Treating Fin Rot

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Mari

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Treating Fin Rot

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When the beautiful fins of your previously healthy looking fish suddenly seem to be melting away, it can be easy to panic. It may be fin rot! Luckily this common aquarium fish disease is often curable, especially if you take action right away.

Keep reading for more information on what causes fin rot and how you can prevent it as well as diagnosing and curing it if it’s already too late.

What causes fin rot?

Fin rot, like many fish diseases, is caused by a combination of factors. It’s a bacterial or fungal infection, meaning the “melting” is caused by bacteria or fungus eating away at the fins. Bacteria such as Pseudomonas that cause fin rot are not that dangerous for your fish by themselves and can actually be found in any aquarium. The real danger is secondary infection, such as when the fish rips its (tail) fin or is otherwise injured, for example by other fish. The bacteria and fungus can easily latch onto the open wound and cause it to become infected.

Another huge factor in fin rot is stress. A stressed fish is much more susceptible to any disease and especially fin rot! Stress can be caused by many things, but the main reasons for fin rot are bad water quality and an improperly cycled aquarium caused by overstocking or lack of water changes.

Insufficient feeding, bad choice of tankmates, injuries, disease or stress from transport and all other things that cause stress and/or injuries to a fish increase the chances of infection. The oranda below has both dropsy and a case of fin rot on the pelvic fins.

Preventing fin rot

There are a few simple steps you can take to stop fin rot before it has a chance to start.

  • Keep your aquarium clean and ammonia and nitrite values at zero at all times. Make sure the tank is properly cycled before you introduce any fish.
  • Research the fish you’re interested in and their needs and compatibility to prevent aggression and overstocking. Although it’s tempting to buy as many fish as possible, a slightly understocked aquarium is much less stressful for both you (less maintenance) and the fish!
  • Once everything is up and running and the fish/invertebrates are introduced, do plenty of water changes according to your stocking level and the bioload of your fish, making sure to dechlorinate the water with a dechlorinator like Prime unless you live in a country that doesn’t use chlorine/chloramine in tap water.
  • Feed a varied diet of high quality food and prevent over- or underfeeding.
  • Avoid commercially bred very long finned fish such as veiltail goldfish or angelfish, halfmoon bettas and especially rosetail bettas. The large fins are easily damaged and bettas may actually bite off excessive finnage, leaving an open wound.

These steps will not prevent all cases of fin rot but if you always make sure to keep the stress levels of your fish as low as possible and try to prevent any damage/injury, the chances of infection are severely reduced.

Diagnosing fin rot

Fin rot is not difficult to diagnose. In the earliest stage, the fins may get red and inflamed looking streaks. This is not visible in all fish though! When the infection progresses, the typical “melting” of the fins begins.

In severe cases and with long finned fish, this can happen very quickly, with entire pieces of the fins falling off. The fish may become lethargic and the fins will be left looking ragged and with white or dark-colored edges depending on the type of infection.

In very severe cases the fins can be eaten away completely. When this happens and the infection reaches the body it’s usually too late to save the fish, so it’s vital to act quickly when you see any of these symptoms.

Curing fin rot

In very early cases, increasing water changes and keeping the aquarium extra clean may be enough to stop fin rot. If the infection is already getting serious, it’s a better idea to start treatment right away. Fish that are in a community aquarium should be quarantined for this, as you don’t want to expose healthy fish to unnecessary medication. Keep the quarantine water very clean to prevent further deterioration of the fins. For more information about quarantining fish, check out this article!

If clean water isn’t working or the fin rot is already too severe, it’s unfortunately time to move on to stronger medication: antibiotics. These are not available over the counter everywhere, but in the US you should be able to find them. Maracyn 2 treats gram-negative bacteria that are usually the cause of fin rot and is a popular treatment for bacterial fish disease. With the right treatment you should see some fin regrowth in no time. The bettas pictured below are the same fish!

Conclusion

Fin rot is one of the most easily prevented aquarium fish diseases. Although there’s always a chance you may end up with an infected fish after transport from the store, moving or an accident, keeping up with maintenance and doing research on proper aquarium care and tankmates should help you prevent almost all cases.

If you do spot fin rot on one of your fish, keep a very close eye on your water values and take the time to re-evaluate your water change schedule and the amount of fish you keep in the tank!

If you have any more questions about preventing and treating fin rot or if you want to share your experience, feel free to leave a comment below. Happy fishkeeping! 

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25 thoughts on “Treating Fin Rot”

  1. I have a white goldfish who is in a 2*1*1 ft tank with 8 other fish. Ever since I put it in the tank from the bowl (I didn’t know that goldfish had to live in a fish tank then) it seems to be clearing up. But I am still not sure. Great article though.

    Reply
  2. Hello, I have a beta with severe fin rot. I have seriously used every type of fin rot medication out there. Maracyn, betta-fix, etc, but nothing is helping and he’s just getting sicker. Is there anything that can be done? I feel so bad and I love him so I want to do anything I can

    Reply
  3. Been battling a very stubborn case of fin rot with my beta. I’ve tried maracyn, just finished kanaplax and did a low level of aquarium salt. Not in that order or all at the same time of course. But after frequent water changes and different medications the fin rot isn’t getting any better. And throughout all of this my water parameters were all within ideal range. My beta is in a 9gallon tank by himself with heater, filter and air stone. I’m thinking of moving him to a 3gallon quarantine tank and starting with API fin and body cure. This is the only other medication I haven’t tried. I’m thinking a smaller tank will reduce the stress of him getting around in his larger tank as he heals, too.

