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It wasn't fin rot. The fins were melting. First the color sapped away from them, then they looked like jelly, then they disappeared. It happened to my $50 HM DT gold betta Now it's happening to my best friend's guppies.

What is this? How do we treat it? My old betta wasn't responsive to treatment with melafix...

Have you done a water change recently?

Sounds like ammonia poisoning to me.

HAve you checked your water parameters?

I've seen this with a betta I inherited. Same type of deal where the usual clean water, melafix didn't check it. The fins disintegrated and I could see bits and pieces at the bottom of the gravel-less container. He would swim and I'd watch pieces fall off.

I finally checked it. What you may want to try is a round of something like Fungus Eliminator. Hopefully, he is not in a tank with sensitive fish like Cories. If so, isolate him into a 2 gallon container with identical temp water (use a single thermometer to match temps).

It is also better to have really clean, sterile water anyway. If he is already in a container, hopefully it is at least one gallon. If not, upgrade if possible. If you have gravel in a bowl, you may want to consider either ditching it unti you are past the crisis, or rinse it and sanitize somehow before adding back.

Jungle's Fungus Eliminator can be dosed at 1/4 tsp per gallon. If you cannot find Fungus Eliminator, get something else with a nitrofuran - like Furan-2, Furacyn, and even Jungle's Fungus Eliminator. In each case you would need to somehow divide it up for your size tank. It is easier with a 2 gallon than a 1 gallon. With powders, I just open the capsule and use a blade on a piece of glass to divide it up

Mine stopped melting just in time. You need to keep it from progressing into the base of the fin.

After a few days, if you see it conintuing to shred, do a water change, and try Kanacyn if you can find it. It is by aquatronics and are capsules in a greyish box. If you can't find that, try Maracyn and Maracyn-2 together but these aren't absorbed as well as the nitrofurans or the Kanamycin. But, they may work as a topical.

The growth back is slow. But watch carefully for it to stop shredding. When you percieve it is not shrinking any further, look for evidence of growth and you'll know you checked it. If it has stopped and you don't see growth, continue with a second round of the med a few days longer to see if you get growth.

You will likely get some crimps in the fins where the new fin meets the old. Mine has a crimp that is almost grown out, but it will be months before the evidence is gone, I'm sure and a few months have passed since the infection.

Make sure he has good fresh food (less than 60 days since opened). This has the best vitamins and minerals he'll need for regrowth.

Let us know how he does.

Diane

EDIT: I should add that you should sanitize anything that is in his bowl. Just place it in hot tap water with a huge overdose of aquarium salt and let it sit overnight. YOu could even do this with the gravel to sanitize it. If he's in a tank, that's another story.

Last edited by Cory_Di at 09-Feb-2005 21:43