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Betta: Year-long fin rotting?

956 views 5 replies 3 participants last post by  Ryan Mosby 
#1 ·
I have had this betta for nearly a year. When I bought them, the pet store employee said he might have fin rot, due to the black outline of his fins. I'm not sure if that was his coloring or fin rot, but it did get worse over time. I treat with water changes with dissolved aquarium salt, Paraguard, and a bit of extra Stress Coat. It seems to slow it down and sometimes the fin starts to grow back out and then the fin rot starts up again. I've noticed it's been very rapid lately, even though last week I treated his tank and him.

Here's the setup:

Tank: Fluval Spec V (5 gallons)

Plants:
-Frogbit
-Hydrocotyle Tripartita
-Red tiger lotus
-Java ferns

Substrate:
-ADA Amazonia aquasoil (normal and powder type)
-Fine coconut-based substrate
-Coconut husk substrate

Decorations:
-Melastoma driftwood

Botanicals:
-Nypa palm flowers
-Sterculia pod
-Catappa leaves
-Crushed indian almond leaves

CO2: No/Low Tech

Occupants:
1x Betta Splendens "Lek" Male Veiltail
1x Horned nerite snail "Zelda"
Neocaridina (wild-type, chocolate, chocolate+snowball hybrids) shrimp

Equipment:
Airstone, heater, sponge filter, water pump, 7500K LED (default tank light, on for 6 hours a day)

Water Changes:
50% once a 1 or 2 weeks with dechlorinated water, Thrive as a fertilizer, and GH+ Mineralizer

Parameters (taken today):
Nitrate: 5 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
GH: 11
Chlorine: 0
KH: 3
pH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0
TDS: 1680
Temperature: 77.5

I usually prefer KH around 5 so I'll probably add some more limestone to the filter compartment. Whenever I take parameters, they seem to be fine, which is making me think that maybe there is something the fish itself is afflicted with, that is causing fin rot as a symptom.

In the past he has had a history of anchor worms, but when I see them, I treat for weeks with Hikari CyroPro.

If I've missed any other information, please let me know.
 
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#2 ·
Photos might help.
I had bought a female with finrot before and after getting some advice on a bettafish forum did a real quick dip in methylene blue (I think it was like 10-30 seconds super fast, look it up) it helped kick the finrot in the butt and it healed up nicely in a few weeks.
Side note I have a wired female (plakat x dumbo (elephant ear) x crowntail). The crowntail trait means there's... what's the term.. basically the finage between rays is reduced so at a quick glance it looks like finrot. But your guy's is getting worse.. probably isn't this.
 
#3 ·
Sorry betta is not going to thrive in that high of GH and PH water conditions. Your shrimp certainly don’t need that high of a GH either.

More than likely betta is suffering osmotic rupture damage to his fins and rot sets in as a secondary infection. Slowly bring your GH and PH down over coarse next couple weeks by getting some jugs of ro drinking water, remineralize it GH3 and change out 1/2 gallon twice a week, go slow on the refills. Aim for GH 6-8 range and hopefully PH should come down around 7-7.2 .
 
#4 ·
@DaveKS Thank you for the help! My tap water doesn't have GH, I've been dosing GH+ Mineralizer, so it means I've been overdosing the tank. How do I lower it gradually without shocking him? I've been using a little cup thing that comes with the GH+ and eyeballing it, a little over than I should have. Is it okay to go half that amount with a 50% water change?
 
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