A fish Tail

I have a foster fish named "Duncan Gaither FinNuckles". Excuse the poor picture qualities. Its hard to take a picture of a moving fish.

He is actually my daughters fish, but until now, I have been the one to take care of him while she was in school. This is our only pet.

Duncan is a "Half moon Betta". We purchased him a year ago. He is red white and blue. Sometimes, depending on his stress level, he may only be one color.

After we had him about four months, we noticed his tail disappearing into frazzled, choppy, painful appearance. I was concerned, so I googled the possibilities of what could be going wrong with the poor fella. After all, he is not the happiest acting fish I ever had. In fact, this one does not have much of a personality at all.

 
While searching for an explanation, I found that its possible he could have Fin Rot. This is due to a disease or fungal infection from poor water changes or diet. I'm sure this is what he had but I'm a little confused because I made sure I kept his bowl clean and fed him well, but what ever the reason, I know I needed to fix him. I did not waste any time and ran to the pet store for some aquarium salt. I read somewhere that you can add some salt to the water and it will cure the bacteria or infection that's eating him alive.

 
After I started adding a little salt to his water with every water change, I noticed he was somewhat happier and made big bubble nest like betta fish will do when they are feeling good or in the mating mode.
Its been about six months now since I started adding the salt. I'm gradually weaning him off the salt by adding less and less to each water change.

While feeding him today I realized, he's got his tail fin back!
 

He was really showing his colors. Its July! What a perfect time for him to be patriotic.
If anyone has any more suggestions I could use in keeping him healthy, please comment and let me know.

1 comment

  1. We've had betas for a number of years. They can get infections in their tail pretty easily. It looks like you fixed the problem, he looks great :)

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