with a turkey baster. Small sized smooth gravel works great as long as it is vacuumed regulary.

 

Mmmmm. Thanks for that, Dave. And since then, no problem with these two?

But what about your bettas with finrot, Dave? That's what I don't get. Am sure you give them the same vitamins, safe deco and weekly cleans but yet, they get it.

our only bettas to get finrot were the 1st 2 that we had. they're also the only 2 that ever had gravel for substrata. their fin rot was part of our changing to flat glass marbles.

 

Dave, you have said before though that you don't have a gravel vac... That makes ALL the difference as it is not possible to deep clean gravel with a turkey baster. Small sized smooth gravel works great as long as it is vacuumed regulary.

we don't have gravel - just the flat glass marbles.

Mmmmm. Thanks for that, Dave. And since then, no problem with these two?

But what about your bettas with finrot, Dave? That's what I don't get. Am sure you give them the same vitamins, safe deco and weekly cleans but yet, they get it.

our only bettas to get finrot were the 1st 2 that we had. they're also the only 2 that ever had gravel for substrata. their fin rot was part of our changing to flat glass marbles.

well, our first betta (Super Mario) died and Aslan kept having reoccuring finrot until we put him on trisulfa for 10 days. I've read once a betta gets finrot it's a back & forth battle, but hopefully he won't have it again.

 

OK, so Asian only had it once. That's good to know. Am kind of scared of the horror stories of recurring finrot that you hear so often. Mine's completely clear now, but he needs to regrow his tissue.

 

OK, so Asian only had it once. That's good to know. Am kind of scared of the horror stories of recurring finrot that you hear so often. Mine's completely clear now, but he needs to regrow his tissue.

yea, we twice used the fungus clear and it seemed to clear it up, but then it would come back. So we went to triple sulfa to get serious with it and really get it out. even with having nipped his tail twice, he's not had any finrot since.

 

But fungus clear is an antI fungal, and triple sulfa is an antI bacterial. Do you think it had 2 different kinds of finrots (one as secondary infection) then?

 

Fungus clear is actually an anti-bacterial that treats some kinds of fungus as well. They named it Fungus Clear because most amateur fishkeepers seem to think their fish has fungus when it actually has a bacterial infection.

 

Ooooh. Interesting. Thanks, Phloxface. I find that quite irresponsible of the marketeers, but then again, what do I know. I think if it's aimed at beginners, it doesn't hurt to make it obvious it treats finrot. It's good to list the diseases it's meant for in big letters on the box. Tetra does that a lot. I like it.

 

They did it because most beginners think finrot is fungal when most of the time it's bacterial so they developed a med and gave it a name that would attract the attention of newbies. It isn't meant to be irresponsible. They do have a list of all the diseases it treats on the back.

 

Yeah, I know it's not meant to be, but it's deliberately misinformative. Although it's for a good cause, I think there are better ways.