Shredded betta fins

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AMA81

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jul 16, 2018
Messages
2
Location
Evansville IN
Hello all…. I have a poor shredded up Betta and am curious if this thing will ever have any significant amount of healing?

I assume its fin rot… but it didnt really progress like fin rot at first…. It hasn’t really responded like fin rot thus far ….so im getting frustrated. It looks similar to ammonia exposure and fin nipping as well but Ive never seen him biting his own tail and ammonia shouldnt really be the issue either.

He was originally placed into a fully cycled 16g tank – which ended up going thru a mini cycle about a month after he was in there because I added too many smaller fish too quickly. I used prime throughout this time… did more water changes that usual and baby sat the ammonia and nitrite levels. Ideally they are zero I am aware… but even after I threw it into a mini cycle the ammonia never went above .25ish and nitrite at its highest was .5 I believe. Even with those concentrations… I was still changing half the water daily so they weren’t exposed to it 24/7

The betta did rip his tail literally 60 seconds into the tank when I first put him in there…. had a fake plant in there he made a b line for. That was removed immediately and he seemed to be healing from that pretty immediately.

Over the 3 last months his tail has gotten progressively more shredded. I put him in his own 10 gallon tank about a month ago… which was cycled… All real plants… under gravel filter so no significant current or filter in the mix to snag him either. I kept the water warm and changed daily… tried that for a while before attempting melafix… Didn’t go crazy with that …. but didn’t see much improvement so I went back to just water changes with stresscoat only.

Finally I tried some BettaRevive… zero change… Jungle Clear for fungus… zero change. Medications were minimal and spread out so as not to dose the poor thing and stress him out.

Anywho……… nothing seems to be helping.……… I am OK with the fact he may not get back to his former glory, but is there anything else to try? It doesn’t seem to be getting worse and he acts fine, eats, etc… I just find it odd that there is zero improvement at all – so maybe its something im just not aware of.

I attached some before and after pics... the one with the flash shows the shreds the best... but his color (except the shredded ends) is pretty much the same. The before one does show the initial tear he got as well
 

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Hello all…. I have a poor shredded up Betta and am curious if this thing will ever have any significant amount of healing?

I assume its fin rot… but it didnt really progress like fin rot at first…. It hasn’t really responded like fin rot thus far ….so im getting frustrated. It looks similar to ammonia exposure and fin nipping as well but Ive never seen him biting his own tail and ammonia shouldnt really be the issue either.

He was originally placed into a fully cycled 16g tank – which ended up going thru a mini cycle about a month after he was in there because I added too many smaller fish too quickly. I used prime throughout this time… did more water changes that usual and baby sat the ammonia and nitrite levels. Ideally they are zero I am aware… but even after I threw it into a mini cycle the ammonia never went above .25ish and nitrite at its highest was .5 I believe. Even with those concentrations… I was still changing half the water daily so they weren’t exposed to it 24/7

The betta did rip his tail literally 60 seconds into the tank when I first put him in there…. had a fake plant in there he made a b line for. That was removed immediately and he seemed to be healing from that pretty immediately.

Over the 3 last months his tail has gotten progressively more shredded. I put him in his own 10 gallon tank about a month ago… which was cycled… All real plants… under gravel filter so no significant current or filter in the mix to snag him either. I kept the water warm and changed daily… tried that for a while before attempting melafix… Didn’t go crazy with that …. but didn’t see much improvement so I went back to just water changes with stresscoat only.

Finally I tried some BettaRevive… zero change… Jungle Clear for fungus… zero change. Medications were minimal and spread out so as not to dose the poor thing and stress him out.

Anywho……… nothing seems to be helping.……… I am OK with the fact he may not get back to his former glory, but is there anything else to try? It doesn’t seem to be getting worse and he acts fine, eats, etc… I just find it odd that there is zero improvement at all – so maybe its something im just not aware of.

I attached some before and after pics... the one with the flash shows the shreds the best... but his color (except the shredded ends) is pretty much the same. The before one does show the initial tear he got as well
I have no problem telling that the Betta does not have fin rot. Most Bettas are sold as juveniles. The breeders have gone nuts in trying to develop poor Bettas with tails and find that make practically impossible for the poor fish to swim. There are some Bettas that lose white coloring once the mature because the haven't finished growing yet. Part of the fin shredding you see (or all of it), may just be how the fish is supposed to look now that he's grown. Jagged tails are actually one of the traits that are starting to be bred into Bettas. Unless you buy a full grown Betta from a friend, you're never going to know what a Betta is going to look like as an adult when you buy one. The breeders won't wait that long to sell them...they want their money as soon as the fish is old enough to be pretty and sellable.
 
I have no problem telling that the Betta does not have fin rot. Most Bettas are sold as juveniles. The breeders have gone nuts in trying to develop poor Bettas with tails and find that make practically impossible for the poor fish to swim. There are some Bettas that lose white coloring once the mature because the haven't finished growing yet. Part of the fin shredding you see (or all of it), may just be how the fish is supposed to look now that he's grown. Jagged tails are actually one of the traits that are starting to be bred into Bettas. Unless you buy a full grown Betta from a friend, you're never going to know what a Betta is going to look like as an adult when you buy one. The breeders won't wait that long to sell them...they want their money as soon as the fish is old enough to be pretty and sellable.

Id never heard that before but its interesting. Thanks ??
 
Yeah tbh it just looks like a not so well definded crowntail, nothing to be worried about.
 
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