# damaged pectoral fins or clamped fin?



## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

My little guy started experiencing what looks like clamped fins yesterday. His pectoral fins are pointy and not flared out like they usually are. He keeps his pectoral fins close to his body when he swims. He also barely swims with his pectoral fins. I'm worried he might have damaged both of them D: Or possibly its clamped fins? 

Housing:
How many gallons is your tank? 10 gal
Does it have a filter? yes 
Does it have a heater? yes 
What temperature is your tank? 78
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Does your Betta have tank mates? What kind? no

Food:
What food brand do you use? omega one pellets 
Do you feed flakes or pellets? pellets
Freeze-dried? hikari blood worms
How often do you feed your Betta? How much? everyday, twice. 

Maintenance:
Before your Betta became ill how often did you perform a water change? once a week
What percentage of water did you change? about 25%
Do you vacuum the substrate or just dip out water? vacuum
What additives do you use? water conditioner

Water Parameters: (I dont have a kit, sorry)
What are your water parameters? Please give exact numbers. If tested by pet store please get exact numbers. "Fine" or "Safe" won't help us help you.

Ammonia:
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness (GH):
Alkalinity (KH):

Symptoms and Treatment: pectoral fins are pointy and stick to his body
When did you first notice the symptoms? yesterday
How has your Betta’s appearance changed? more sluggish
How has your Betta’s behavior changed? eats fine, attempts to swim around. He isn't bloated.
Is your Betta still eating? yes
Have you started treating your Betta? If so, how? not yet.
Does your Betta have any history of being ill? he had internal parasites once in an older tank but I used PraziPro and that cleared up.
How long have you owned your Betta? Was he or she a rescue? 4 months


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## bumblebleee45 (Jan 20, 2016)

A lot of cases the betta is stressed because of lighting. I usually turned on my bettas light in the morning, and turn it off before bed, and one day I forgot to do so, and my betta had clamped fins for about 2-3 days, and then he was his perky usual self. If you get the chance, check to see if there are rips in his fins, I know my other betta had ripped his fin somehow, and had clamped his fins for awhile till it healed. Otherwise, I hope you can find something out, good luck.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

How many pellets does he receive per day? He looks a tad thin to me. Was his problem progressive over several days or did he get clamped fins overnight?

I can't tell you what's wrong with him but I can recommend until something is determined you might use Seachem StressGuard. I use it on all new fish and have been pleased with the results. Good luck!


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

He only gets 2 pellets a day now. I was feeding him 4 a day and he got bloated/constipated so I only do 2 now D:

he used to be in a 5 gal but he transfered into a 10 gal couple days ago. Since then he seems not used to his large new home. maybe its stress D: its also led lit up and his last tank never had light. But yah ill pick up some stress guard tomorrow!


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I've had at the least three Betta that did not do well in anything over 2.5 gallons. This is why I never castigate anyone for smaller tanks; some Betta just can't handle larger ones after living in small containers.

If he were mine I'd put him back in the five with the same ornaments, etc.; or I'd divide the 10 and do the same. Let's hope it's just stress from moving up to a larger tank.

Forgot to ask: Did he become bloated on Omega One? If so you can feed two pellets per day and add frozen foods like Bloodworms, Cyclops, Daphnia and/or shrimp.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Oh I see D: I thought larger the tank the better :c I can't put him back in the 5 gal cause my sister is using it for her betta now. 

And no, he became bloated with 4 aqueon pellets. After that I switched to 2 omega one pellets. Oh alright I also have frozen daphnia so I'll add that daily?


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

Aqueon pellets have a lot of fillers while Omega 1 and New Life Spectrum don't. That's one reason there's more digestive problems when you feed foods with less nutritional value. I would up his food to two Omega One in the morning and one at night. If he doesn't have problems then up it to two and two until you increase his food to six pellets per day. With Omega One there is also no need to fast.

Can you divide the 10? Not a permanent divider but one you can gradually work down the tank until he's fine with the entire 10? Does that make sense?

It could be too little food and stress or he may have something else going on so I hope someone will give their take.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Alright, that sounds like a good plan. For tank dividers, do I make them myself or do I buy those somewhere? I've never divided a tank before :c


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hello
How 'bloated' did he become? A betta's stomach _should_ expand after eating so it might have been a healthy size, it can be difficult to tell though sometimes. He's definitely wasting away.

Looks like he may be suffering from Fin Melt. It's a bacteria that infects the fins of fish and causes them to clump together and look as though they are melting together, this can happen to the pectorals as well. The easiest thing to do would be treat him with Triple Sulfa medication. You might be able to find that at PetSmart, PetCo doesn't have a licence to carry medications beyond herbal stuff that won't do anything for him. Stay away from MelaFix/PimaFix/BettaFix, they're antiseptics that don't really kill off bacteria as some thing, fine for sterilizing a wound but that's about it. You need a real antibiotic which is why I suggested T. Sulfa, it's one of the best for fin melt. This should also help clear up any other infection he may have going on that we can't see  You may notice loss of appetite with the meds, that's pretty common so don't worry too much.

