Fin rot help?

[Squiffy]

My tap water has ammonia (new development) and I didn't realize it, so when my ammonia level kept going up in my tank, I did water changes until someone told me to test my tap water. I'm holding off now on the water changes until the bacteria can do it's job.

Anyways, with the week long stress of the ammonia being up, my betta seems to have developed a mild case of fin rot. I don't have a running hospital tank that I can quarantine him in to give him salt treatments. Would a salt bath be just as effective?

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[Noviceafter2yea]

Are you using de chlorinated water for water changes since you found out about the new ammonia development? You want to pretreat the replacement water in the future with Prime or other ammonia detoxifies. Prime stinks, but works really well and most people swear by it.

You need to do large water changes. If you do a 50% change, it should reduce ammonia by 50% (so I've read and been told). Some recommend doing it twice a day if necessary, I have only done that once, but I did do daily large water changes.

I think you said it has red, if you did, this is a sign of ammonia poisoning. Even when you use Prime, your ammonia readings may be positive (maybe not as high) because ammonia tests do not differentiate between toxic and non-toxic ammonia. I bought an ammonia "alert" which is a plastic thing you suction cup to the inside of the tank. It reads the bad ammonia so you might be able to see a difference in the positive ammonia readings.

I like having it because it gives me peace of mind. Eventually, my regular liquid tests showed no ammonia at all and my city adds chemicals to the tap water that increase the ammonia.

 

[Fishanatic]

Basicallly, how I have always treated fin rot was slightly increase temperature to 80-84 degrees, keep water pristine clean and limit stress . Also treat your water with seachem prime or any other similar product. It declorifies and removes ammonia as well as detoxifies. About the salt, I know epsom salt is what most people use for treating this sort of illness, but I couldn't give any more insight

 

[Fishfur]

There is a very good article on treating fin rot in Betta fish. Let me go find it for you.

Edit.. http://bettasplendid.weebly.com/fin-rot-101.html

This is a great article on fixing fin rot, hope it solves the problem for you

 

[RAvirani]

Squiffy,

I have encountered finrot many times and I find that the most effective way to get rid of it is to first increase the water temperature to 80-84 degrees. Then use something like API Melafix and do a 50% water change afterwards.

Hope this helps!

 

[Matt68005]

Squiffy,

I have encountered finrot many times and I find that the most effective way to get rid of it is to first increase the water temperature to 80-84 degrees. Then use something like API Melafix and do a 50% water change afterwards.

Hope this helps!

That could work, but most likely its fungal, so primafix....
Why not get the best of both worlds and go with Furan-2.?
But yes heat and clean water will help alot!

 

[trennamw]

I have treated fin rot quite a bit, never used heat.

Like many things this one probably has a lot of right answers.

My best success was cleaner water, steady pH, using API stress coat, and salt.

I'd highly recommend API stress coat. There is research suggesting it aids in wound healing. Herbal medicine is my hobby and I like seeing that this has aloe. The presence of the aloe plus the study on wound care suggests to me there is enough aloe, and it's processed well enough, for fish to get some of it's anti inflammatory and demulcent (good for moist tissue) properties.


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[Squiffy]

I've been giving him a salt bath once a day for the past 2 days since I'm not comfortable adding salt to the tank with my snails in there. I've been adding some Tetra stress coat, is that just as good as the API? And i can't raise my heart anyways because my tank heater isn't adjustable.

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[Fishfur]

From what I've read, Melafix, which has tea tree oil in it, isn't good for fin rot, despite what API says about it. I suppose there are as many opinions on what works as there are people trying to fix fin rot, but a pal of mine regularly imports expensive Betta fish from overseas. If they get fin rot or mechanical fin damage, she uses Indian Almond leaf, either a tea or the leaf itself, and short term salt with a bit of extra warmth, as she usually keeps her fish without heaters.
I've used her regimen with success.

I only had MTS snails in with my Betta fish, and I was a bit concerned how they'd handle salt too. They don't seem to be bothered by it in the least. Not sure about other snail species, but the MTS seem able to handle a low dose of salt for at least a couple of weeks, and that was on a bare bottom where they could not dig in.

 

[trennamw]

My suspicion is that fin rot might be a "less is more" situation, where just improving the situation and providing good wound care goes a long way.

Looks like Indian almond is antimicrobial and antioxidant. And whole plant solutions often have benefits yet to be named.


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