Siamese Fighting fish possibility of fin rot :(

Hi I have just bought a Betta a couple of days ago from my LPS. he was being kept in a small container and when i inspected his fins b4 i bought him he it was difficult to see clearly if he was 100% healthy. as i have not had him long i have no idea if his tail is just normal like that. anyways he is a crown betta so he should have a spikey tail. well when i put him in his new tank i noticed what he has is kind of a ragged tail with 1 area especially looking like it has had a chunk taken out of it or rotten away. there is a transparent area around the edge of the tail. im not certain if this is new growth or if it is the rot. i went to the same petstore today to have a look at his brothers and the brothers have spikes coming off the tails without the white edges.
I keep him in an 80L bio filtered tank with live plants.
what do you suggest that i do? should i wait and see if it gets worse? or should i put him in a medical tank and try the salt bath or the daro fin rot medication now?
thanks for your help. i would especially like to hear from people who have actually cured fin rot b4 and i would like to know how you did it!!

 

Can you maybe take a pic of the tail for me? If it is new growth then clean warm water will be all that he needs, what you might do is add a rooibos teabag to the water. Let it float for an hour or so. It will stain the water but the tannins and everything else in the rooibos is actually better to treat finrot with than the meds.

 

Also go read this thread :
http://www.tropicalaquarium.co.za/showthread.php?10481-Betta-with-fin-rot&highlight=finrot

Ive explained a fair bit how I treated finrot. The bonus is if you use the teabag, it wont do any damage. Where as meds can hurt betta's they are rather sensitive to meds.

 

here are the pics you requested. do you think it is fin rot or did i just like the runt of the litter

 

IMO your fish looks fine and in good health. He will do much better in a large tank when compared to the container he was in.

 

so that is not fin rot then? it is not as white on the pic as it is in real life!!on the pic it is a milky orange color but it is much more milky in the tank!!

 

i posted the photos 4 you

 

There does seem to be a bit of bacterial damage to the tail fin - off the shelf anti bacterial (Tetra's one is good) should clear it up in no time - just watch your water quality ....

 

I agree with azure, hes definitely had some problems but he looks healthy otherwise. Feed him good foods, keep his water in great condition and he will recover The white is his fins regrowing. @azurekoi I dont think he needs meds - just good water and the rooibostea will work better i think. Since the tea has antibacterial properties, i prefer to use it on the fighters than meds since they are more sensitive from what I have learnt.

 

should I move him to a smaller medical tank and use some tea and salt?
im not too sure if i want to put the tea in the water because the aquarium has only been running for a week, and i doubt it is fully cycled yet... i dont want the tea to kill all the bacteria in my filter. the water had a highish ph 7.5-8 still but seems to be spotlessly clean.

or should i just leave the tank how it is with the fighter in it with no meds.

another thing i would like to know is .. will his tail grow back his splendid spikes and how long does it take for tail fins to regrow?

 

Keep him in the tank, are you using something like seachem stability or microbe-lift special blend - it helps the cycling of the tank. Dont use the salt, its not needed. Just add the ROOIBOS tea - dont use other teas. It wont affect the filters or bacteria at all. It will actually make your fighter feel more secure - the tannins will discolour the water which he will love

 

Some interesting read about Rooibos Tea.

http://www.herbs2000.com/herbs/herbs_rooibos.htm

 

thank you all for the information. Now that i KNOW that im not being paranoid and that there is / has been a fin rot problem.
I have decided to do absolutely nothing about it at the moment. since im not sure if it is getting worse or healing, i will wait 1.5 week i guess and if there is no marked change or it has gotten worse i will be putting Sauron in hospital with tea etc...

im still interested to know that when i do get fin regrowth will his tail fin regrow completely? I want him to have SPIKES back on his tail.. just makes fighter fish look sooo good while flaring !!

 

From my experience with bettas, if a tail fin gets damaged (be it by bacteria or injury) it will often just grow back clear/lacking original colour, so the tail will still look damaged. Is this maybe what has happened with your betta? He looks very healthy otherwise.

 

Simply treat Sauron with some rooibos tea and keep your water temp constant to make sure you kill of any nasties that might still be left or traveled with from the LPS. However the clear fin regrowth is dead normal and I have seen this countless times before when I take in strays or misinformed decisions that got a beat down from the tank ruler... Oh and as said before the rooibos is perfectly harmless to the bacteria in your filter in fact it feeds them aswell

 

As for the spikes it will depend on how his rays looked before he got the fin rot, sometimes they grow back, sometimes not. I have a crowntail who's rays grew back. I also hae a veiltail who's tail grows back as well (he had finrot when I got him, now he is a tail biter of note since the tail grows almost twice his body lenght). Don't freak out if you do notice he is a tail biter, I just add some rooibos tea to the tanks (I have 3 males) with every water change and I havent seen finrot again. All my boys have vibrant colours so the regrowht isnt even visible.

 

ok i thought i would update you. it has been 2 weeks and there is a HUGE regrowth that has happened. he is lively and doing his thing. he fights all the time with his own reflection in the aquarium and is a pig when it is feeding time. even when i have my arm in teh water for cleaning or when i put some moss on a rock he bites me!!
i used tea in the aquarium and now i have filtered it out and water changes. no salt used as i did not want to affect the new plants in the tank.
and now i hope that his spikes are on tehir way back soon!!

 

He's looking absolutely lovely! Is he a full crowntail or a combtail? Looks more like a Half Sun Combtail, or Delta Tail Combtail. The caudal webbing doesn't look reduced enough for him to be a crowntail. He is truely stunning though - I'm so glad he is making such a good recovery.

 

that is one BEAUTIFUL betta! look how his colours have improved too

 

@Wyvren, Do you just put a new or used teabag into the aquarium and leave it or do you make an actual tea and then add that to the water?