Homer_Simpson
01-26-2008, 02:59 PM
Hello, everyone, I am just feeling terribly helpless as I usually don't get fish that get sick the way my male betta did.
On November 7 2007, I decided to give my betta a more spacious home and set up a 5 gallon natural planted hex tank for him. Everything appeared to be going well, then about 10 days ago, I noticed that his tail and fins looked really ragged and eaten away. His color also appear faded. Of course this took me totally by surprise as I very rarely in the 9 years that I have kept fish have had any fish get this ill. From my research, I concluded that the poor guy was suffering from fin and tail rot which would progressively worsen if not treated. I first treated him with erythromycin and even after full 5 day treatment his condition did not appear to improve. He spent most of his time in hiding on the bottom of the tank and did not eat for 5 days, and did not even eat after completion of treatment. After further research http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/images/smilies/ranger.gif ,
I decided to follow up with Mardel (maracyn-Two) treatment(containing minocycline). Many people who had bettas with tail and fin rot found that maracyn-two gave them the best results. I knew that there would be a possible negative impact on the biological filter as maracyn-two targets gram postive bacteria, but what else was I to do. I don't have a cycled hospital tank, and did not want to treat him in an uncycled tank as I figured that a totally uncycled tank would stress him out even more. Well 5 days after treatment, he was still in hiding and appeared still and motionless on the bottom. There were a few times, I thought he was dead and when I tapped on the tank, he would flee like a bat from hell and go into hiding. He never surfaced. Yesterday, I changed 50% of the water and added a little bit of aquarium salt.
This evening, I shook the package containing his food vigorously near the surface to get his attention and to my surprise he noticed and surfaced in anticipation for food, so I fed him and he ate. He is for the first time swimming and spent more time on the surface. What a relief. He really looks like he has been to hell and back. His tail and fins look pretty eaten away and he looks like something a big fish ate and spit out. I am really worried. I plan to do another 50% water change in a couple of days as I heard that this was the best way to assure good water quality and speed up his recovery.
Any suggestions from those that have successfully treated bettas would fin and tail rot. I am really attached to this little guy and would hate to lose him.
http://www.1130cc.com/forums/images/smilies/1.gif
If he pulls through this, I am going to change his name from Prancer to "Hell Boy" cause he looks like he has just survived a trip to hell and back.
Some people suggested Melafix, but I was afraid of adding anything more to the tank for fear that I may end up doing more harm than good if I mix too many things. Also I read that some people had really bad experiences using Melafix to treat Bettas with fin and tail rot and were advising against using it.
Here is why it is suggested not to use Melafix on bettas.
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=17002&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0
On November 7 2007, I decided to give my betta a more spacious home and set up a 5 gallon natural planted hex tank for him. Everything appeared to be going well, then about 10 days ago, I noticed that his tail and fins looked really ragged and eaten away. His color also appear faded. Of course this took me totally by surprise as I very rarely in the 9 years that I have kept fish have had any fish get this ill. From my research, I concluded that the poor guy was suffering from fin and tail rot which would progressively worsen if not treated. I first treated him with erythromycin and even after full 5 day treatment his condition did not appear to improve. He spent most of his time in hiding on the bottom of the tank and did not eat for 5 days, and did not even eat after completion of treatment. After further research http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/images/smilies/ranger.gif ,
I decided to follow up with Mardel (maracyn-Two) treatment(containing minocycline). Many people who had bettas with tail and fin rot found that maracyn-two gave them the best results. I knew that there would be a possible negative impact on the biological filter as maracyn-two targets gram postive bacteria, but what else was I to do. I don't have a cycled hospital tank, and did not want to treat him in an uncycled tank as I figured that a totally uncycled tank would stress him out even more. Well 5 days after treatment, he was still in hiding and appeared still and motionless on the bottom. There were a few times, I thought he was dead and when I tapped on the tank, he would flee like a bat from hell and go into hiding. He never surfaced. Yesterday, I changed 50% of the water and added a little bit of aquarium salt.
This evening, I shook the package containing his food vigorously near the surface to get his attention and to my surprise he noticed and surfaced in anticipation for food, so I fed him and he ate. He is for the first time swimming and spent more time on the surface. What a relief. He really looks like he has been to hell and back. His tail and fins look pretty eaten away and he looks like something a big fish ate and spit out. I am really worried. I plan to do another 50% water change in a couple of days as I heard that this was the best way to assure good water quality and speed up his recovery.
Any suggestions from those that have successfully treated bettas would fin and tail rot. I am really attached to this little guy and would hate to lose him.
http://www.1130cc.com/forums/images/smilies/1.gif
If he pulls through this, I am going to change his name from Prancer to "Hell Boy" cause he looks like he has just survived a trip to hell and back.
Some people suggested Melafix, but I was afraid of adding anything more to the tank for fear that I may end up doing more harm than good if I mix too many things. Also I read that some people had really bad experiences using Melafix to treat Bettas with fin and tail rot and were advising against using it.
Here is why it is suggested not to use Melafix on bettas.
http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=PNphpBB2&file=viewtopic&t=17002&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=0