I bought this little guy late september, I had been wanting one this color and when I saw him he had fin rot so I did not buy him, but he was still there a week or so later so I picked him up, but he stays with fin rot. as soon as it starts to grow back, he gets it again. i've treated him with maracyn and maracyn 2. it's been three weeks since i last treated him with meds. i know kissy is using salt for her orchard, so i was thinking of doing the same thing, but i've been using ketapang vital can salt mix with that? also should i give him more meds first then use the salt?

another thing, he seems to flare alot for no reason. is that normal? he doesn't have another betta close to him. he's very active, the most active one i have and has always made bubble nests so i'm assuming he's happy

http://kristysweets.net/mrmayers1.jpg
http://kristysweets.net/mrmayers2.jpg

another question, i've been using amquel to dechlorinate, but i recently saw a post at another forum that said amquel is only good to use as declorinator if you leave it in 24 hours, is that true? and if so can it be the chlorine doing this? i don't leave my water out over night, just play with the hot/cold til i get the right temp.

I use Amquel and once I got the dosages right, I have no problem with it. I have a betta that I purchased with fin rot as well, I have just been using BettaFix and it really seems to be helping him.

Good luck - he sure is a pretty fish!

thanks i've been using 1/8 of a tsp, i have them in 1 gal tanks. i think that dose is good for 1.25 gal, but i'm not a math whiz so i could be wrong where did you get the bettafix?

I'm not sure on the salt myself. Kissy would be able to tell you better.

I got the BettaFix from Petco. I got the first bottle in the store and then ordered some more online. Its $3.50 for a very small bottle, but its helping my Red, so I can't complain.

i may order some tonight then, we don't have a petco here.

Where's the fin rot? The edges look clean. Are his fins still shrinking and disintegrating or are they just not grown back yet?

He sounds really healthy if he's flaring a lot and blowing bubbles and ketapang is great stuff for growing fins back.

Does amquel do both Chlorine and Chloramine?

Hi kristy What a beautiful betta you have!!

He sounds a lot like my Orchard's condition. In the begining he was very active, happy, bubblenesty etc. even though 3/4 of his tail was missing and still being eaten away. He stopped making his nests some where along the line, but he has recently started up again. Hopefully he'll be a little luckier. Salt has done wonders for him and he's doing great, with few bouts of rot that will heal like magic in just a few days. I've tried a few different meds, but when maracyns stopped working for me, I went with a med with a different active ingrediant and it worked. 1 day after treatment ended, I added the salt.

Lets see...I have 3 gallons, and I started out with 1/2 a teaspoon for the whole thing, then slowly brought it up to 1 1/2 teaspoons for the three gallons, and he's happy at that dosage. I can't do math...maybe some one else can help out? I think the final dosage is 1/2 teaspoon per gallon.

I don't know about ketapang and salt..maybe some one else knows. Be sure that his water is free of any ammonia that might be troubling him! Good luck

Two more things: 1) be sure that all salt is 100% dissolved before you add it to the tank. 2) Watch him carefully when you first introduce salt and everytime you increase the dosage. Some bettas can have bad reactions to salt, so watch closely for at least 15 minutes. Things to look for are inactivity, slowed breathing, and extremely fast breathing. Its a good idea to have a container of his old water near by just in case so you won't be fumbling around when things go wrong.

yabbie - is there anything else besides fin rot that makes thier tails like that? i'm just assuming it's fin rot, but i guess it could be something else. his tail was growing back then poof over night it was shredded again. yes amquel does remove both.

thanks kissy, i've been thinking since i got him that he must be an orchard relative with all his troubles you said his healed in days, do you mean his whole tail had grown back in days? his seems like it takes forever to grow and just when it's getting somewhere, it's gone again. he actually use to look worse before the maracyn 2. i think i'm gonna go ahead and order the bettafix and try salt while waiting for it to come and maybe that will work and i won't have to use it. i think your math is right with it coming out to 1/2 tsp per gal. i think i'll start with 1/8 tsp a day til i get to 1/2, that should take four days. i'll have to wait til sunday to start since i won't be home friday night and all day saturday. i hope he'll be alright til then.

1/8 tsp sounds about right Just be sure to watch him. If you like, you can add the initial dose before you leave, and then start bringing it up when you get back. That way he's got some time to adjust, and time for the salt to start working. You might return pleasently surprised!

