poor betta fins

my poor male, zen, got sick and i thought he was dying, thankfully he has survived but now he wont swim at all and just floats at the top of his tank on his side kinda bent. he wont eat and his fins are awful looking. i have tried and tried to make him better but with no success. i feel like an awful parent!!:( any help or suggestions would be awesome. i am just overwhelmed with what to do to make him feel better. his coloring is still beautiful except for on his belly and it has turned a really murky white color. i treated him for ick but it has not went away. please help!!!

what's his tank size? is it heated? what do you mean, his fins look awful? are they ragged looking, or just close together?

x-X sorry for all the questions.

I was getting on here to post about a very identical problem this morning!

My Multi HM male, kept in a 5.5G divided tank with two other males. (So he gets almost 2G of space) Use two bubble filters, well-cycled tank with low NH4 NO2 and NO3 levels, buffered to 7pH. Not heated - but stays at 70-72F. Has a small apple snail and a java moss in his 'compartment'. Fed dried/frozen brine shrimp and betta food. Nothing new since last week's 10% water change.

He's been perfectly healthy since I bought him. Turned on the light this morning for feeding time and noticed his normally full fins looked more like 'thin veil-tail' finnage. He was near the top and listless. His color is now dull. I poked him with my finger and he darted for cover, but fins are staying 'strunk' and thin. I've pulled him out into an old betta tank and added salt and Fungus Guard (treats fungal and secondary bacterial infections)

Never seen anything like this! Ideas?

I'll take pictures tonight after work.

I remember that the water temperature plays a big part in their overall well being. It's been a while since I had bettas. 80 degree temp is what I had read was their preferred temp. Too cool and they don't eat, probably fall prey to internal problems.

his fins are very ragged looking. like they have been shredded. he is in a 2 gallon by himself cuz my mollies do not like him at all. his tank isnt heated but i leave his light on for him during part of the day. i will try to get some pics taken and posted today after work.

Treat with aquarium salt and Betta Revive. Bettas can with stand lower temps and survive just fine. Fin rot is usually caused from dirty water. Bettas need 100% -75% water changes at the least twice a week even with filters running. If you think it may be an intestinal problem you can use crushed garlic and make a juice from it. Add to the water. Also if the garlic is crushed up small enough they can eat it. I add garlic to my tanks sometimes just as a precautionary measure.

thanks whisper i change his tank every few days so i dont think it could be from the water being dirty. i will go to the store tonight and get some betta revive for him

what does Betta Revive do? i don't use meds, i prefer natural methods, so i don't know.

Here's what my male looked like on Wed.

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Here's what he looked like this morning:

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Is this similar to what happened to yours? In my 20+ years of keeping fish, I've never run across symptons like this.

I had time to do an internet search and I found a few posibilities: Betta Pinch fin - caused by gill parasites or Saprolegnia Fungus infection. If our mutual problems are caused by either of these - then it was an introduced infection, not tank maintainance. Though my seven different tests showed my aquarium's water quality to be excellent, I went ahead and did a 75% water change just in case there's a contaminant there that is not detectable and added garlic. My Multi HM will stay in the isolation tank with the meds. If the fungus/antibiotic treatment doesn't work in a few days, I'll try an antiparasitic.

Yes I was going to say clamp fin also by looking at your picture. Also how old is he? They sometimes look like that from old age just before they die. Was he in your divided tank with the other males? If so I would recommend Tearing down the whole tank and sterilizing it and everything in it and start a new. I would still try the salt, Betta Revive and the garlic. If nothing happens in the next few day then you can go on to try something stronger like Amoxicillin.

his fins arent clamped together like that. they are like strings hanging from him. im hoping that maybe it is just a parasite since his belly up to the bottom of his mouth is white instead of the normal purple color

Sounds like fin rot. What does his poop look like?

I finally got a hold of my fish expert friend. She has seen something like this over the years in shipments of Bettas. Its caused by parasites which weaken them and allow secondary infections of bacteria/fungi. She's saved a couple of large shipments of afflicted bettas using Garlic/antiparasitic and/or Fungus guard/antiparasitic combinations. According to this expert - the half-moons will look clamped while the Veil tails will look like you roled up their fins into tight strings. Mine are Half-moons/Super Deltas - is yours a Veil tail (standard betta)?

I've found that fin rot generally seems to shorten their fins, doesn't turn them into somewhat stiff 'ribbons/strings'. Just got my new HM over ick then fin rot. It was totally different symptoms than these.

I noticed that my Copper was starting to not flair his pectorial fin last night, and was acting lethargic. This morning (after changing water and adding a full coffee cup of fresh garlic 'tea') he's now energetic, though his tail is still a little stiff. I'm draining the tank down again right now and I'm going to turn the air pump off and add the antiparasitic along with the garlic tea.

I've already added the antiparasitic to the worst afflicted Multi HM this morning. I'm going to add some garlic as well.

It's amazing the weird things that parasites do to these bettas. I've learned a lesson now and will treat any new ones with antiparasitics.

fin rot will rot the whole fin, not leave it stringy. usually, ripping the fin on something, or biting it themselves, will cause the stringy look. my VT, Cup, recently ripped his tail on a plastic plant, and it gave a 'stringy' look. can you get photos of your betta? that'll help out alot. is he fatter than usual, or bloated in any way?

yes mine is a vt. so that could be what it is cuz that fits what mine is going there. what should i do to help him

what kind of plants do you have in the tank? anything at all he could rip his fins up on? try getting some parasite meds, too, just in case. i've heard a good brand is Jungle's parasite tablets.

Poor bettas. I never would have though to use garlic as a possible remedy!

Yes garlic is wonderful for parasites in any fish. I always like to try the natural remedies first before resorting to regular meds.

he doesnt have any plants with him since i thought he was dying i took everything out of his tank so he wouldnt hurt himself any worse than he already was.

I hope he gets better,

thanks keelo...me too.

Garlic additive is very good for prevention and heping the fishes immune system..Added side effect it entices the fish to eat. So it is definitley worth a try with your sick betta. Best of luck hope he pulls thru

thanks i will try that when i get up in the morning.

My two 'sickys' that I put in an isolation tank side-by-side (my Copper started getting 'stiff fins' and listless Friday night) are already appearing to feel better. They don't look much better, but they're starting to flare the faces at each other and act like macho men again. Hope this is a sign that they're getting stronger!

I've been using Fungus Guard + Parasite Rid + fresh Garlic tea + dash of sea salt - and 90% water changes each day.