Fin Rot Treatment | How Do You Know If It Is Working?

[Tyrannosaurus]

So I have one of those set ups with several bettas in coke bottles. Not too many, about ten or so, ranging in age and sex. I noticed that one or two of the males fins' are looking quite ragged and eaten away, so I treated the full course of Furan-2.

The tank has more than adequate filtration and I even added a UV sterilizer to cut down on any bacteria and parasites in the water.

My question is, how do I know the treatment is working? Most of the fish look healthy, but I assume if one or two are affected, all of them will have been exposed, which is why I treated the whole tank.

Suggestions, anyone?

[Aquila]

Fin Rot usually has a distinct white border (fungus) which is eating away at the fins.

I usually have success with a combo or Wunder Tonic and Acriflavine, which is cheaper and works quickly. Sometimes the Fungus is a secondary infection and the fish needs to be treated for a bacterial infection using Furan.

You can tell that its working if the fungus is gone, and the fin/tail appears to be healing (usually starts off with clear growth). The fish should be happy to feed and otherwise acting normally.

Goodluck!

[Tyrannosaurus]

Thanks I have Wunder Tonic also, but I used Furan-2 as a first line measure. I don't see white fungus on the fish, but several of them are definitely suffering from some sort of rot malady. The fins are curled up and black on the edges more than anything else. One fish has a large portion of his tail fin missing due to this, and his other fins aren't looking hot either. Other than that, he is healthy and eating food and whatnot. Though I have noticed that bettas seem to eat and swim quite well even when they are quite sick.

[Adrienne]

Fighters are prone to it if they sit on the bottom of the tank for long periods of time. The only way you will know is if it starts to grow back. Just make sure that you can't see red streaks further up the fins and tail - if you can its the bacteria and you'll walk in one day to find that the fins and tail have dropped off to that level. Furan does work, so does salt. Keep up daily water changes and increase the water flow.

[Tyrannosaurus]

Thanks, adodge. None of these sit on the bottom much at all, in fact, the only time I really see them on the bottom is when they're sleeping. I will keep up the water changes and salt and hope they come right. They've all had the full dose of Furan-2, so hopefully that heads things off at the pass.

I did have one seemingly random death recently, but I put that down to some sort of defect, she never did look quite 'right', and I did have quite an issue with a dark black/grown/green algae that spread in spite of the fact that the tank has been cycled for well over 6 months now. It's been agressively cleaned away and, as I said, I added the UV sterilizer to catch anything that might be floating Could the algae have been related?

[SamH]

What does it look like? Pics?

Could be tail biting?

[Tyrannosaurus]

I don't have a camera that takes terribly good pictures, but I am pretty sure it is not tail biting because the darker ring is on all his fins. I could be wrong though, I would like to be wrong, they are in the coke bottles, perhaps that is just too small and boring.

This is the best I can get at the moment...

[SamH]

Tail bitting should look more like square chunks out of the tail rather than fin rot.

[Davd-lw]

they look quite bad, use tonic salt,+ wonder tonic first, and when they stop roting, change to tonic salt + Melafix, but controll the dosage.

[alanmin4304]

If they are in seperate coke bottles how would they be getting their tails bitten. Fin rot is a bacterial disease and neads to be treated with a bacteriacide. fungus is an opportunistic disease which can invade damaged tissue and can follow finrot. keeping fighters in small containers without enough water changes can cause finrot and other problems.

[SamH]

If they are in seperate coke bottles how would they be getting their tails bitten.

I'm assuming that's a question. If so, tail biting (as opposed to fin nipping) is a common condition amongst bored, cramped and/or frustrated Betta splendens with long tails. They often do it because they are bored or their tail is hindering their ability to swim/function properly.

HTH

[alanmin4304]

Well you learn something every day. I have bred hundreds of them and have never seen that happen. They were not kept in coke bottles though.

[SamH]

Well you learn something every day. I have bred hundreds of them and have never seen that happen. They were not kept in coke bottles though.

Must be more common overseas then :-? How did you keep yours BTW?

[alanmin4304]

I had 600mm x 600mm tanks with slightly smaller tanks inside. Each internal tank was divided into sections about 70mm x 70mm with mesh on the bottom. To do a water change you lifted the internal tank and dropped it. Also in those days the fish were mainly fed live lumbriculus worms.

[Adrienne]

Alanmins was a very clever, well thought out method

[Ashzbetta]

most tail biting hppens overseas when shipping fish for a long time like from thailand to the US or something,

[Tyrannosaurus]

Just to be clear chappies and chapettes, these fish are in a decent sized tank, (100 liters with just 15 fish in it total) with good flow, a filter AND a UV sterilizer. The only obvious downside is that they have approximately one liter of swimming space each, which would be nice to expand on, and which I will when I can get tank dividers made up.

Most of the fish look great, the guy in the picture obviously does not. I'm concerned however, because fin rot can spread so easily

I've been doing more frequent water changes (daily) and been aggressively cleaning away any algae that pops up. (There's a brownish algae that seems to be spreading through the tanks quite quickly.)

There is a lot more bubblenesting going on now, even from the fish with much of his fins attacked by fin rot. So, for now, things look like they are on the mend.