Help! Betta Problems

[Gylie]

So last Monday (Jan 30), I brought home a red male betta fish from school. I think its a young fish because my prof just purchased them for our lab. This is my first fish ever. I put him in a 5 gallon tank, with lots of live plants, a piece of driftwood, large pebbles, and natural substrate. The water temp was about 78F. Very happy fish, made a bubble nest the next day .

3 days later he had ich spots on his body , so I read up about how to treat that and on Friday (Feb 3) I bought some aquarium salt, a heater, and I also got a cascade internal filter (and modified it so there isn't too much current). I raised the temp to 81/82F over the weekend and added 1 tsp of salt (I wanted to start low).

All was well, ich spots disappeared within a day. But I just got home from school and now the end of his tail fin is shredded and he has more ich spots on his fins. I looked up fin rot, but it looks more like he got it caught in something or bit it? I did a 30% water change and I'm going to slowly raise the temp to 86F and keep it there for 10 days.

My tank parameters are 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 0-20 nitrites, 81/82F, pH 7. I had no idea about the nitrogen cycle before I started but I do 20% water changes every other day with water conditioner and 1 tsp salt. He also gets fed 3-4 betta biogold pellets in the morning and 3-4 at night.

I guess I just want to know if I am doing this right. Did the ich cause him to shred his tail somehow? Or did raising the water temp stress him out? He also hasn't made a bubble nest since I raised the temp to 81F and I'm worried he doesn't like the heat.

Sorry for the long post. I am totally new at this so any help I can get from more experienced fishkeepers or anybody in the same boat is greatly appreciated. Thanks so much!

 

[phoenixkiller]

You are doing all the steps correctly. Make sure not to stress him out too much, or he will inevitably die. Look up how to safely treat ich and he should soon get better.
P.S. I do not know about the shredded fin thing. Another thing to research!
phoenixkiller

 

[absolutangel04]

Welcome to the site! Good job getting a 5g tank for him. He should be very happy in the long run.
To treat ich, you should, keep the temp at 86-88 degrees for at least a week after the last visible symptom has disappeared. The salt should help the treatment along too. The salt will also help with the fin rot.
Its likely the fin rot is from a bacterial issue from his former life before being in your nice tank. It should subside with the salt and be very diligent about doing frequent pwc.
Bettas are really prone to bloat, so I would cut his feedings down to just once in the morning and then fast him one day a week.

 

[Mumma.of.two]

Hi and welcome!
http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f15/guide-to-starting-a-freshwater-aquarium-186089.html
http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php
Here are some articles to read.

 

[Alyxx]

First off, congrats on starting your betta off in a proper tank and not a tiny little torture chamber like the popular little half gallon cubes! Also, don't worry about the heat. Bettas prefer warm water around 80F. However, if the temperature raised too quickly it could have stressed him out. From what I have heard, ich tends to get worse before it gets better, so don't stress too much about the spots coming back. It takes a few weeks to rid a tank for ich. If he is stressed out, he may have started biting his tail. Some Bettas do that. They also have easily ripped fins, so any sharp or rough edges on the driftwood or other decor could have ripped his fins. As for not making a bubble nest, he's sick, so he is stressed out. He should start again once he feels better.
Just continue to raise the temp by maybe a degree or two a day, and add salt slowly. I am not too sure how much you will have to add, I have (knock on wood) never had to treat ich, but most people on the forum have dealt with it at one time or another. Keep up the water changes as often as you can manage, and use temperature matched dechlorinated water. Add salt to match what you took out. Say, if you added one tablespoon to the tank and did a 50% water change, add half a tablespoon to the water you replace. Do you have a test kit? If not, i recommend the API master kit. Liquid kits are much better than strips. Keep all toxins as low as you possibly can. Good luck!