Yes, the salt made him heal that quickly! I'm not sure how long Orchard's tail is supposed to be or if it will ever get that long, but if overnight I wake up and a 1/2" chunk is missing from his tail, the salt I keep in there will heal it right back up to where it was before in only a couple days. Its amazing, I'm in love with aquarium salt

Another possibility is that your little guy may be a tail biter. Some bettas go after their own tails...I think it is a neurological problem cause by careless over-breeding. I'd LOVE to find out more about this disorder some day on my own, I'm very interested in it. Anyways, its a possibility. Bacterial rot can eat up chunks of fins in very short periods of time, but so can their teeth! The only way to find out is to watch him a lot when he doesn't know you are watching. When you say he flares a lot for no apparent reason..do you think he could be flaring at his tail?

that is amazing! i'd love to see what my little guy would look like with a full tail he doesn't flare as much as he use to. when i first got him, i had him in my five gal. and he'd race back and forth flaring constantly. since i put him in his 1 gal, he doesn't do it as often. maybe he's just seeing his reflection in the tank? he can probably see my goldfish on one side of him too, but he flares at the opposite side more. i'll have to watch him and see about that tail biting, but his dorsal fin is a mess too so i wouldn't think it would be that.

i'm taking off early tommorrow *crosses fingers* everytime i say i'm gonna take off it doesn't happen i want to clean all my tanks before i leave so i guess i could do him first add the salt and i'll be able to keep an eye on him for a few hours. hopefully if he has a bad reaction to it, it will happen in that time span. i don't want to come home to him being dead

You shouldn't have to worry about that. Don't take your eyes off him for the first 20-30 minutes. For the next hour or two, check on him frequently. After that, you shouldn't worry at the same dosage. If he is going to have any bad effects, it will happen in the first 15-20 minutes.

Good luck Kristy!! Let us know how it goes.

I noticed that my fin rot betta HATES to see his relfection, he doesn't flare it, just hides from it. So, I moved his tank to a darker part of the house and put a black construction paper background on it. That seemed to calm him down a little.

kissy i checked him last night after the lights went out, no tail biting

thanks little one. i think i might try doing that too. i had been thinking about cutting something to put a background on them for a while now, but just never did it.

well i came home sunday and he looked like he had new fin growth where there was fins on friday so i guess he got worse, then got better and he doesn't seem to be bothered by the salt at all. so that good.

I hope the salt works for him!

Yay!! Up the salt to a slightly higher dosage next water change, and keep an eye on him like the first time. I'm glad he's doing better. New growth is good!!

well it's been a few days now and he hasn't lost anymore fins, so i guess the salt is helping

Glad to hear that he's doing better.

That is good news Kristy!

thanks

well when i woke up this morning, i thought he was gone. he's staying on his side i don't know what happened to him now. when i went up to him he started swimming again, but kept going on his side. should i still use the betta fix? or try something else. hopefully i will get the bettafix today. i checked his ammonia, it's .25 and today is my water changing day so that will be gone.

I'm so sorry to hear that!! I don't really know what to tell you to try. I guess just keep an eye on his water quality and see if you can get him to perk up a bit. I would most likely try the bettafix, it really can't hurt....

Keep trying, you are doing everything you can for him.

thanks. i finally got it in the mail, it says not to change the water for seven days so when i get home from work, i'll change his water and start him on it. i took some pics of him incase someone can see something i'm not. i hope he snaps out of this, i was all excited yesterday cause he had a nest again and more fin growth. then this morning he was like this

Aww poor little guy Orchard did something similar after he jumped. A few days after that the ammonia was at .1 but he was under stress so that was enough to probably kill him. He was lying on his side all day and night. I added a ton of prime to his water and said my goodbyes...he totally back to himself withing 24 hours and was dancing for food. So..if I'm not too late, try adding prime or another ammonia detoxifiers first so he can perk up a bit. A waterchange might stress him.

i haven't changed it yet, kissy. waiting for my dad to get out the bathroom. i have some prime so i'll try that first. thanks!

