BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Fish Long fins ... Short tail ....Happy fish ... Sad me

Hi all ,

I have found this site accidentally while I was searching the net for something that has to do with my fish .... I noticed that it liked chasing its tail , I was abit happy with this 'cuz I thought it was playing around ... untill two days back I was watching it , and noticed that the tail is VERY short !!, I tried to see if there are any spots .. marks .. any other thing .. but nothing was there .. did it eat its own tail ?!? is it what is called Rot ?!? dunno , the fish looks healthy though and swaims happily and normal..

it swaims like crazy when it sees me entering the room :love: ,, even more crazy when I shake the food infront of it ... Wew I like it when it does that ..
but what about the tail !! <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />
any adea ? ... Help ??


here is how it looks like

my fish chased his tail a lot when he was getting fin rot too. It looked like he was trying to look at it or something. I wonder if it hurt him at all? But I know it's fin rot, because it just isn't the tail...

Elise

Hi and thanx alot Elise for the reply , I was hoping that any reply would say Oh this is no ROT !
I went around and read some posts , got scared with some sad endings , and happy with other happy ones .

I read that some were using Bettafix and melafix ?
will try to get them tomorrow, but what about the salt ? honestly I have no idea about this . what kind of salt.. amount ...?!?
you know I just remebered that last week I bought water plants , as per what was on the box .. that it is a dried one ..fish can eat it ...etc. so I placed it in the bowl ... next day the i found the the water color chamged to blues(color of the plant) so I removed the plant .. and changed the water afterwords ....hmmmmmmmm... I guess this was the reason !!

So can you Elise , or any body tell me about the salt tratment?

This is exactly the decoration plant I used
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Well, I'm not as experienced as most of the other members, who can probably tell you more, but I've done a lot of research, since I'm currently treating my fishy for fin rot too. I started out with salt (aquarium salt, available at pretty much any pet store that has fish supplies, and relatively inexpensive), and if it doesn't look too bad, it might work with just some salt, provided you do daily water changed and keep the water very clean. And of course make sure it's the same temperature, yada yada, no soap.

I had to run out and buy some MelaFix, since what I was doing wasn't helping. I read that daily water changes stress the fish out and turn out to actually be worse, but when I stopped the water changes is when he took a bad turn for the worse. So now I have a fish who has unfortunately lost a good portion of his fins <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />

Keep it warm if you can too, that seems to be the general consensus (hmm...is that spelled right?). Mine is under my desk shelf, enclosed in some carboard with a little desk lamp in there with it and a towel around the tank, and that keeps my 1-gallon pretty constant at about 78-80 degrees.

As for the plants, I have no idea what they are or what they might do to water. I'm a newbie to fish :-/

I hope I helped some! A lot of the other members will probably have better advice and can speak from experience, while I am just quoting what I've read here and on other sites. I hope your guy gets better, I know how much I love mine!!

Elise

Hello D.C...welcome to the forum !

Your fish may very well have finrot. If you look closely at the edges of the fins you may see red or dark colored tips. The reason your fish was biting at his tail is probably because it was irritating to him. One of my fish did that too when he had finrot..though they don't always..

Elise is right about the water changes. Making sure your buddy has fresh clean water all the time, and that the clean water you replace the old water with is the same temp..that will help as far as not stressing out the fish as much.

I mentioned to Elise in an earlier post about floating two bowls in a heated tank. ONe with the fish in it and the other with clean fresh water. When I need to change the water I just carefully scoop the fish from one bowl to the other. Then I clean out the old bowl, add fresh clean aged water and float it back in the tank...ready for the next day. I have found this to work out very well with my fish when they are being treated for one thing or another.

About the aquarium salt..the carton will say to add one teasp. per gallon...I usually use 1/2 teasp. per gallon myself..but I have used the larger dose with no problems.

I don't know anything about those plants D.C...but if they were coloring the water up it was probably a good thing to take them out. I don't know if that had anything to do with your fish's condition or not though. Seems finrot and these fish just plain go together...! It can be frustrating at times.

I do wish you well with your buddie there. I would start treating him with the fresh clean 80degreeF water and a bit of aquarium salt, changing the water every day and see what happens. If the fins continue to disintigrate then go ahead with the meds. Just follow the directions on the package.

HOpe to hear good news next time you post D.C. !!! <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Hello again ,
eliseaboo & EmgBettaNut sorry that i did not get the chance to reply and thank you on time . but I did went to the pet store I deal with and explained the matter . they dont have the melafix or the bettafix , but he gave me a solution which he said is for 4 days course , one drop or thos green liquid daily , without changing the water !!!! he did not have acontainer to sell,it was for their use, so he poured some for me in a small bottle .As he said it is kind of anti biotec.

I have another Q though ! , does the tail grow back !!! cuz I do notice that it is a bit longer than it used to be .. different in color , but longer than before !!

Yes D. the tails do grow back but sometimes they do look a bit different than before. The new tissue is clear but eventually the color does come back.

YESSS , true it is kind of clear , then I guess it is a good sign ... Thanx =)

Most definitly a good sign D. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> Your fishie is healing well then. Make sure you continue clean fresh water frequently to prevent any new spots from breaking out.

I would also suggest taking anything out of his tank/bowl that could cause his fins to get torn. Things like plastic plants and ruff gravel are very bad for betta fins. Once they get torn they are open to infection and finrot. Anytime my fish's fins get torn I put them in a bowl and give them the daily clean water treatment until they heal.