My brother's betta has fin rot...?

Question

I put aquarium salt in his bowl, but it just made matters worse and now his fin almost completely fell off. So today I bought the fish a bigger bowl: 1gal. and added BettaFix.

Do you think he will die?

What more can I do?

NOTE: I noticed my brother's betta had fin rot, and started to change the water in his little bowl daily, while adding a little bit of aquarium salt. It got worse! Now I bought him a bigger bowl, added medicine and his water is crystal clean. I know betta's can die from it. Please help!!!

Thank you so much! in advance.

Answer 1

Fin rot is caused by a bacterial infection which is entirely resistant to salt and will tolerate full marine conditions with flying colors-- adding salt will do nothing for it at this point.  Bettafix is little more than diluted Melafix, which is little more than an irritant to force the fish to produce more mucus, which acts to protect the fish from infection-- it will NOT help existing infections.  Consider it fish Neosporin-- you wouldn't use it alone to treat an infected wound, but you might try it to help a wound from getting infected.  The bowl is going to be a problem-- Bettas are tropical fish, and without a controlled, warm temperature, it will be under constant stress, weakening its immune system. The rapid buildup of ammonia will do the same.  Work on getting it a heated, filtered, 2.5 gallon tank ASAP.  What you need at the moment is daily water changes so ammonia buildup doesn't exacerbate the problem as well as medications-- Maracyn TC, Maracyn 2, Furan 2, Kanaplex, Triple Sulfa, Trisulfa, and similar gram negative effective medications would be good, or should be dosed as directed.

EDIT: In a bowl, cleaning the water every 7-10 is a BAD idea-- ammonia will kill the fish before fin rot!  With high levels of ammonia, the fish will have little or no chance to fight off the infection, let alone recover.

Answer 2

...Metafix will remedy the fin

...bowl water should be changed at 100%, every 7 to 10 days apart.

...since you may not have a filter to agitate the water the marbles or gravel can be rinsed too

....the Bettas like to breath surface air, so it is normal for him to need to surface to breath..so make him space at the surface to stick his head up

...also, keep some java moss in his bowl where he can lay and rest

Answer 3

he does not need a bigger bowl, but yes bettafix for fin rot is great, it definitely does work! Years ago my Betta's fins all rotted away..he was just a body and would wiggle around to get food. We got bettafix remedy for fin rot and everytime I cleaned his water (about once a week) we added the amount of drops it says on the back of the bottle to the water. It is completely unnecessary to clean his water everyday, just make sure he has the right amount of bettafix and with time his fins will grow back even bigger than they were before they rotted away.

Answer 4

i had one. it is best to leave it.  even if it falls off, he will still be ok unless it is really severe.  just keep it well fed (three flakes a day at least)  and watch the water if it gets dirty.  use maracin 1 or 2 to help mild cases

Answer 5

uhh i dont think anyone can help you at this point, but i would change it once a day, without stressing him out and go to bettatalk.org for more info

Answer 6

don't worry, tell your mom and she'll go down to the store and next morning your fish will be as good as new...almost as if it were...hmm..

Answer 7

Go to a local pet store maybe one that is small and may no more compared to petsmart and there are alot of water additives such as pellets to add to the water that can help heal this process just as ich and so on