Montgomery has lived with me for over a year in a 5.5 gallon aquarium, problem free until now.

On Friday last, I may have stressed him out during his weekly water change. The new water was a couple of degrees colder than the water I was replacing. The next day, I noticed that he was not good at all. He was resting and supporting himself on his silk plant (the plant had been knocked around) or on the bottom of the tank, which is not normal behaviour for him. When he swims, he has a real difficult time swimming upwards (it seems to take a lot out of him, and afterwards he goes and lays himself down in the plant).

Otherwise, when he's not laying in the plant or on the bottom of the tank, he responds well and is still very energetic. Straight swimming is normal, and he still plays with my finger and flares like usual. His appitite is as healthy as before. B)

It seems that he had a struggle with the plant at some point, because his fins are partially shredded, and when I removed the plant during yesterday's water change, a chunk of Montgomery's tail fell from it. Some of his fins are looking ratty and there's this real stringy piece looking like it will fall off at any time.

Now, his tail has been a bit crimped at the ends for months. I didn't think much of it, but I'm thinking, not knowing but thinking I stressed my betta out and now he has finrot.

I don't know. I'm very bothered about his rests in the plant and on the bottom of the tank, so I would like to act on this quickly and get him some meds or something.

Do you think I'm right to treat this as finrot?

Thanks,
Amy Y.

By the way, I add Amquel+ and a little pinch of aquarium salt to my water each water change, and I leave it sit for a day before changing the water.

Sorry, guys. I don't normally do this, but I'm bumping this topic. I could really use a green light or red light on whether I should be treating him for fin rot.

Sounds like fin rot to me (& believe me I've been fighting it for so long I'm starting to think bettas look like this all of the time!)

Was there anything which could have knocked the water params out of wack?? If you test them & they're perfect - I would treat for fin rot.

If they're not I would just go with pristine water & watch him like a hawk!

I wouldn't use salt (from other members it seems that bettas don't tolerate it well at all- maybe as a last ditch but not before) & I've had very bad experiences with melafix/bettafix but that's up to you. Currently I'm using the maracyn products. (My one betta has fin rot brought on by ammonia. I got that under control but there was this one bit that looked terrible no matter what - this afternoon fin shredded - super quick! I tested the water - levels are perfect so I put meds in the tank. It's a bit of work to figure out doseages in the small tank but worth it I think!

Good Luck!!!

Jenn

What's the latest on Montgomery? Did you decide if he has the dreaded fin rot or not?

Thanks for asking!!

I have decided to hold off on any meds for now. Maybe that's not the right decision, but he's slowly getting stronger every day, and I'm worried that medicating him will stress him out too much. His fins are looking better now, but he still seems to tire himself out by swimming too much. I'm still stumped, though.

I have to agree that sometimes it is actually best to not over-medicate. Sometimes I believe that pristine water will help more than medicine.

Just MY THOUGHT!

As long as you see improvement, I wouldn't do anything. Bettas are more sensitive when it comes to medicine also, keep that in mind.

U P D A T E ! ! !

My amazingly resilient Mongtomery has made a sucessful recovery without the help of any meds.

I am sooo HAPPEEEEE!!! He's back to normal. He's not using the slilk plant in the tank as a leaning post anymore. When he rests, his body is straight and level now just like normal. He's not tiring out anymore after a hearty swim. He's back to full-body flaring instead of just the gills. I think he's still the slightest bit uncomfortable swimming upwards, but you can hardly tell if you didn't know him.

I'm so proud of my betta. This is actually the first major problem I've had that resulted in a fish RECOVERING instead of dying. Go, Monty!! Whooo-hooo, fishy!



However, thanks to the help of this website, if Montgomery didn't get better on his own, I would have known how to medicate him. So a big goes out.

Love,
Amy Y.

YEAH!

Jenn