Aquarium Fish Fin Rot
Fin Rot Symptoms in Freshwater Fish
A fish with fin rot will have ragged, frayed fins. Both the fins and the tail may be affected. The edges of the fins are often discolored (sometimes lighter, sometimes darker).
If left untreated the fins will eventually erode away and the infection will spread to the fish's body.
Fin Rot Causes and Prevention
Fin rot is caused by a bacterial infection (e.g., Aeromonas, Pseudomonas). Sometimes fin rot begins after an injury to the fish's fins or tail. This could be due to fighting with other fish in the tank and having their fins torn or injured.
The bacteria that causes fin rot is normally present in the aquarium, but usually doesn't infect the fish unless they are injured or stressed in some way. Fin rot is an opportunistic infection. Once the fins are torn then a bacterial or even a fungal infection can easily invade the injured tail or fins.
Although any fish can get fin rot, bettas and goldfish seem to be particularly susceptible.
More commonly fin rot is caused by poor water quality in your aquarium. In fact, most fish diseases are caused by poor water quality. Poor water quality stresses the fish making them more susceptible to ALL fish diseases.
To prevent fin rot from occurring in the first place don't overcrowd your aquarium or overfeed your fish. Also, don't keep fish that are known to nip fins, such as tiger barbs with fish that have long flowing fins (e.g., angelfish, bettas).
Even if you don't overcrowd your tank, have fin nippers, or overfeed your fish you still need to do regular partial water changes to prevent outbreaks of disease from occuring in your tank. This is very important. You'll often hear that you should do a partial water change once a week. However, I think that partial water changes need to be done more than once a week. At least twice a week and every other day is best.
Fin Rot Treatment
To treat fin rot the first thing you need to do is a partial water change. Change about 40-50% of the water, making sure to add a chlorine/chloramine remover to the new water.
If the fin rot isn't too severe, and the fish's fins are just a little ragged, doing partial water changes and using some aquarium salt may help. Don't use iodized salt - it is toxic to your fish. Aquarium salt is very cheap, however, you can use table salt as long as there is no iodine in it. The salt will help to inhibit both bacterial and fungal growth. Use about 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt for every 5 gallons of water.
Be sure to mix the salt in water solution BEFORE adding it to the tank.
For mild cases of finrot you can also try using Melafix or Bettafix. You may need something stronger for severe finrot. FYI - Bettafix is basically just melafix in an easier to dose format for a single fish kept in a betta tank versus a large aquarium.
Recommended Mild Finrot Products
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MELAFIX Freshwater Fish Bacterial Infection Remedy
Aquarium Salt for Freshwater Fish
Often, just cleaning up the water and adding some aquarium salt and melafix will cure your fish's finrot.
One of my betta's recently had finrot but it got much better after adding the bettafix and doing frequent water changes.
Treatment for Severe Finrot
In severe cases of finrot, just cleaning up the water conditions and adding salt and/or bettafix or melafix may not be enough to cure it and you may need to use an antibiotic. For severe fin rot I have used Mardel Products such as Maracyn or Maracyn 2. In general, I have had good luck using these products.
That said, it is always best to avoid using antibiotics or any kind of fish medication unless it is absolutely necessary. That's why maintaining good water quality is so important.
Maracyn is for gram positive bacterial infections, whereas Maracyn 2 is for gram negative bacterial infections. Fin rot is generally thought to be caused by gram negative bacteria which is treated by Maracyn 2, however, most likely you won't know for sure which kind of bacteria is causing the fin rot.
Maracyn 2 states that it treats infections of fin and tail rot, popeye, gill disease, dropsy, septicemia, secondary and internal infections.
Maracyn states that it treats body fungus, gill disease, and popeye, so for fin rot, I'd go with Maracyn 2.
There is also another product made by API that is supposed to treat fin rot but I haven't used it yet so I don't know how well it works: API FIN & BODY CURE for Freshwater Fish. The API medication is much cheaper than Maracyn 2 at this time.
For more information and for some excellent photos of fish fin and tail rot visit this page: http://www.aquarium-pond-answers.com/2011/06/betta-fin-rot.html.