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I've had this new betta for about 4 months. He is in a 5 gallon mini-bow with a penguin bio-wheel 100. Everytime I do a water change he gets fin rot. I always use salt with my water change. I put melafix in his tank too as soon as I notice him getting it. Then his tail starts to heal and gets almost back to normal. Then its time to change his water again. Does anyone else have this problem? Ive never had this with anyother betta and dont know how to fix it.

That's odd... usually fin rot is caused by BAD water quality.

Okay, first few thoughts... is the water that you're adding colder than the water in the tank? What dechlorinator are you using? Try testing the water from the tap... is it significantly different from your tank water?

Hmm... well, if we can get the answers to those, we might be able to figure out what's going on...

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

i tested the water from the tank and the tap. it isnt any different. and i leave the water to sit over night before i change it out. i use bio-safe tap water detoxifier. i just dont understand it. its been about 1 1/2 weeks since i changed his water and his tail is fine and healing. i never put any medication in the water other then a little melafix. he must not like it when i gravel vacuum. who knows?!

As it can only be in the water going by the info you have provided. I would take a tank & a tap sample to your LFS and get a full water test.

I always let my water sit for one week just as a precaution, I also warm the water up to approx the same temp but it is usually above the tank temp.

Keith

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what type of salt do you use? hopefully it's aquarium salt and not table salt.

check the ph if it is to acidic it can start eating away at your fishes fins.

do what i do, get 10 gallon platsic trash cans, fill with water, and a underwatere filter, and that way u always have water to use for change, that way the water can settle, and u can treat the water from there, so intern less work for later.

HOW do you do the waterchange.

I have had a very similar thing where every week i'd get 2 fish with immediate finrot. Water quality was fine, i was really gentle getting them out, but yeah, not very good.

What i found is that I had two options. Do smaller more frequent changes, or not change at all for long periods and then treat the finrot and start again. The latter is pretty awful for fishy.

try doing very small changes every day.

IMO its stress-related, either to the shift in water chemistry, to a syphon, to the disruption of the tank or the way he is caught.

If it heals fully between water changes, try going through that list and see which one makes the most difference if you do it differently.

I'd definitely get your water checked like Keith said that can be a doozy.

Also, what type of betta is it and what does the edge of the tail look like? sheared straight down or red and frilly or little red blobs or like melted nylon rope?

There is the possibility that he is nipping at his tail while you aren't looking (often a stress response), so i'm just trying to rule that out.


For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

Not all bettas respond well to salt, its usually totally unrequired except for illnesses anyway. Why were you using it?