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I have a betta in a 3 gallon Eclipse system for about four months. I recently noticed that one of the tail fins seems to be disappearing. It looks kind of like a swordtail's rear fin. My guess is that this is some kind of fin rot. After reading the post about Melafix and Bettafix, I'm not sure what to do to cure this. I must admit that I have not done water changes, as I should. I believed what I was told that it wasn't necessary with a Betta because they only produce a small amount of waste. I thought that as long as I had it in a tank with a filter it would be fine. I now know that that is not true and will do periodic water changes. Will doing water changes alone fix the problem? If not, what should I do to help the fin to grow?

Since you hadn't done water changes I suspect bacterial fin rot (there are two kinds). Fin rot can occur quite quickly so I'd reccomend action ASAP... Jungle labs makes a product called "fungus clear tank buddies" ... Unfortunatly in this case they're formulated for 10 gallons. However they cover both bacterial and fungal fin rot. Nitrofurazone furazolidone, potassium dichromate are the active ingredients. If you cant find jungle labs fungus clear in your area I'd still suggest looking for those active ingredients. I dosed the tank once and combined with improved water quality (I had removed the UGF plates from a used tank) saw marked improvememnt. Following that with a dose of melafix for regrowth and I havent seen any problems since.

IME melafix is NOT enough to arrest actual finrot. Real medication is needed prior to dosing with melafix to aid in regrowth. However it'll be up to you.

Good Luck

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