Today I wanted to talk to you guys about my experience using Triple-Sulfa to treat fin rot on my Betta fish Oliver. Im gonna show you guys the progression of the fin rot and then give you guys just a little insight on how I feel about Triple-Sulfa and if it helped me cure my Betta's fin rot.
This is what Oliver looked like when I first brought him home.
Now when I first got him home I did not recognize the black that was around the end of his tail. Had I noticed it right then I might have been able to treat it without the Triple-Sulfa, but the problem was that I didn't actually know about fin rot or what it looked like until a few weeks later.
After probably 3 weeks I finally realized that it was fin rot and I tried to treat it using Bettafix, then with Aquarium salt. Nothing I did seemed to be helping so I decided to go for the more powerful stuff.
To treat for fin rot there are a few things that you will need.
1. Triple-Sulfa (if it is getting bad and you cant treat with anything else)
2. Aquarium Salt (This is effective in helping fin rot if you catch it in the early stages like it was when I first got Oliver)
The brand of this Aquarium Salt is API. I just have it in a little plastic baggy because I am borrowing some from one of the kids that lives on my floor. He had a huge box so he told me not to worry about buying any.
3.A thermometer (You really need this anyway since bettas are tropical fish but if you don't have one you really need it now)
You need this because you want to keep your tank at at least 78 if you can get it there. Now I know that some people don't like these stick on thermometers and thats fine, but this was already on my 5 gallon when I transfered him to it and I didnt want to have to buy another one because I have always had decent outcomes with them.
4.Heater (Again they are tropical fish so you need this anyway)
This is just a stick on heater that is preset to 78 degrees. It was like $15-$16 and it works just fine, I can not remember the brand that is was, but I got it from Petco.
Triple-Sulfa has directions for how to use on the back of the box. They are directions for 10 gallon tanks though so if you are like me and you are trying to treat in anything smaller you are going to want to look up exactly how to measure it out for your tank. I use about a 1/4 tsp of powder from the packet and dissolve it in a a little bit of the aquarium water before putting it in the tank so that I don't have to take him out. The reason I use a 1/4 tsp is because there is right around a 1/2 tsp of powder in the packet so since I have half of a 10 gallon I can use half of the packet. It just gets a little weirder if you have a smaller tank, which is why you will want to look up exactly how to dose it for a tank your size. Also make sure you take the carbon out of your filter if it is in it because if you don't it will filter out the medicine.
Then I put just a pinch of aquarium salt in the cup of water and let it dissolve as well before I put it into the tank. I could probably put more in than I do, but because I already had a 1/2 tbsp in the tank I don't want to accidentally add way to much salt to the water.
If you are following the directions on the box you put in your dosage of medicine the first day, then you put your next dosage in on the second day. Then you will do a 25% water change (I changed about a gallon) and add another dosage of medicine on the third day. The fourth day you will ad your final dosage of medicine, this comes to the 4 doses that it tells you on the back of the box you will need to do for a full cycle of the meds. Then on the fifth day you change the water again and you put activated carbon, or a carbon filter in you tank to get the rest of the medicine filtered out. You can the repeat for another cycle of meds if needed.
This is what Oliver looked like on the morning of the second day of his treatment with the Triple-Sulfa. I feel bad for not catching it before it got to this. Also this was only after one actual dose of the medicine.
As a side note I do see the white spots on the side of Oliver and I am not convinced that is actually a disease of any kind because in some lights they are red, in some lights they are white/silver blue, and in some lights they are like a goldish color. I could be wrong and if I am I will feel bad, but I just dont think that is actually anything I need to be too worried about. As a side note does anyone else see that slightly orange tent on the end of his fins by his gills?!? That is actually clear in real life and I can see that they are getting longer, which I believe is a good sign.
This is what Oliver looked like the morning of the third day, after 2 doses of the medicine.
It truthfully looks to have gotten worse after the second dose of medication. Now I know that he was also probably a little stressed because I forgot to put water conditioner in his water the first day of the treatment. I did end up putting the conditioner in there when I got back from the pet store and realized that I had forgotten to put it in. He was fine the next morning, which I am thankful for because I wasn't actually sure that he would be.
I added this picture because its a cute one of him, and you can see what I mean about those spots being different colors depending on what light they are in. And the white spot that is on his gill is probably because of the accidental putting him in water that had no conditioner in it, because that did show up during that happening.
This is what he looked like the morning of the fourth day, after three days of treatment.
It doesn't seem to be getting any worse than it was but it isn't getting any better. I am thinking there will be another cycle of medicine after this one. Since there is only one left in this cycle.
This is what he looked like on the 5th day. After going though the full cycle of medication.
The fin rot has not gotten any worse but it also does not seem to have gotten a crazy amount better.(Sorry about the pictures. He was being a brat today when I tried to take them. )As of when I wrote this part of the post I have not decided if I am going to continue for another round of the Triple-Sulfa treatment or if I am going to try to just treat with Aquarium salt for a few days.
This is day six of Triple-Sulfa. I did decide to go ahead and continue for another round of Triple-Sulfa, so this is day one of the second round.
He decided not to be as much of a brat today when I started to take pictures. As you can see it looks as there is some regrowth of the tail, but there is still black around the end which is why I decided to go ahead and repeat the treatment since I am sure that is tail rot and not coloring. I can see that it is doing some help, even if it is taking a little longer than I thought it would do to some of the other people who have written about it.
Day Seven of the Triple-Sulfa Treatment.
He is being a butt and wont let me get really good pictures some days. His tail is getting better and showing signs of regrowth. The only issue I have is that the black is still on the tail, which in everything I have read indicates fin rot is still there.
Day eight of the treatment.
I put Oliver in the plastic cup since this was the morning after the eighth day and I had to completely change the water. So he was acclimating and I realized that it would be a good time to try to get pictures since he couldn't swim all over the tank. In short as you guys can see his tail is showing signs of regrowth. Day eight was the last day of the treatment cycle and there is still the black on his tail. It is concerning to me in a way, however it has not gotten bigger or smaller since starting the treatment, which is leading me to believe Oliver may have a bit of a black coloring on his tail fin naturally.
I do believe that the Triple-Sulfa worked. I am worried now that the black on his tail did not go away that I gave him too much medicine but he does not seem to be having an adverse affect on him. He swims around like always and had fun chasing the ghost tank I just put in with him two days ago around the tank. If you are having a bad care of fin rot I would suggest Triple-Sulfa, but only if it is a bad case. If you catch it in the beginning try something else. You don't want the bacteria to build up an immunity to Triple-Sulfa. As always said in anything else you will ever read frequent water changes to make your water quality better will help cure fin rot. It is actually a very effective way. I have learned that I may have got him with fin rot but I caused it more by not knowing how often to change the water in a one gallon tank with no filter and no heater. Please get to know more about bettas before you buy one. I did not and I paid for it in the beginning as have most owners of the fish. Also as an update to his condition it has been four days since completing Oliver's treatment and his fins seem to only be getting better. The black is still around his tail though so unless it gets any bigger I am going to just assume it is a natural coloring. He seems happy and healthy though.
Thank you all for reading this rambling of my experience with Triple-Sulfa for fin rot. I am not an expert on the subject but if you have any questions you can feel free to ask and I will try to give you the best answer I know, or direct you to somewhere that has the answer.
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