Tail Rot.. sooo frusterated. :(

Question
I have a male betta fish that I have had for about 2 months now. He is my first
fish and was a gift. At first he was in a small betta bowl.

After a few weeks i started to notice grey-ish edges on his bright red and
blue tail/fins. A short while later I noticed a fuzzy white clump hanging off of
his front fins. I treated him with Jungle Fungus Eliminator for a while and saw
no improvement in his fins, but the white, fuzzy clump disappeared.

I researched and read about bettas and diseases and chose to move him into
a 3 gallon aquarium with a undergravel filter. I do about weekly water
changes. I do about a 30% water change with conditioned water and fungus
eliminator when I feel it is getting worse. When I use the meds I do the
changes every 4 days. I don't have a test kit for the pH, ammonia and
nitrates.  I have not seen any improvement.

(Energy is great and eating habits are perfect, they have never changed.)

 I have recently read that aquarium salt helps the healing process and
prevents infection. Today I bought aquarium salt and a "no more algae" tank
buddy. I did a 30 % water change, added the room temp conditioned water
with Fungus Eliminator (it has be 4 days since the first treatment) and about a
teaspoon or less of aquarium salt. I also added a tank buddy to help with the
small algae build-up.

I left for about 5 hours and came home to see my fish's back tail completely
shreaded. I have never seen it like this before. There are no black edges, but
just torn, frayed fins. He is still acting fine, but I have no idea what to do.

The only thing left to do is buy a heater because the temp in the room is
about 70 degrees, which is colder than recommended. This could be a
problem. I have only had him in the large tank for about a month. Please
help!!

Thank you so much,
Jess

Answer
Hi Jess;

You are certainly trying your best!

Raising the temperature may help a lot. His immune system and metabolism will be improved. Get it up to 82 degrees. Also, change 25% of the water every day for awhile until he looks better. The tank may still be in the break-in period so the toxins present during that time may have caused his relapse.

I hope he feels better soon.....

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins