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Hi! I have a very adorable betta with fin rot. I first noticed him losing pieces of his fins just about 1 week ago.

He is in a 1-gallon bowl by himself, and the water perameters are as follows: ammonia 0.25 ppm, nitrate 20 ppm, nitrite 0.5 ppm, hardness 120 ppm, buffering capacity 80, and pH 6.8.

I have been treating him with Marcyn [erythromycin] (1 pill/ten gallons, so 1/10 of a pill daily) and salt for the 5 days indicated on the Marcyn box. I have been cleaning his bowl almost every day by rinsing it with hot water and swirling the gravel around.

I thought he was getting better until I came home this evening and saw that the fin rot has now attacked the fin on his belly, which had been untouched until now. The fins that had been frayed are looking better. His behavior is more normal than it was last week, i.e. he is more active, doesn't clamp his fins to his sides, etc. He hasn't started making bubble nests again though. What should I do? Should I stop cleaning the bowl so much? Am I losing some of the antibiotic by doing so? Should I try another antibiotic? Please help. Thanks very much!

I have been cleaning his bowl almost every day by rinsing it with hot water and swirling the gravel around.

Am I losing some of the antibiotic by doing so?

No, not some of it... all of it. Without going into my opinion of one gallon containers for fish, I would have to say that any medication you use would be ified by changing the water every day, but in a one gallon tank you almost have to. You are also killing any beneficial bacteria, if such a thing exists in a one gallon container.

I would find a container big enough that you could give him the full course of antibiotics ( five days) without doing a water change.. a five gal container of some kind maybe and use half a pill instead. He's not used to his water parameters if you're changing all the water every day anyway, so I don't see how it would stress him out any further.

That is my opinion, anyway.

Hey Spongebob, Take the pill and crush it and dissolve it in some sterile water, then shake it up and add the recommended dosage each day. Cut the water changes back to every other day. Also, if possible get him a 2g container.
Some fin rot is fast moving and some is slow and insidious. The slow kind is usually caused by poor water quality and a 1G is VERY hard to keep cleaned ever other day. Try the meds for another 5 days and see if there is any progress. If not switch to something different.
This could take a whole to get under control and just when you think you've got the upper hand it might crop up again.

If your financially able to, walmart has a 10 gal starter kit-everything you need(hood,light,filter) except the heater for about $30. As long as you don't put too many fish in there, the filter it comes with should be good enough for him.
You're doing daily water changes, but your ammonia and nitrites are high. They should be 0.
I only suggest the 10 gal, because with a smaller one, by the time you've dished out the $ for the accessories, it'll cost about the same. I have a 10 gal on my counter, a dresser, & a small microwave cart, so there's always room for it somewhere

I've gone through this, specially with new bettas.

Generally just having this CLEANER water in the bowl, then the cup at the store helps a lot, and of course cleaning the bowl all out about every 5 or so days.
If this doesn't work, I'll normally put in a bit of BettaMax for the fin rot. Really seems to help perk my fish up. I follow the directions for each medication as indicated. If I'm suppose to leave it in for 48 hours, then I don't clean the bowl for 48 hours. Then repeat the medication if necissary.

I'm curious about you having nitrate in that 1 gallon container. I use 1 gallon bowls for my bettas myself, have for years and don't even have ammonia showing up on the tests after 5 days. I'm not saying I don't believe that you're doing water changes every day, I'm just saying that something is DEFINITELY off here. For nitrate to show up in a cycling tank it usually takes about 3 weeks due to the life cycle of our bacterial friends.

So anyway here's what I'd do:

If you can upgrade to a 2 gallon bowl, do it. It's much easier to keep it clean.

For now, make sure you're cleaning out and replacing 100% of the water every 2-3 days until all signs of rot have disappeared. Just take your betta out with a little cup, dump all of the water in the bowl out, give it a wipe and fill it back up with fresh water that's the same temperaturte as the old water in the cup. Then just dechlorinate the fresh water, (I like to add 1/2 tsp. aquarium salt/gallon) and it's all fresh and clean for your friend.

Ok so for the fin rot. . . it sounds to me like you just slipped on your maintenance and he's not liking the quality of the water in his bowl. My favourite treatment for this is Melafix, a natural product that uses tea tree oil as an antiseptic. It's much less stressful than using antibiotics and it works very well. I combine the melafix with 1/2 tsp. of aquarium salt/gallon and usually it does the trick.

Normally in a 1 gallon container you'll need to change 100% of the water every 5-7 days maximum to make sure it stays nice and clean. Also make sure the temperature of your betta's water is warm enough for him. I find they get sick very easily when the temperature drops even a little. If you can get some live hornwort at your local pet store with a nice 2 gallon bowl, your betta will think he's on cloud 9. The hornwort keeps the ammonia in the betta bowl low and makes a nice comfy betta pillow for sleeping.

Follow these steps and you should be watching a happy betta again in no time.