Kirrie
Aquarium Advice Activist
I know this is going to be a lot to read, but I wanted to make sure I covered everything so someone can help me. Please ask questions if I missed anything!
I spend most of my time on another forum, but I am really desperate for new ideas right now. 3 of my 4 bettas have fin melt. Fin melt is different from fin rot because it is harder to treat, progresses differently, and looks a little different.
My oldest betta, Reagan (a halfmoon plakat) has been with me for almost exactly a year now and has had fin melt for probably 3/4 of that time. It started out very slow, then one week his fins just started disappearing, then it seemed to stop almost completely before it progressed very slowly for a while. Now he has barely any fins, but hasn't lost anything in a few months. He started out in a 5.5 gallon heated, filtered, and cycled tank, but I moved him to a 10 gallon hoping that a brand new tank and extra caution would get rid of the bacteria eating his fins. I am really desperate for solutions at this point because I think I may lose Reagan soon if I don't come up with something quick. His lack of fins makes it really hard for him to swim, so he lays around quite a bit. I will mention what treatments I have used after introducing my other bettas, because I have used the same treatments on all of them.
My second betta, Calvin (an elephant ear) has been with me for exactly 4 months. When I got him, he had a chunk missing from one of his ears, but I figured it would grow back in. Sadly, it did not. He started showing signs of fin melt maybe a month or so ago, but luckily, it has been progressing slowly and he doesn't look too bad.
My third betta, Quincy (a crowntail) has been with me for exactly 3 months. He shares a 10 gallon heated, filtered, and cycled tank with Calvin. Of course it is divided and neither one pays the other any attention so they aren't stressed out. Quincy had no damage when I got him, but it looked like he had new fin growth on his pectorals when I got him. Within the past month, his fins have just been destroyed. The fin melt started out slowly, around the same time as Calvin's, but Quincy's fins have been disappearing so quickly in the past week or so. I am afraid he is going to end up like Reagan.
My last betta is Thomas (another crowntail), that I've had for about 2 months. He lives peacefully in a 20 gallon with some rasboras. So far, his fins have been fine, but I am watching his tail fin because I noticed one of his spikes is missing but it doesn't really look like fin rot. I'm thinking he got caught on the filter or something. At least, that's what I'm hoping. I would be devastated if he ended up with fin melt too. Thomas is the betta in my profile picture. He won POTM last month
For the treatments, I started with just more water changes. Instead of just one weekly water change, I was changing the water every other day. Then I moved on to aquarium salt. I had some ParaGuard on hand, so I tried a bath, which didn't seem to do anything. I believe the next thing I tried was Kanaplex. When that didn't work, I tried methylene blue swabs. I would net each fish and directly apply the methylene blue to their fins (away from their gills and eyes) and then place them back in the tank. After a few days of that treatment, I decided it was too stressful on them and me, so I gave them 10 second methylene blue dips instead. These were done daily for a week. Of course that didn't work, so the next thing I tried was Triple Sulfa.
I make sure to keep Indian Almond Leaves in their tanks at all times and replace them when they start to rot. I feed them a good quality pellet (New Life Spectrum Betta Formula), and give them a few thawed out bloodworms or brine shrimp each week. I also got rid of their sponge filters and replaced them with hang on the back filters, hoping to get rid of any bad bacteria that may be living in the sponge. I have also flushed their tanks a few times. I know it probably seems like a lot, but I made sure to do the full treatment of each and gave the bettas a break in between treatments to avoid overwhelming them.
Since nothing has worked, I have just been changing their water 2-3 times a week while making sure to keep the bottoms of their tanks clean. They have a sand substrate so all the debris rests on top. I am currently waiting on the Furan 2 to arrive in the mail so I can try a combination of Furan 2 and Kanaplex as was suggested to me on another forum. Apart from that, I don't know what else to do for them and everyone else is running out of ideas too
I spend most of my time on another forum, but I am really desperate for new ideas right now. 3 of my 4 bettas have fin melt. Fin melt is different from fin rot because it is harder to treat, progresses differently, and looks a little different.
My oldest betta, Reagan (a halfmoon plakat) has been with me for almost exactly a year now and has had fin melt for probably 3/4 of that time. It started out very slow, then one week his fins just started disappearing, then it seemed to stop almost completely before it progressed very slowly for a while. Now he has barely any fins, but hasn't lost anything in a few months. He started out in a 5.5 gallon heated, filtered, and cycled tank, but I moved him to a 10 gallon hoping that a brand new tank and extra caution would get rid of the bacteria eating his fins. I am really desperate for solutions at this point because I think I may lose Reagan soon if I don't come up with something quick. His lack of fins makes it really hard for him to swim, so he lays around quite a bit. I will mention what treatments I have used after introducing my other bettas, because I have used the same treatments on all of them.
My second betta, Calvin (an elephant ear) has been with me for exactly 4 months. When I got him, he had a chunk missing from one of his ears, but I figured it would grow back in. Sadly, it did not. He started showing signs of fin melt maybe a month or so ago, but luckily, it has been progressing slowly and he doesn't look too bad.
My third betta, Quincy (a crowntail) has been with me for exactly 3 months. He shares a 10 gallon heated, filtered, and cycled tank with Calvin. Of course it is divided and neither one pays the other any attention so they aren't stressed out. Quincy had no damage when I got him, but it looked like he had new fin growth on his pectorals when I got him. Within the past month, his fins have just been destroyed. The fin melt started out slowly, around the same time as Calvin's, but Quincy's fins have been disappearing so quickly in the past week or so. I am afraid he is going to end up like Reagan.
My last betta is Thomas (another crowntail), that I've had for about 2 months. He lives peacefully in a 20 gallon with some rasboras. So far, his fins have been fine, but I am watching his tail fin because I noticed one of his spikes is missing but it doesn't really look like fin rot. I'm thinking he got caught on the filter or something. At least, that's what I'm hoping. I would be devastated if he ended up with fin melt too. Thomas is the betta in my profile picture. He won POTM last month
For the treatments, I started with just more water changes. Instead of just one weekly water change, I was changing the water every other day. Then I moved on to aquarium salt. I had some ParaGuard on hand, so I tried a bath, which didn't seem to do anything. I believe the next thing I tried was Kanaplex. When that didn't work, I tried methylene blue swabs. I would net each fish and directly apply the methylene blue to their fins (away from their gills and eyes) and then place them back in the tank. After a few days of that treatment, I decided it was too stressful on them and me, so I gave them 10 second methylene blue dips instead. These were done daily for a week. Of course that didn't work, so the next thing I tried was Triple Sulfa.
I make sure to keep Indian Almond Leaves in their tanks at all times and replace them when they start to rot. I feed them a good quality pellet (New Life Spectrum Betta Formula), and give them a few thawed out bloodworms or brine shrimp each week. I also got rid of their sponge filters and replaced them with hang on the back filters, hoping to get rid of any bad bacteria that may be living in the sponge. I have also flushed their tanks a few times. I know it probably seems like a lot, but I made sure to do the full treatment of each and gave the bettas a break in between treatments to avoid overwhelming them.
Since nothing has worked, I have just been changing their water 2-3 times a week while making sure to keep the bottoms of their tanks clean. They have a sand substrate so all the debris rests on top. I am currently waiting on the Furan 2 to arrive in the mail so I can try a combination of Furan 2 and Kanaplex as was suggested to me on another forum. Apart from that, I don't know what else to do for them and everyone else is running out of ideas too