Betta fin rot getting worse

Question
My betta started showing signs of fin rot about a week ago. His ammonia and nitrite levels were 0.05ppm, so I did a 50% water change, which brought them between the 0 and 0.025ppm level. His fins started getting worse over the following 2 days, so I started treating his tank with melafix 4 days ago. Today his largest fin split in 2 and his upper fin has a new hole in it. He is acting normally (swimming around, eating, blew some bubbles in his favorite corner yesterday), except for his poor fins falling apart. I have not seen any white spots or fuzz on him to indicate other diseases are present. I am not sure if this is painful for him, but it is hard for me to look at him like this. Is there anything else you recommend I do?

Also, I just read on a blog site that melafix can be toxic to bettas at regular dosing. Should I stop treatment? Try someting else?

Thank you!!!

Answer
Hi Erin,

Bettas don't respond well to most prepared medications, often they cause more damage then anything.  What I do when I see an issue with fin rot is I put 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt per gallon of water and increase the water temp to around 80 - 82F, this created a forun environment for the bacteria to thrive in and often will kill it off pretty fast, keep it at this level for about 4 days and then do a 20% water change, in another 4 days do another 20% water change and then start to lower the temperature back down to 74 78F.  Keep a maintenance amount of aquarium salt in the tank in the amount of 1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water to help prevent any future breakouts.