Betta has fin rot, advice needed

[onebettanewbie]

Hi,

My betta fish is still active and eats well but his fins have receded a great deal. I thought it was normal aging but finally realized he probably has fin rot. I think I know what the stresser was. During the summer the water used to heat up to around 81 - 82 degrees in the late afternoon and then cool down back to 79 at night.

My avatar shows how he used to look. Below is a picture of him with fin rot.

Parameters stay consistent: Ammonia & Nitrites 0, Nitrates 10, Ph 7.6 + (always the same dark blue in the standard Ph tester, strange meaningless orange color on the high range tester). I use the API liquid tests.

He lives alone in a 5.5 gallon cycled tank with live plants. It has a Duetto 50 internal filter. I do 25% water changes weekly. It has a 25 watt heater set to 79 degrees. I add .25 Ml Flourish comprehensive weekly. The tap water is treated with Prime.

He's lived in the tank about 9 months since I bought him so he's probably a year and a half to two years old.

I feed him 5 - 6 thawed frozen Hikari bloodworms in the morning and two soaked Hikari pellets in the evening.

I have Maracyn-Two in the house and have a big pet store chain nearby. What would you recommend?

Thank you very much!

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm not convinced he has finrot now. The signs that I look for are black, stringy ends to the fins, or if the remaining fin tips on the body have a black edge (yes, I've seen pieces of fin on the bottom of the tank). It isn't unusual for an older betta to lose some fin length. A few of my bettas had beautiful long fins when they died, and others had short fins. One male betta lost fin length throughout his life until he almost resembled a female betta. I did give him an antibiotic treatment once but then I decided against taking him out of his tank for more treatments. This betta also continued to build bubble nests up until a week before he died and so far, he was the longest-lived betta I've had.

Right now, it doesn't look like anything is wrong with your betta. You're doing all the right things to take care of him - gentle filtration, a heater, and a cycled, planted tank with adequate water changes. The only thing I can suggest is to use a thermometer to measure the temperature of the water more accurately than what the heater dial says. I would also bump it up to 80 degrees.

 

[onebettanewbie]

Well, that is very reassuring, thank you. I thought I was being really blind to fin rot. I've looked at him closely and don't see any signs of disease other than fin length, no black edges, but the tail fins are so much shorter than before and so uneven!

I do use a thermometer and will bump the heater up to 80 degrees and keep a close eye on him.

 

[An t-iasg]

You're welcome! It is good that he's active and eating. He looks like a healthy betta.