 

[Gylie]

Thanks for all the fast replies! My question now is: How can I make him as un-stressed as possible? I don't want him to bite his fin again if that's what's going on. He's very active and inquisitive and doesn't seem bothered by water changes. If I raise the temp 1 degrees tonight, 2 degrees over tomorrow, and another 1 degrees the following morning, is that enough time for him to acclimate? I've heard about putting a ping pong ball in the tank for betta fish to play with. Would this be a good distraction for him while he's healing?

 

[absolutangel04]

Thanks for all the fast replies! My question now is: How can I make him as un-stressed as possible? I don't want him to bite his fin again if that's what's going on. He's very active and inquisitive and doesn't seem bothered by water changes. If I raise the temp 1 degrees tonight, 2 degrees over tomorrow, and another 1 degrees the following morning, is that enough time for him to acclimate? I've heard about putting a ping pong ball in the tank for betta fish to play with. Would this be a good distraction for him while he's healing?

I don't think he is biting his tail. I am sure fin rot is the issue. It can give them a shredded appearance because it doesn't affect the whole fin evenly.
If he is active/inquisitive, then he doesn't sound stressed. Don't worry about that aspect too much. He is in a nice tank at a good temperature, so thats good. Its not an exact science about raising the temp, just try for like a degree an hour or so. He can easily handle that.
Sure, you can try a ping pong ball. Some fish will play with them, some won't. It all depends.

 

[Gylie]

Thanks again! Another question: Will raising the temp have any effect on the healing rate of his tail? How long does it usually take for these types of injuries to heal? He had such a beautiful tail

 

[absolutangel04]

Well, thats hard to say because its hard to know exactly what is causing the tail rot. I highly doubt it will affect it at all though. It can take a few weeks to totally heal the tail, but hopefully it will be less.

 

[KaylNeko]

It's very possible just the ich stressed him enough to make his tail vulnurable to stress related fin rot. The salt should help, like was said, but if you really want to try adding something specifically for the tail, Rooibos tea is supposed to help with fin rot, and Kordon makes an immune booster (best way I can describe it--it doesn't exactly treat anything) with echinacea called Fish Protector. I'm using both with Kordon's Ich attack for my corys at the moment.

 

[Gylie]

Update:
So I got the temp up to 86F yesterday and all the spots are gone. Gonna keep it like this for another 10 days. But...
This morning I fed him and left the room to get ready for school, and when I came back there was a hole in the middle of his bottom fin (not sure what it's called)!! And the missing piece was lying on a plant in his aquarium!! Is this characteristic of fin rot or something else? All his plants are soft, not prickly. And his water parameters are still fine. I'm going to do a 30% water change when I get home anyhow.
Other than that he looks great. He's active and playful. He doesn't seem stressed, although he does rub himself on things occasionally, probably because of the ich. I'm worried that when I get home he'll be missing even more pieces of his tail and fins.
Would it be helpful if I posted pics later?
Also, where can I get Kordon products?

 

[absolutangel04]

That is probably from the fin rot he has. I have had that happen to fish before who had fin rot issues and it ended up growing back just fine. Just continue to keep an eye on him and let us know if anything else changes.
Yeah, the rubbing is because of the ich. It should subside.
Pictures are always helpful. If you can post a few pictures, please do.

 

[Gylie]

When I got home, his hole was gone?? But it looks like the edge of his ventral fin is torn. His tail fin doesn't look so much shredded now as chopped. I did a 30% water change, cleaned the filter a bit and trimmed the plants. Do I need to remove the carbon cartridge from my filter while I am treating with salt or is that only if I use meds?

Here are my pics. One is from when I first got him, and the other 3 are from just before the water change. Let me know what you think!

Before

After1

After2

After3

 

[Gylie]

Update 2:
The water temp has been at 86-88F for 4 days now and I've been doing 30% water changes every day. There are no more ich spots and his fins haven't deteriorated anymore. He also made a bubble nest yesterday, so I'm confident he's feeling better. I will update again if anything changes, or at the end of the treatment. I'm going to keep the heat up for 10 more days (til Feb 20).

 

[absolutangel04]

Good to know. Keep us updated when you can.