# Is this fin rot? Or ammonia burn? Or simply tearing fins?



## PinkDiamond (Apr 21, 2009)

Hi again everyone!

I made a post about this same issue before and am continuing to try to deal with it while we wait for my betta's new 5 gallon Eclipse tank to cycle. He is currently in a 1.25 gallon vase, unfiltered, and unheated, with a temperature at about 72 degrees (at least that's what the thermometer read when we decided to take it out since he was ATTACKING it and bashing it against the side of the vase, haha). We are doing daily 30-50% water changes and weekly full cleanings of his vase, and we treat his water with Prime. He's fed 3 Hikari pellets a day, 2 in the AM and 1 in the PM. 

Despite our aggressive water changes, the ammonia level in his vase has never been zero. It is now somewhat constant at 0.15ppm. Hence the new Eclipse tank, which is almost done a fishless cycle and is reading 0 ammonia.

We've had him for a few months, and for the last three or four months, the ends of his tail, and occasionally the ends of his dorsal and ventral fin, have been alternately shredding and healing. The severity of the shredding ranges from small frays and notches in the ends, to once or twice shredding possibly a quarter to a third of the way up his tail. It never progresses beyond the initial instance of shredding and develops clear regrowth almost immediately, then will shred again once it is healed or nearly healed. Occasionaly the ends of his fins look bloody where rays have broken off at the ends. There has also been a small bubble that has shown up on his tail three times in nearly the same spot. Kind of looks like a blister of tail fin that gets a little bigger and bigger, lasts for possibly a week, and then deflates and goes away. He has NEVER had black ends on his fins or any white, cotton-y looking growth.

We've systematically removed all plants etc that we feel could have been responsible for injury.

We have tried treating him with a round of Bettafix that seemed to prolong the healed period of his tail, but there was some minor shredding during the treatment.

So here are my questions:

(1) Does this sound like finrot, ammonia burn, or something else?

(2) Any other ideas for trying to treat this (if treatment is necessary?) We have aquarium salt but have never used it...

(3) Can we put him into his new tank hoping that the much improved temp. and ammonia levels in it will heal him, or does this pose the risk of introducing a bacteria/fungus/whatever that could affecting his fins to his new tank. The cycle in the new tank would obviously be destroyed if we had to medicate him in it...

Apologies for the long post and thank you so much in advance for any advice you can offer!


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## ChristinaRoss (Sep 4, 2009)

i think u need to test your tap water for ammonia........


mine has ammonia in it and all i can do is keep up on water changes to stay on top of it. 
im not sure about the blister, but, i think it would also be a good idea to do the salt. i always replace the salt when i do water changes and all of my bettas havent been sick. 

i think if this were ammonia burn his gills would be bright red, ive seen that. not sure about all the finrot ur having

somebody else needs to pipe in here, lets help her out


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## tdedolph (Sep 20, 2009)

Maybe he's a tail biter.


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## sharon (Aug 16, 2009)

http://bettysplendens.com/articles/page.imp?articleid=1113
this might help,


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## PinkDiamond (Apr 21, 2009)

Thanks so much for your responses, everyone! It's still a mystery to me because our tap water tests zero ammonia! But at least his new tank is almost cycled, so no more battling with ammonia after that. I'm so glad to hear that it doesn't sound like ammonia burn too - I'd feel sick if we'd been making him that uncomfortable! And thank you so much for the article, that was really useful! Very very informative and it definitely sounds like it could apply to my little guy... unfortunately. 

Does anyone know of anything you can do about tail biting? I'm hoping it's the less than ideal water params in his vase driving him to it, and that a new tank with warm, clean water and many more toys will distract him from it. I'm also thinking aquarium salt might be a good idea to reduce any stress he might be having right now. 

Any other thoughts?


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## tdedolph (Sep 20, 2009)

I don't know, hopefully the heater will help and the extra toys and clean water will make him a happier fish! I'm having the tail biting problem myself, so I feel your pain.

This article was informative as well:
http://www.healthybetta.com/a-bettas-nervous-habit-tail-biting

And, there are a few other helpful hints here that may be useful to you:
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=29707


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