Hi - I'm posting for my sister Deirdre; I'm fish- sitting Zorro till she's able to move him to her new place. Tonight, at dinner, we noticed he had a long rip in his dorsal fin. Otherwise he seems fine; he's hungry and swimming well, but his tail's still a bit ragged, and now this! I added a half teaspoon of melafix. We've been using it on and off to help with healing, and I'm going to call our LFS tomorrow. But here's what I wanted to know -

With Gilbert the goldfish, I think rips in the fins can be one of the early signs of ich. Could this also be true of Zorro? We didn't notice any white dots, but he's mostly white and they'd be very hard to see. As I said, his tail is still ragged, and he does have a bright red streak in it - it's mostly blue, though. His behavior is normal. He's in his eclipse 6 with biowheel; we put a little sponge in the intake tube to cut down on the current, but it's still a bit strong for him - may try the floss under the biowheel. When I last tested, his ammonia was zero, nitrites zero, nitrates under 20. Gravel, three river rocks, a java fern on driftwood, and three plastic plants. I now have a small hagen heater in the tank, and we're trying to keep it between 78 and 80 degrees; he'd been suffering from some minor temp swings. But that's the only thing - other than the move and the current - that would have been new or stressful.It's been hard to medicate or watch him consistently because we've been up and down to my parents for the holidays. But, if he does have ich, can you add aquarium salt with bettas, or are they sensitive to it? Deirdre does add salt routinely, 1/2 teaspoon per gallon during water changes. But that wouldn't be enough for disease treatment. Should I up the salt as a precaution, or would that be counterproductive?

Also, Jenny, how's Claude doing with the new filter? It is just possible Zorro's whole problem is the current - he's happier when the wheel isn't moving at all, but I'm not, so blocking the outflow seems like it might be helpful.

TIA - and happy New Year, everybody!

Hi,
I would try the filter floss under the outflow of the biowheel.

Also, I had good success with Quick Cure for treating ich. It didn't seem to cause any distress, and it worked for me.

Thanks, Touchofsky - I think it can't be ich, for he'd be dead by now, wouldn't he? and, thank heavens, he's not. But his tail has gotten a little worse. I tried a five day course of maracyn - it seemed to do nothing - and also called our LFS. The expert there says bettas cut their fins, and even lose parts of them, all the time, and he recommended melafix, so I'm back to that. But, if it is finrot, what more can I do? I know the melafix alone won't cure it if that's what he's got.

In the meantime, I did manage to get a little filter floss in front of the wheel without blocking its motion. The current's been cut quite a bit - I hope enough - and Zorro is acting just fine. Eating well, even a bubble nest or two. I do hope I can stop this tail erosion, though.

Take a look here
http://www.bettatalk.com/betta_diseases.htm

There is a section on finrot partway down the page.

I hope this helps.

Thanks again - here's an update. I've done one course of the neo-sulfex, which the betta expert recommended, and Zorro's tail is no worse - or very little worse. But - he has been very lethargic for the past couple of days. So I checked the water, and his nitrites are up; they read 0.25. I did a 30 percent water change, which perked him up, but I can't keep up these meds if they are going to stress him so much! Yet his tail is still bad. Help!