Oh and dividers, you can make it out of craft mesh from the craft store or buy one, up to you!


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Oh it was pretty bad. He was really bloated for weeks and then would just sit at the top of the tank, sort of flopping over. I think it gave him swim bladder disease. But then I noticed he had a white thing sticking out of his butt and realized it was an internal parasite @[email protected]; I treated him with prazipro and after treatment he was back to normal. So the bloating might have been the parasite instead of the food? 

That was about a month ago. 

Ah alright ;v ; I feel bad! I just didnt want to overfeed him. So I up his food to 2 pellets at morning and 2 at night? 

And sounds good. Im going to the pet store today. It's not petco or petsmart, its a local pet store with good products. Ill pick up some dividers, stress guard, and triple sulfa!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yeah, that's likely the parasite then. Definitely up his food to around 4 pellets and then even 6 pellets or 8 of the Omega or NLS.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Alright ty for the help! I'll go buy the products in about an hour and let you guys how it goes!


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Go I went ahead and bought dividers, the stress guard and triple sulfa. I added a dose of the sulfa to his tank and the dividers are there now. Here's a pic of the tank and a closer up of my fish.


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## RussellTheShihTzu (Mar 19, 2013)

I'm glad Lilnaugrim spoke up. When it comes to diseases she's the best on the forum. Keep us posted on how he does.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh, go ahead and move that other plant to his side as well OP, this way there's more security around him and likely he'll feel a little more calm at least. You can also lower the water level to half as well to make it smaller as well if you wanted. Keep that in mind that when you'd dose more medication, you'd have to also split the dose in half too. Just an option.

It may help him to also have some tannins in his water. You get those from driftwood or specific dried leaves like Indian Almond Leaves or even packets of tea! But only a certain tea, most of us use Rooibos tea, it's a naturally caffeine free red tea and will boost his tank with awesome tannins! The tannins help create a darker environment for him which also helps to keep him less stressed which means he can focus more on healing :-D Indian Almond Leaves or Catappa leaves can usually be purchased at local stores or you can find them online for good prices. Those you just float in the tank and over the week they'll slowly leach out the tannins, same thing with driftwood (though some is pretreated and won't leach many tannins so it's not always a reliable source). The cheapest and quickest option would just be getting the tea. I find mine at Wal-Mart actually and use the Twinning's brand. Black tea is okay as well if you cannot find Rooibos.

One last thing you can do is cover up three out of four of those tank sides with black construction paper, again, it's just helping him to feel safer and then hopefully he can focus more on healing himself versus worrying when the next predator is going to strike! Granted, they don't know that there aren't predators around, so this is why we do things like this to help lessen the stress on our fish ^_^ You don't have to do all of them, it's just things that will help is all.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

ty for the help guys! He's on his 2nd day of the sulfa treatment. I added all the plants to his side of the tank and added the black construction paper on 3 sides of the tank ^^ His tank is pretty dark now with the cover on (lights turned off). Should I remove the tank cover for more light or is it better for a darker environment when hes stressed? here's how dark it looks.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

His pectoral fins seem to be getting better. They're not pointy anymore  But he keeps flaring at the sides of the tank, ever since I put the black construction paper on the sides of the tank D:


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Flaring is good, it helps get the bowels moving lol. Has he still been eating well?
Is there a light over him? Lights will cause a reflection on the glass with the paper sometimes.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Yup! He's always hungry xD He's been getting 4 pellets a day now. He eats them quickly. And the the cover has a light but I've had it turned off all day. Somehow he's still flaring o3o His gills shine a bit white after flaring.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yep, that's him coloring up! I have a theory that the two stripes are there to warn off other predators since they're generally brightly colored red on the wilds. But the first one is simply where the gill plate folds out to unfold the beard and the second is just at the edge there. That's totally normal coloration and very healthy. Those stripes run in many different colors now, the primary is still red with the second being copper (silver) and a bronze-like color as he has!

His fins are already perking up a bit too! Let's hope he continues to improve through treatment ^_^ He's putting on a little bit of weight too which is great! It's going to take a couple weeks to really see any big change in his weight with this but he should eventually look like a healthy fish :-D


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

Ah thank you for all the info! 

Would it be ok for me to leave the LED lights (on the tank lid) turned on? Or during treatment should I leave them off? Or do LED lights even bother them?


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Nah, LED's don't bother them. I run high powered LED's on all my tanks because they're planted, never had a problem with the fish  But if he's flaring when they're on, he can likely see his reflection. You can just have the light on while you're with him so he can get a little exercise in flaring and you can see him. Normally, it wouldn't make a difference if you left it on during the day all the time during treatment, or not.


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## Silhh (Jul 27, 2015)

So just to update everyone, I used the sulfa treatment twice and he was more active after the treatments where over. But now that i've switched his diet to 4 pellets a day instead of 2, he seems to be getting bloated again? Ever since day he's been sitting near the top of the tank, sometimes with inability to keep upright. Is it a parasite again or should I change his diet? D:


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