    Throughout all this I was battling SBD from constipation with him and feeding him cooked peas definitely helped, but he still has some SBD issues.

    Any advise you have I would greatly appreciate!! My beta is a fighter and I want the poor guy to get better and am willing to try/buy anything!!

    Reply
    • Hey Sidney!

      It seems like you’ve almost exhausted all your options. Are you 100% sure it’s fin rot? Though the medications you’ve used should have treated anything else, too.

      I would move the betta to quarantine, start with API fin and body cure, and keep up water parameters. Make sure your betta keeps eating, that’s the most important thing.
      Could the airstone be overpowering?

      Reply
  4. Hi, my betta is in a tank on his own. It’s 20 litre tank, heater and filter. I have just bought some aquarium salt as i read that was meant to be good. As he is on his own do i need to put him in a quarantine tank or can I leave him as he is?

    Thanks 🙂

    Reply
  5. My albino oscar was doing really good in till the 6th day I had him. I noticed that grayish black stuff had been developing around the edges and center of his fins. I realized it was fin rot so I bought some melafix and have been treating him for 2 days now. I don’t think he’s getting better. My 55 gallon tank only has him and a jack Dempsey cichlid and a few minnows, what should I do. I don’t want him to die he is a very pretty oscar. Please help.

    Reply
    • Hi,

      All the instructions you need for treating finrot can be found in this article. Things like Melafix don’t really work so you’ll have to use one of the other methods listed. Separating the fish and treating with antibiotics might be the best option at this point if you feel he’s really not doing well.

      It’s important to identify the underlying causes, though. Have you tested your water values with a liquid test kit? Is the tank fully cycled with no traces of ammonia or nitrite and are the nitrates not too high? Is the filter able to take the bioload from all these fish? Fin rot is usually caused by bad water quality. How do the Jack Dempsey and the Oscar get along? Damaged fins from fin nipping are a magnet for fin rot, especially combined with stress. If this is happening you’ll have to separate them.

      Lastly, you are aware that a 55 gallon tank is really on the small side for these fish? You’ll have to upgrade to something bigger eventually for sure.

      Good luck, I hope it works out.

      Reply
  6. I heard somewhere that Maracyn 2 is no longer being made! Does that mean I won’t be able to get it non-expired anymore, or was that just hearsay?

    Reply
    • I’m sorry but I’m not sure! Maracyn 2 was never sold here but I included it because it’s commonly used in the US. Regulation is becoming stricter when it comes to antibiotics, though, so it’s unfortunately definitely a possibility.

      Reply
      • Thank you for replying! I was pretty worried about it so I did some research and concluded that to be on the safe side, I’d go with KanaPlex.

        Reply
        • Good to hear you found a solution! I just try to keep medication to a minimum, but if I do dose it’s likely with Sera Baktopur or JBL Ekto Bac.

          Reply
  7. I’ve been having massive issues with my half moon betta recently. He’s in a cycled 30L/ 8 gal tank (by himself) with a heater set to 26oC. I check the water weekly and the ammonia/ nitirites are 0 and nirates never go over 5, the PH is 7. I’ve been changing 30% of his water weekly and recently twice per week as I thought it would help the fin rot but it’s just gotten worse. What do i do? 🙁

    Reply
    • So sorry you’re having so many problems! You seem to be doing everything right so far but as mentioned in the article, if the clean water isn’t helping you’re going to have to switch to an antibiotic like Maracyn 2 before it gets even worse. Good luck, I really hope he recovers!

      Reply
      • Going to look for it tomorrow in the pet store and will order it if I can’t find it. Thanks so much for this post and your help 🙂

        Reply
    • Sorry, my Betta had the same problem. We used everything, antibiotics for a month, and everything else everyone told us to do, he finally passed. We looked for Aquarisol, everyone said it would work. They don’t make it any longer. Good luck to you.?

      Reply
  8. Don’t you mean, unless you live in a country that doesn’t use chlorine and/or chloramine in their tap water, not just chloramine?

    Reply
      • Neoplex also message by Seachem is antibiotic for external several bacteria infection big fungal.ect. I was assume to find kanaplex but not seem to be helping. I’m in Canada & unfortunately all the good stuff seems to be impossible to find. I can only make a long trip to my fish doc that suggested me the Neoplex. I wish I was able to order online or buy I need store because unlike everything else Neoplex sticks into the external bacterial infection b and goes right to work plus it’s a broad spectrum so it works for all kinds of bacterial infection. But BC Canada doesn’t carry it now my fishs tail is more inflammated and even bleeding through some red veins that formed along the tail, worried that it doesn’t get to septicemia than its really to late if I don’t get to some ” good effective” fish antibiotic. Even amoxicillin.. Canada sucks for product availability. But my fish vet suggested Neoplex.

        Reply
        • I know exactly how you feel, the availability for these medications is pretty much zero in my country as well. I think they might have banned over the counter sale of antibiotics in an attempt to combat the increasing problems with antibiotic resistance. So what I conclude from your message is that you haven’t been able to find the Neoplex? Was the vet not able to prescribe it? I unfortunately don’t really know where you can get this stuff outside of the US.

          Reply
  9. Had a betta with fin rot we used everything but nothing worked he finally passed. Someone yikes us about Aquar-isol but they do not make it ny longer. Ht do you suggest if we decide to get bigger Betta.

    Reply
    • From what I can tell Aquarisol is meant to treat mild cases of ick and parasites, not fin rot so it wouldn’t have been effective anyway! If you get another betta and he unfortuntely catches fin rot as well, the methods listed in this article are most effective. A clean, cycled tank will usually prevent this disease though!

      Reply

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