# New Betta :)



## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

I haven't visited this forum in a while, but I just rescued another betta today so I figured I would share some pictures! I also need some ideas to help my other betta.

I picked up the last elephant ear betta at Petco today, although I wasn't planning to. My 10 gallon has been running with just live plants for a few months now because I've been waiting on some scarlet badis, but I decided not to wait any longer. I'll just have to set up my extra ten gallon for scarlet badis later. The new guy is named Calvin and he has the 10 gallon to himself along with some pond snails and what I believe are live blood worms. He's been snacking on them since I put him in the tank, so I won't be feeding him for a while.














I'm not sure if anyone remembers him, but my other betta is named Reagan. He lives in a cycled, heavily planted 5.5 gallon with a heater and sponge filter. About 2 or 3 months ago, his fins started to get a little ragged around the edges, so I started doing multiple water changes each week instead of just one. The fin rot continued to progress, so I treated him with aquarium salt for 10 days. Still the fin rot progressed, but very slowly. I figured he had gotten the fin rot from sleeping on the gravel at night, so I made sure I was keeping it clean, and eventually covered it with sand. I also added an Indian Almond Leaf to help strengthen his fins, and raised the amount of protein in his diet. He gets 3-4 New Life Spectrum betta pellets daily and 2-3 frozen bloodworms or brine shrimp 2-3 times a week. The fin rot is still progressing. It seemed to stop for a while, without healing, but now it seems to be progressing again. Last week I did a full treatment of Kanaplex and I'm waiting to see what that does for his fins. They're getting pretty short and I'm not sure what my next step is going to be to try to stop the fin rot. Any ideas?


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

Ever tried medication? When my betta had fin rot I used betta fix (comes in a little blue bottle). Worked great for me, just don't use it together with salt.


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## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

Meds are usually a last resort for me, but yes, I did use Kanaplex which is fairly strong. There is one other med that I was going to try (can't remember the name at the moment), that someone on my other forum recommended to me. She's basically having the same problem with one of her bettas.

Thanks for the suggestion, but I won't be using BettaFix. It contains an oil that can coat their gills and the surface of the water, making it hard for them to breath. It seems to work for some people, but it has also been known to kill bettas. I'd rather not take my chances with it.


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## BettaGuy (May 6, 2012)

yes it does, but only if you keep your betta in a tank with no surface agitation (aka a little bowl). Since your betta is in a filtered tank you shouldn't have that problem


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

i use melafix if a problem such as fin rot comes up..i have never had any kind of issue with it , but then again all of my tanks are well filtered and aerated..
bettafix and melafix are the same thing but maybe at a different concentrate...the only times i have heard of it harming fish is when their tanks were not aerated..


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## Kirrie (Jan 18, 2013)

It might be worth a shot then. I just finished the Kanaplex treatment so I'm going to give it some time and see if that changes anything. It's really sad to see his beautiful fins torn to shreds like this, and I can't believe how stubborn this fin rot has been!


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