Prime goes a long way!! I love this stuff so much. Don't do a water change until he starts perking up noticably. Even then, do it as gently as possible, making sure the temp and salinity of the new water matches perfectly. Good luck!!! My fingers are crossed for him

When Bettafix says don't change the water for seven days it means don't dilute the treatment. You can do a change if you keep the treatment at full strength.

Is he somewhere warm too? If he doesn't have a heater. Put his tank into an insulated cooler bin and pop a hot water bottle or cups of hot water next to him. Some dark steamy warmth will do him good.

He has a fat belly but not a lot of meat on his tail, just looking at his photos... is that true?

Does he have any symptoms of parasites or bacteria?

I still change the water with the bettafix, just keep adding the full dose. Good luck!

thanks everyone for the help. yabbie, he looks the same size as all my other bettas he is thicker at the top and thiner at the tail, but all my bettas are like that. i don't think his body shape has changed any since i got him. his temp right now is 72. i just plugged up his light so that should warm up the water, i'll turn it off before i go to bed and put some warm cups next to him. i don't have a heater. other than the constant fin rot issues and now the floating, i don't see anything else wrong with him. he tries to swim, it looks like he forces himself to swim to the bottom, but then he just floats back up

i think he is a little bit better this morning. he's not swimming but he is upright, he looks slightly tilted. when he tries to swim it looks like he wants to start going on his side again.

I hope he pulls through. *fingers crossed*

thanks

my baby is swimming

Yay!! I'm glad he's feeling better!!!

thanks he even flared at me i may have spoke to soon though, he's got some kind of spot on his head. it doesn't look like anything fuzzy, but i'll keep an eye on it.

I'm so glad he is actiong better. Not sure about the spot on his head though.....

he was fine til yesterday now he's back on his side again and he's got a big bump, i looked at some links i had and i think his problems are constipation. here's a pic of him now, am i right or wrong? he also spit out his food the other day, but he ate them again. i'm gonna fast him then try peas.

Aww poor fishy. Do you have a heater? I'm having similar problems and Sandy recomended getting a heater. Cold water can slow down their metabolism and cause painful constipation for bettas.

no i don't have one for him, his tank isn't big enough. you know he just started this since the weather got colder so maybe it's making it worse, but all my other bettas are just fine. his temp is at 74 right now. i'm thinking i might order a tank divider and put him in my 10 gal, until the winter is over. but if i do that i'm worried he might get my other fish sick since he stays with fin rot issues.

Tough call Will a divider separate all the water between betta and the other fish? Cold can cause rot too.

I *think* you can buy a little heater mat to put under the small tanks, but I'm not sure. Is his home made of plastic or glass?

they must separate it all cause people use them to separate it for bettas. i probably won't do it cause i don't think i'm willing to risk the lives of 7 fish for 1 his tank is plastic. his fin rot seems to be getting better since i've been using the bettafix, he hasn't had any more fin loss. i'm gonna do a search for tank warmers and see what i can find.

Okay. Since his tank is plastic, you may have more difficulty with solutions. How big is his tank? Good luck Kristy!

it's a 1 gal. i put on his light, it warms up the tank. hopefully in a couple days he'll be back to normal. i might try feeding him less until winter is over. maybe that will help

he is back upright this morning. do you think flakes are easier for them to digest than pellets? i'm thinking of just feeding him flakes for a while to see if that helps.

How are the flakes doing? I never tried feeding my guys flakes.

mine all eat them, its funny cause sometimes they don't get it all so they have a little sticking out their mouth i don't feed them it daily. i have pellets that i feed most of the time, then i do the flakes and bloodworms once a week. as for this one, i didn't feed him for two days and he was back to normal so last night i fed him the flakes and he was back on his side again later that night but this morning he was back upright so i don't know what to do with him. if it is just a temperature thing, i was thinking about moving my 4 guppies in my 5 gal back into my 10gal and just be over stocked til winter is over and put him in my 5 gal with the heater and see if that helps him.

Hmmm... maybe the flakes are upsetting his stomach?

How cold is his water? Maybe some heat would help.

i have him in my 5 gal right now with the heater, when i checked on him at lunch the temp was at 76. he's been on his side since Dec 2 and a chunk of his tail is missing. i've only fed him once since then to see if it was the food, but he isn't getting any better

can you bring the temp up to 80? Try giving him some pellets.

good luck Kristy!