Hi,

Several months ago I decided to buy a Betta, because I'd never had one, & thought that they looked easy to look after (in the small tanks e.t.c).

Mine was in a tiny jar, with barely any water that was really dirty/brown. So I felt sorry for him which was why I chose him.

Anyway, after I got him home, put him in the tank that was sold to me (a tiny half gallon one) I decided that his tail looked rather white & I went on the internet to see if this was a disease e.t.c.

After being on the net, I soon realised that it was a really bad idea to keep a betta in such a tiny tank, & that they were tropical fish & that he wouldn't like being in the cold water. I was understandably annoyed at how the petshop had sold me him like this & told me it was fine to keep him in the tiny tank with cold water.

Anyway, I read that fin-rott often starts with the fin turning white, so I made sure I changed his water every other day, & kept his tiny tank very clean. There is no filtration system in it. & I do monitor the ph closely. I read that bettas like ph just above neutral (greeny) so his is more (bluey greeny).

I did other things like add salt & even tried a medicine that makes the water turn green, I stopped feeding him those tiny betta pellets as I read that it causes constipation, & now feed him blood worms (which he gobbles up like a crazy man).

Anyway, sadly , I noticed his pretty tail becoming shorter & shorter, & it frayed at the edges.

I read other treatment suggestions, such as, swabbing his tail with hydrogen peroxide, which I did, every week or so, until I noticed that as his tail got shorter he seemed less able to cope with the stress of being swabbed, & on the last 2 tries I thought he was going to die, (he was vertical in the water!).

So, I decided that this treatment was to stressful for him, & turned to putting Aquari-cycline tablets (antibiotics for fish) in his water.

I have been using these for probably a week now, &, his tail is still getting shorter & I guess, I've run out of ideas as to how I can cure his fin-rott.

I suspect, a main cause, could be that he's not in tropical water, so, I'm at the point where I will have to go buy him a tropical setup tank, & see if the warmer water helps.

I also read that if bettas have lived a long time in dirty water, fin-rott can become too advanced to cure. Does anyone know if this is true?

Just wondering if anyone else has come across really hard to get rid of fin-rott?
& if anything inparticular helped them get rid of it.

Thanks
Nicole

Yup - there are several threads now in the betta section with members dealing with betta fin rot. I have had bettas with fin rot for over a year.

THe prob with bettas is that they can be very sensitive to many meds, even salt.

Also frequent water changes can sometimes stress them out to the point that you need to cut back on the water changes.

I would suggest getting a filter for your tank & keeping the water params are perfect as possible. Many times a fin rot can be cured with just having pristine water. Also check out Kissy's thread - there is a link in it to great descriptions & pics of the different kinds of fin probs bettas have.

Check out the betta section as well & see if any of those threads are helpful.

Hope this helps

I am going to move this to the Betta section as you will get more help there

Grab a desk lamp that gives off some heat and position that next to the tank. It might be enough to make him feel tropical.

Lots of fin rot going on lately :\