# my half moon has pretty bad fin rot



## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

Housing 
What size is your tank? 5G
What temperature is your tank? 78~
Does your tank have a filter? no
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? none

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? pellets, once a week blood worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? every day or so

Maintenance 
How often do you perform a water change? 100% once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? prime, aquarium salt 

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? 

Ammonia: .5
Nitrite:
Nitrate:
pH:
Hardness:
Alkalinity: 

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? see pictures for urself
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? none really
When did you start noticing the symptoms? 2 months ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? did melafix dosing for a week and did nothing
Does your fish have any history of being ill? no
How old is your fish (approximately)? have had for 3 months

I basically need a good fin rot medication. Today I just started dosing with stress coat. I Also do normal doses of aquarium salt, should I add more than instructed on the box? I need to order the fin rot medication online so any good site would be appreciated.


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

I'm not sure what to recommend, other than .5 ammonia reading is bad. In fact anything above .25 calls for an immediate water change. Generally with fin rot increased water changes and sometimes dosing with aquarium salt (depending on the severity) is all that is needed.

However I am not sure that your boy currently has rot. Rot is usually identified by black or red edges, sometimes looking crusty. I'll defer to someone elses wisdom, and point Sakura along. For now clean water is your best bet. 

Also, I would advice to not use any more melafix. All of the 'fix medications contain tea tree oil, which, while good for preventing infection, can potentially damage their labyrinth organ (how they breath air). A good diet is also helpful for regrowing lost fins. Live or frozen foods are the best. A pellet with a protein of 42% or better is quite good as well.


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## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

Silverfang said:


> I'm not sure what to recommend, other than .5 ammonia reading is bad. In fact anything above .25 calls for an immediate water change. Generally with fin rot increased water changes and sometimes dosing with aquarium salt (depending on the severity) is all that is needed.
> 
> However I am not sure that your boy currently has rot. Rot is usually identified by black or red edges, sometimes looking crusty. I'll defer to someone elses wisdom, and point Sakura along. For now clean water is your best bet.
> 
> Also, I would advice to not use any more melafix. All of the 'fix medications contain tea tree oil, which, while good for preventing infection, can potentially damage their labyrinth organ (how they breath air). A good diet is also helpful for regrowing lost fins. Live or frozen foods are the best. A pellet with a protein of 42% or better is quite good as well.


Thanks for your reply. I just checked the pellets, its 38% protein. If its not fin rot what could it possibly be? And yes I became aware of melafix killing bettas i threw it out.


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## xjenuhfur (Jan 30, 2012)

It looks like your boy is tail biting pretty severely. ):


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## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

xjenuhfur said:


> It looks like your boy is tail biting pretty severely. ):


Dang. Is this worse than fin rot?


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## Luimeril (Dec 29, 2010)

tail biting can lead to fin rot. it's not better, nor any worse than fin rot. i'd do a water change right away, get rid of that ammonia.

how many decorations do you have? can you get a pic of his full tank? bettas tail bite for many reasons, from boredom to stress. once you figure out why he's doing it, you may be able to stop it.


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## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

BTW ive never seen him bite his tail or swim in circles.


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## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

Luimeril said:


> tail biting can lead to fin rot. it's not better, nor any worse than fin rot. i'd do a water change right away, get rid of that ammonia.
> 
> how many decorations do you have? can you get a pic of his full tank? bettas tail bite for many reasons, from boredom to stress. once you figure out why he's doing it, you may be able to stop it.


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Hi princebetta. What a handsome boy. The good news is he oes not have finrot . . . Yet. He looks like he's been tail biting, as others suggested, possibly because his tail is too heavy. There may also be some ammonia burn going on because of the high ammonia levels. At .5, the gills begin to burn and at prolonged exposure to that level, he could get permanent damage. Definitely do a water change to get the level down.

For now, I suggest stopping the AQ salt. Generally, you don't want to use AQ salt on a regular basis because it causes a resistance and it can also cause kidney damage. It's best to only use it when something is really wrong. 

Keep using the Stress Coat at double the dosage (half a capful for a 5g). If you can, try feeding him lots of frozen foods like frozen bloodworms. His fins should start healing very fast, providing he doesn't keep biting them. 

Good luck and keep us updated.


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## Princebetta (Feb 28, 2011)

Sakura8 said:


> Hi princebetta. What a handsome boy. The good news is he oes not have finrot . . . Yet. He looks like he's been tail biting, as others suggested, possibly because his tail is too heavy. There may also be some ammonia burn going on because of the high ammonia levels. At .5, the gills begin to burn and at prolonged exposure to that level, he could get permanent damage. Definitely do a water change to get the level down.
> 
> For now, I suggest stopping the AQ salt. Generally, you don't want to use AQ salt on a regular basis because it causes a resistance and it can also cause kidney damage. It's best to only use it when something is really wrong.
> 
> ...


Thank you, will do now. Im worried that if his fins do grow back he'll go at it again!


BTW do I only use stress coat, or both that and prime?


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

You can use both if you want but if you want to save the Prime, the Stress Coat will work just fine by itself. And yeah, there idn't any way to tell if he'll be a chronic biter or if this was hopefully a one time thing. I hope he's not chronic. :/


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## Silverfang (Mar 25, 2011)

The good news is he doesn't looks like he's bitten recently. And he has a wonderful home! (I love that dragon statue!) My only concern is about the plastic plants, just wondering if they could have been causing rips in his fins.

He also looks a little thin, how much and how often are you feeding?


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## earthworm88 (Jul 8, 2011)

I have been staring at the photos for the longest time, and I am convinced that the little guy has fin melt. The anal fin shows it best with the drippy look. I will stand corrected........

Cheers!


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## Sakura8 (May 12, 2011)

Could be from the high ammonia level and the AQ salt. :?


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