# Treating fin rot with Maracyn-TC without a filter?



## aeropuerto (Apr 2, 2010)

Hello, I am new here.

Has anyone ever used Maracyn-TC in an unfiltered bowl? If so, do you keep up the daily water changes, or do you wait five days to change the water? 

I got a red double tail betta from PetCo a few weeks ago that has fin rot. I have been doing daily 100% water changes for about a week now, and using aquarium salt, and I don't see any improvement. It seems to be getting a bit worse, actually. I don't know if I should give it more time or try the medication. I don't want to overdose my fish. He is in a one gallon unfiltered container. (I would like to move him to a larger tank once the fin rot clears up.) I can post more details if needed, but I just want to know if it is safe to use these medications in a bowl even though the package says "for aquarium use only." And if not, is there anything else I can use in an unfiltered bowl to treat fin rot?

Thank you for your help.


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## BettaxFishxCrazy (Sep 5, 2009)

Some fin rot can be nasty but usually aquarium salt at least helps it a little. How much are you putting in? He could also be biting his tail, could you take a picture of it? But, like I said, some fin rot can be nasty. I'm not sure what medications are good for healing that up, aquarium salt has always fixed my fish's fins.


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## Mitsufishi (Jul 1, 2009)

I had an incident where my dummy boyfriend put a female betta in the tank with my boy. He thought that if anything the male would beat up on the female. He was wrong after one night (and me being out of town) the female tore all of Earl's fins off. He had to take her out and put her somewhere else and I had to come home and treat Earl. It took about a good month of salt bath and a tiny bit of betta fix to see any kind of improvement. After a couple month he fins had come back very nicely!! Be patient if it might look like its getting better.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Yes, you can use Maracyn in a gallon bowl. Dissolve 1 packet in 10 teaspoons of water. Add one teaspoon of concentrate per gallon. I would treat for 5 days, then change the water. Welcome to the forum.


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## aeropuerto (Apr 2, 2010)

Thank you for the responses.

His fin did not appear to be improving at all after 10 days of 100% daily water changes and aquarium salt, so I went ahead and tried to use the Maracyn-TC by diluting it per Dramaqueen's instructions. I've used it three days (no water changes) and my fish now just lays on the bottom of the tank. I thought he was dead this morning because I couldn't even see him breathing. I had to poke him with a chopstick (gently!) to get him to even move. I put him into a new container (same size--1 gallon) for awhile to see if he stopped acting so strange, and then added a single dose of the Maracyn-TC to the water again. I called the manufacturer of the Maracyn-TC to see what they recommend, but it seems to just be a call center with people reading the instructions off the package. Pretty unhelpful.

What do you think I should do? 
a) Put him back into the original container (with the three doses of Maracyn-TC in it) and continue to add a dose a day for the remaining two days
or 
b) leave him in the new container (with the single dose), add another dose tomorrow, and then call it done?

I've seen zero improvement to his fins, by the way. If anything, they seem to have gotten moderately worse. I think he was doing better with just daily water changes, aquarium salt, and Stress Coat.

This poor fish was sick when I got him, and he's managed to hang on for a month now. I've just finally figured out the right amount and kind of food to give him so that he's not floating on his side on the surface of the water constantly, but this pesky fin rot won't go away.

Thanks guys


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