Is it fin rot on our new crown tail betta?

Question
We just purchased a lovely male crown tail saturday and had his tank all ready for him.  Today I am noticing the ends of his tail and some of the dorsal tips look transparent.

In our tank setup we used distilled water, stress coat, some algae clear liquid safe for fish and plants since the tank was used previously and I wanted to make sure there wasn't any left and some of the betta water conditioner.  Let that run for two days before even going to purchase our betta.  Upon our purchase I also got a live fern looking plant for him to rest in and he is the only fish in the tank. He seems lively but I am worried about the sudden clear look on the very tips of tail and dorsal fins.

Foods are pellets,flakes and freeze dried bloodworms. I feed one pellet 4 times a day, some flakes the next   day but twice a day because they are hard to monitor and I feed 2 to 3 bloodworms at night.  It seems from what I have read I am over feeding but not sure that's causing fin rot and he is not bloated.

Almost forgot the tank is about 1 1/2 gallons which after reading another post here might be too small.

Please help.  I really love betta and never have luck keeping them alive. I want to get to a point that I can get half moons and split tails maybe some lace and rose tails and show them as well as breed them.  I will not get anywhere at the rate I am going with them getting sick in the past. I really want this betta to live, I am already attached and he follows me around his tank in the kitchen.

Oh, I also have a thermometer and submersible auto heater in his tank and a test kit for the water but no idea how to read it.  The directions don't make sense to me.

Looking forward to any help given and thank you ahead of time.
Dawn

Answer
Dawn,

 We will go step by step.

DO NOT use distilled water. Regular tap water works best with a good conditioner. Distilled water lack things that tap water has and fish need. I would stop using the algae clear liquid safe. If you do not have algae you do not need to treat for it. The less you add to the water the better. Before adding a fish to a tank that had been used before it is always a good idea to clean it out good. All you need is very hot water and it will kill anything left in the decorations or tank itself. If you have a filter in that tank I would remove it. Since the male Betta has the long flowing tail and fins, they make him a very slow swimmer. the current of the filter will only stress him out. Plus, if there is a current you will never get to see amazing bubble nest.

The food you are feeding him is great but yes you are over feeding. The Betta's stomach is the size of his eye. Depending on the brand of pellet, 2 to 3 are more than enough once a day. I feed my Betta's a premium food that I can only find online and it calls for 7 in the morning and 7 at night. The difference is these pellets are smaller and made just for the Betta fish with a lot of vitamins and nutrients that need to stay healthy. It is from a company called Atison's. It really brings out the color of the fish. If you are going to breed I would suggest looking into that food. They have one for the fry, and another food for the fry between 2 months and one year. It can be a bit expensive but breeding Betta's will put quite the dent in your pocketbook. Only feed the freeze dried food once a week. Feeding them every day would be like us eating fried chicken every day. Pick one day a week for fasting and the following day feed him the inside of a cooked frozen pea. If you need help with that just let me know and I will be more than happy to help you out.

You are correct in the tank being too small. He should really be in a 5 gallon tank all by himself. Since his tank is so small you should be doing water changes every 2 to 3 days. Remove 25% of his water and add fresh water to the tank. Make sure you are add a good water conditioner to the water before you add it to his tank.

As for the auto heater I would remove it and get one that you can set. The auto heaters claim they keep the water at 77 degrees. For one, it is not true. You are lucky if the water stays at 70 degrees, which is too cold for him. Betta's are tropical fish and need their heaters set at 82 degrees at all times. If it gets colder, they can and will become sick. I think your fish is suffering from fin rot due to bad water quality but I will tell you how to fix that later. You should get any heater that has a dial for accurate setting. Raise the temp 1 to 2 degrees every 2 hours until it is at 82.

Make sure your water tester is the liquid kind and not the strips. The strips are not accurate and will give you false readings. The liquid testers are quite easy. You fill a test tube to a line and add drops from a bottle. After about 5 minutes you compare the color of the tube to a card in the test kit. You want ammonia and nitrites to be at zero at all times and nitrates no higher than 20ppm.

I am a breeder of Betta fish and I try to stay away from adding any medications into the tank. I have been called an organic fish breeder lol. The number one cause of fin rot is poor water quality and the water being too cold comes in high on the list. Since he is in a small tank it might be in your benefit. Here is how I treat fin rot when I have a fish with it, which has only been twice and they came that way. In a 1 gallon container dissolve 1 teaspoon of aquarium salt. Make sure this water is the same temp as his water or slightly higher. Never put him in water that is colder than his tank. Make sure the salt is completely dissolved before you add him because if it isn't, you will burn him. Once dissolved, let him swim in the water for 15 minutes to half an hour. Do this twice a day for about 5 days. You will see that he will enjoy the bath. Make sure you are with him while he is in the salt water in case he has a problem you can remove him right away. Never use the salt solution more than once. Make it fresh every time. If the fin rot was caught in time, this should help. If after the treatment you do not see it stopping let me know. You will not see it healed though for this will take some time, but you do not want to see black on the tips of the tail and fins or a shredded look.

I will just ask one thing of you. Before you decide to breed come back to me. I would rather you ask questions and do it right from the beginning then try to figure it out yourself. When I first started I had to figure things out on my own and had wished I had someone to help me through it. I would start saving money now as you will need quick a bit of equipment and other things just to get going. Feel free to contact me at jaymie_johnson1970@yahoo,com. It might be easier to help you from my email.
Good Luck