Hi,
A while back I had posted about some of my bettas jumping the dividers... :( Well Ive been keeping the water very clean by doing water changes once a week and theres also a filter in there. I have also added salt to the tank.
What Im wondering is the salt doesnt appear to be working very well. Zeus fins appear to be getting worse!
What else can I do?

Mariah,

I have used a combo of salt, stress coat and blackwater extract with regular water changes and had good luck with that, but sometimes the finrot will progress to the point that meds are needed. I'm not sure if you're in the US or not, but I've found Maracyn to be the best for advanced fin rot. You should be able to see improvement within a few days. I'm not big on meds unless absolutely necessary, but if memory serves, he's been like this for a while now, right? If so, I'd bring in the big guns and use the meds.

Good luck with him and keep us posted.


:)

Blackwater/IAL could work wonders for you. You could also try some salt dips to try and stop whatever is causing the fin rot.

How big is your tank? I don't recall.
And how much of the water are you changing out? If you're only doing partial changes, you might considering bumping them up to about every 3 - 4 days. I would continue using the small amounts of salt in the tank along with the more frequent water changes.

Are his fins shredding or are they getting black around the edges? How bad has it gotten?

The tank is a 2.5 divided tank with 2 male bettas in it. Parts of his fins are starting to curl. They are not turning back or anything just starting to curl. Hes missing part of his front fin too... Im assuming that was from when he jumped the divider.
I could use Maracyn 2 because Tiny is on the other side of the divider and his fins are shreded...
Heres a pic of Tiny:



What exactly is blackwater/IAL? And how do you do a salt dip?

I don't think you need to do a salt dip at this point. They're really good for them if they have really horrible cases of finrot or parasites. I think improving water quality will be your answer...

Anyway... with a tank that size with 2 bettas in it, you should probably be doing 100% water changes every 4 - 5 days or so. So... for now, I would up your changes to every 4 days, and dissolve a pinch of aquarium salt in some tank water in a cup - then once it's dissolved dump it into the tank.

With his fins just starting to curl, that's just from poor water quality and if you bump up the change frequency you should see improvement. YOu should also see improvement and new growth in Tim's fins too.

If it all continues to get worse I'd then consider using Maracyn but I don't think you need to do that just yet.

Also, you might want to try getting an extra piece of plastic canvas and make a little barrier to go up under the hood. It might take some planning and re-cutting (and a few cuss words :) ), but I had to do that so that every spare teeny little bit of space was covered so my boys didn't jump to "visit" each other.

Bettamom I wll defentally do that! Thank you so much everyone!

Mariah, to answer your question about IAL, IAL stands for indian almond leaves. In the wild bettas live in waters close to the Indian Almond trees and the leaves drop down into their water and alter the water chemistry. By placing the IAL leaves into your betta's tank you are simulating the water condition they would be living in if they were in the wild. Blackwater extract is the liquid that comes from boiling IAL. It can be found in some petstores such as PetSmart. I use the blackwater extract, aquarium salt and stress coat at every water change and since I started I have not had a single case of ich, velvet or fin rot. You can find more about IAL in the pinned topics at the top of the forum under Previously Pinned Resource Topics


*deep sigh* Now if it would only work for tail biters! :blink:

Oh ok! I understand now! Just one more question though - Do I actually buy the leaves or just the blackwater extract?
Thanks :)

Either. They both have the same properties. I'd go for the actual IAL, but if you want it sooner, go get the blackwater for now... :)

Ok thank you :)

Keep in mind with the IAL that it changes the water hardness property so don't use too much. I usually put a square between 1" and 2" square in my 2.5G tanks.

Perfect thank you :)