# Fin rot



## alisteeves (Nov 10, 2014)

Due to my lack of knowledge several months ago, my beautiful betta ended up with pretty severe fin rot. I immediately settled him into a small, maintainable container within the heated tank and treated him with the appropriate measurement of aquarium salt and daily 100% conditioned water changes. He improved greatly, and still seems to be improving [but VERY slowly] and I even let him stretch his fins in the main tank for a while, but I fear he may not be improving as much as I hoped. I owe it to this pretty fish to try everything - I screwed up pretty bad and I feel completely awful about it every time I see him.

Has anyone dealt with severe fin rot before? Am I being too impatient in terms of his recovery? Should I be medicating him with something specific? Please help Elvis. He's the most friendly betta of all time and it would break my heart to lose him. I've attached a photo taken the day I purchased him [please note: the blue began growing into the white of his fins almost immediately after I bought him in april]

http://postimg.org/image/gsn3mhuar/


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

If this is the only fish in your tank that has this problem then I suggest a quarantine and treatment - this disease needs to be caught early 

You might consider treating the tank or bowl with a proprietary bactericide such as Myxazin, Melafix or gentian violet. Be sure to follow the instructions for the product.


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## Mykuhl (Apr 8, 2013)

My experience with find it on bettas is that the fins don't fully grow back. Based on what you have described things look good. The fact that the fin rot isn't progressing and that he has improved greatly is a excellent indication that the fin rot is cured.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

The fins may grow back, but if they do, it will take a long time. I have some of Mykul's Bettas, and of 3, one has grown back some of the damaged fins, { Mr. Picky ! ], one is staying right the way he was when I got him & one had splits in the fins, that appear to have closed up, pretty much. Patience is necessary.

Salt may help for a short time if there's an active infection but it's not good to use it long term, it can do more harm than good after a few weeks. The main thing is super clean water, all the time. 

I've been keeping the Bettas in tanks with a lot of plants, loads of plants in fact, which has resulted in water that always tests 0, 0 and <10, and I don't have to change water repeatedly to keep it that way. There are enough BB on the tank surfaces and they, with the plants, are more than enough to process the output from one Betta.

I only do small partial changes every few weeks now, to remove the crud from the bottom. The fish appear to really enjoy having plants around, they sleep on them all the time, their water is always crystal clear. So if you haven't any plants in the tank, might try getting some. 

They'll need light enough to grow of course. I use an 8 inch clamp lamp with an 11 W spiral 6550 K bulb over a 2.5 G tank, though I'm going to change that, to a divided 10 G for the 3 fish, as I'm going to have to heat it for the winter and heating a ten is easier than heating 3 small tanks.


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