Fin Rot - can Sparky survive this?

Question
Hi,

We have a very sick little betta. We know what we did wrong, we didn't change his water enough, and I'll say we've most certainly learned our lesson. Unfortunately it's our little Sparky that is paying the price for our laziness. He has a rather bad case of what we believe to be fin rot. It came on so very suddenly - as if one day he had all his beautiful fins and the next half of them were gone - quite literally. At this point he's lost the top half of his caudal fin, one of his ventral fins, his anal fin, and part of his dorsal fin. We've been treating him with fungus eliminator for over a week now and about 4 days ago started to add aquarium salt to his bowl. He doesn't appear to have lost any more finnage in the last day but he's developed a swim bladder problem now too. We have him in a 1 gallon bowl (I know that's small but we aren't able to change that right now) and have done complete water changes today and 3 days ago and 7 days ago. We've taken all the stones and toys out of his bowl to make sure all lingering bacteria is gone.

My main question is, can he recover from fin rot this advanced? He's not constipated as he's been pooing regularly, so I'm wondering if the bacterial infection has moved to his swim bladder too and what this means for his chance of survival. His colour seems to be a bit better, he's obviously tired from fighting the swim bladder issue and trying to stay upright because he tends to just rest at the top. He eats quite well and at this point won't eat anything but the freeze dried worms I picked up for him.

I'm not sure what else we can do for him and I don't want him to suffer. We just don't know if there's any chance he can make it through this and don't know how long to wait before we make a difficult decision.

Any advice would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Answer
Hi Suzanne,
I'm sorry to hear about your little betta...

A combination of poor water quality (like high ammonia) and fin rot bacteria can cause a betta's delicate fins to deteriorate -very- rapidly. But its good you are now taking action to keep his water cleaner. I would recommend you try to change the water daily at least close to 100% everyday to help him heal better. Warm temperature is also important. Try to keep it at least in the upper 70's ideally low 80's F.

How does his fins look at the moment? Does there appear to be any regrowth? Any clear new growth appearing? If you spot any, that means he is working on fighting the infection. If not, just keep trying with keeping the water clean, warm and medicated, the salt is also helpful.

He will have a harder time trying to recover from fin rot that is this advanced. And his immune system will have been weakened by any prolonged water quality issues. But all you can do is try your best. The swim bladder issue could simply be diet or stress related. You mentioned he eats nothing but freeze dried worms? Some bettas are sensitive to freeze dried foods and often have swim bladder problems from eating too much of them too often. Will he eat frozen worms? Or frozen brine shrimp? Frozen foods are better than dried foods that can cause intestinal problems that put pressure on the swim bladder.

*Its always possible the bacteria might have made its way beyond the betta's fins -- Its very difficult to know if that is the case. But I'd be optimistic at this point, I've seen fish recover from some terrible situations that normally they'd be unlikely to survive.

I hope all is well. Best of luck with the little guy!
Karen~