Hi, everyone! Well - my sister and I were just on vacation for a week, and while we were gone (after having cleaned their tanks and given them the water change) we set up autofeeders for our fish. This worked fine for Gilbert, but I'm not so sure about Zorrito the betta - he was hungry last night, when I got back and changed their water and fed them again, but this morning I noticed the end of his tail is all bloody. Is this finrot? If so, what's the best thing to do? I tested nitrites, nitrates and PH and they were all okay (ph about 7.2, nitrates 20, nitrites zero). But I didn't test ammonia. Will do that tonight - I only noticed the bloody tail this a.m when I went over to give him breakfast. I'm fish sitting while my sister's away.

My question is, what can I do for him? Is it best to just do another water change, keep a little salt in the water, and keep an eye on it, or should I pick up some bettamax? There are no other symptoms that I can see and he's behaving normally. TIA!

Is he by himself or with other fish?

He's by himself in an eclipse 6, and she's had him just about 6 months - he's a young fish. The reason I was worried about the feeder (as was she) is that he's very people-oriented and we were afraid the bloodworms she put in some of the compartments would just sink to the bottom and rot without him finding them. (He tends to look for food when he sees *her*, and he eats from the surface, while the bloodworms do sink if he doesn't find them fast enough) I think this may indeed have happened. Or maybe he cut himself on one of the plastic plants, though, after all this time, that doesn't seem likely. The tank cycled several months ago and she's never had any water quality problems. She changes about 15 to 20 percent of his water every other week, and we clean his filter about every 6 weeks.

Anyway, as I said, I'll check his ammonia tonight and do another water change if it seems necessary. He is active and eating well and doesn't seem too troubled otherwise, so maybe this will fix itself - I hope so.

Anyone else have suggestions. I thought maybe another Betta got him. I don't know much about Bettas or other diseases. Good luck.

do you think it could be the amonia?? like a burn?? or is it actually bleeding?