# Advice on anesthetizing/fin trimming



## Nicci Lu (Jan 7, 2013)

First off, let me say that I don't make this decision lightly. I recently lost a betta to some sort of fin infection (not fin rot!) that eventually spread to his body. No treatment (and I tried many) worked. Now, I am seeing the same patch on my other betta's fins. I am going to cut it off before it can spread or I will have another dead fish.

So... I am looking for advice from anyone who has experience with using clove oil to anesthetize (not euthanize!). I am also looking for advice from anyone who has trimmed fins before. I'd appreciate any advice at all, as I'm a bit nervous (but determined) about the procedure.


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## MattsBettas (Dec 18, 2012)

Finquel (MS-222) is probably the safest route. It's chemically similar to clove oil, but easier to accurately dose. You could completely render the fish unconscious but I also believe you could also apply it directly to he area. 

Clove oil can also be used but OD would not be difficult to cause. You could also directly apply a diluted solution to the area, carefully avoiding the gills. (A cotton swab might work)


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## Mikaila31 (Dec 18, 2008)

Clove oil is not hard to use. Use a small amount like 1 drop mixed slightly into ~4 cups of water or less. Have a container of fresh water with an airstone ready. The most important this is observing the fish you are not really going for fully anesthetized but partly for fin trimming. Once the fish looses balance and isn't very responsive to stimuli you are good to go. They are fully anethetized when they stop moving completely and you only have gill function so it is important to watch gill function as it will get slower and slower before eventually stopping if exposed to clove oil too long. Recovery from clove oil in fresh water takes longer then the initial exposure does. It can be an easy half hour or more before the effects are completely gone.


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## Austin (Feb 1, 2010)

Well I clipped my angelfish fins to try to get them to regrow straight (didn't work) and none of my fish died from it or got an infection so my method must not have been too bad. I followed some advice on angelfish forums. Honesty what I just did was carefully reach scissors in and clip! Sometimes herded it with a LARGE net. It's a little dangerous and I don't think I'd ever do it again for angelfish.... However, I imagine bettas are much slower moving and are in a smaller aquarium so maybe this method could work. It depends how exact you need the cut to be.... If you need it to be close and exact cut, maybe anestetizing is best. However, when I cut my angelfish fins they did not even notice it. Behaved completely normal afterwards -- didn't hide and ate fine, just had stubby fins! So I would not anesthetize if you're just worried about pain. Depending how close the cut is, it probably won't even notice it. I did sterilize the scissors with rubbing alcohol and did daily 50% water changes on my 75g for at least a few days until i noticed the fins regrowing (no more chance for infection or something). That's my experience. 

While you are at it I would suggest considering medications and doing daily 50% water changes to aid the fish in fighting off the disease or recovering.

Good luck!


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

This is a sad coincidence for me to see this thread today. I actually tried exactly the same thing on one of my rescue bettas just yesterday. He had SBD and a secondary fin infection when I brought him home. The SBD improved but the fin rot didn't respond to any medications. I even swabbed the area and did some antibiotic susceptibility testing, but both kinds of bacteria that I isolated from the swab were susceptible to the antibiotics that I had previously used (to no avail), so it did not seem likely that either species was responsible for the disease. I'm thinking it was probably viral based on several observations. 

Anyhow, with his fins slowly degrading (he was otherwise acting normal though) I decided that anesthetizing him and trimming off the affected areas would be his only chance. He had torn his fins before and the physically damaged areas healed nicely, so I was hopeful that removing the infected tissue would be effective. I anesthetized him at the lowest dose of clove oil that is typically suggested (40 mg/L) and it took about 4 minutes for him to become fully anesthetized. The procedure took less than 10 minutes and I placed him in clean water. He started to recover, and I kept a close eye on him for a few hours. He was awake and swam a little, but was having some buoyancy issues and was only using his pectoral fins to swim. The next time I came to check on him he was gone :'( RIP Trooper.

I'm still not sure what happened  Now, this fish was a rescue and had several other issues, so perhaps he just couldn't handle it. However, I haven't come across any studies using clove oil specifically on bettas, so there is the possibility that perhaps they are much more affected by it than other species. In your case, you may want to weigh the options. For me, my boy could probably have had at least a few months more of a good life before the fin rot progressed to his body had I not done the procedure. In hindsight, I should have just left him alone to live out the rest of his life in peace, since he was not showing any obvious signs of discomfort. It is up to you to determine what is best for your boy, but if you do decide to go ahead with it, I'd either try the MS-222 (you need a buffer if you go this route because the MS-222 acidifies the water) or use a lower dose of the clove oil (maybe 20-30 mg/L).

I wish you the best of luck, and please update with whatever you decide to do. The more we can share our observations and knowledge, the better chance we have at successfully treating the same ailments in the future.


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## Nicci Lu (Jan 7, 2013)

Thanks everyone for the advice.

A few days ago, I actually did order some MS 222. But it is very hard to find now. Drs Foster and Smith no longer carry it- apparently Finquel went out of business. Western Chemical makes it now, but there was only one place I found that sells it that doesn't charge a ridiculous amount of money for shipping. And they aren't shipping until the 15th. I didn't want to wait so long, which is why I began considering the clove oil. But this infection is very slow moving, and from what I'm hearing maybe I should wait til it arrives. If anyone knows of a place that still carries it, let me know!

I was thinking about the possible pain for my betta, but also I wanted him to be sedated. I have done swabs out of water before, and boy can they flop! If he chooses to jump as I'm cutting...well, I'd like him to be as still as possible. I plan on putting some Hikari Bio-Bandage on the cut before I put him back in the tank- he'll go in a breeder box till he's recovered.

Kim, I'm so sorry to hear about Trooper. It's so hard to lose the little guys. And thanks for the reminder about teh baking soda because I had nearly forgotten.


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