someone please help my betta :(

[Gingimaru]

hi all

i have started to notice recently that my male betta's rear fin keeps getting ripped. at the moment he has a split as such inbetween 2 barbs that appeared the other day. and before then he has had the odd hole or very small split that has healed up. he seems healthy, he looks (other than that spilt) healthy, hes eating fine, he doesnt look bloated so we havent been over feeding him, he interacts with me fine, the water paramaters are ph: 7.6. ammo: 0. nitrites: 0. nitrates: 10-20ppm (we naturally have 10ppm so its impossible to get it to 0) so the water seems fine. its very clear water. there is an abundance of algae on the ornaments and silk ferns but that may be because we have the lights on generally for about 10hrs a day.

does anyone have any ideas what could have caused this? i've heard of betta fish "blowing out" their fins but i havenet managed to find any decent info on it so i dont know if this is it or not

please help me keep my betta looking all pretty!

 

[corinne118s]

Do a WC to get rid of some of the nitrates. What other fish are with them? Fin rot occurs often in bettas in poor conditions but even with high nitrates he shouldn't have torn fins. If your other fish are nipping him you are going to have to serparte the betta

 

[corinne118s]

Oh and when bettas blow their fins they don't rip if that's what you're asking.. It's just them being dominant and shouldn't happen often unless they are stressed

 

[Gingimaru]

we only have the betta at the moment (we are moving him to a new tank soon and willbe adding a few cherry shrimp and an apple snail) so its not other fish nipping him. we cant really get the nitrates to under 10ppm as naturally we have around 10ppm of nitrates in our water.

from what i've said would you say i have poor water conditions?

and also i dont suppose you know what a blowout should look like?

 

[Gingimaru]

also my partner has said the betta generally flares at her often. he seems to like her though. sometimes he even flares just before eating so i cant imagine its flaring in anger. could this have caused the rip?

and we have recently treated for ick (raised the temp in the tank to 30c gradually) could keeping him at this high temp have weakened his fins?

 

[corinne118s]

No your water parameters are fine assuming the tests are correct. Either way nitrate won't do that damage unless it's really high. I don't think the temp would weaken the Betta especially since you said it seems to heal the happen again, correct? Hmm how about sharp objects? Anything he could get caught in? Pics? Maybe filter is too strong and can suck him up?

 

[corinne118s]

Bettas will puff or flare lightly when excited or when they see their reflection. I think you'd be able to notice a fighting puff vs an excited puff (my old Betta had different ones) but either way no they shouldn't rop

 

[VioletEmber]

Any decorations have sharp edges that he might be snagging his fins on?

Try adding a teeny tiny amount of aquarium salt - like half the dosage on the box. And do PWCs a little more often for awhile. Your parameters look fine but extra water changes don't hurt. I have done this whenever one of my bettas gets nipped, etc and it does the trick. Once they are healed I stop adding the salt.

 

[Gingimaru]

i'm at work at the moment so pics will have to come later unfortunately.

and yes he's had slight rips or holes in the past but they've seemingly healed fine (i.e. we cant see any sign of it albeit it could have just become really small)

we have a silk fern attached near the top of the tank with some plant weights (bendy metal you can wrap round stuff) and also we have a little house that he can get into and also a small vase he can swim through. we've checked these the best we can and yes there may be some sharp bits on it but not that we can tell. but i can check again. aside from that every now and then (happens very rarely) he will sorta of wrap himself round the filter as such. not his entire body but his fins end up round the filter. however from what we can tell there are no sharp bits on the filter bit and its not a massivly strong current as he gets away from it quite easily.

so no matter how much he flares it shouldnt rip his fin?

also we cant see any signs of infection. no white bits on his fins, no rotting fins (that we can tell. we know naturally betta fins can sometimes look arched between the barbs but looking at pics of healthy bettas he seems normal) no cotton looking growths on him. his natural colouring is black and blue with a bit of red in his fins. and this hasnt changed at all which leads me to believe its not anything to do with an infection as from what i know betta will generally act differently (which he isnt) and look different (paler, less vibrant) which he doesnt.

and with regards to aquarium salt, we are going to be getting an apple snail for the tank and i have read that you shouldnt add aquarium salt when you have inverts. is that true? and if so are there any other things you can suggest that have a similar effect to aquarium salts but wont mess with the snail?

 

[corinne118s]

Salt won't do anything because the rips are healing on their own. Try taking out the decoration and see what happen. Or put a live soft plant instead. Either he's just getting caught by mistake or he might be itchy from a fungus and purposefully scratching. Just keep water crystal clean see if the problem resolves itself or get worse.

No flaring is natural for them if they are ripping while flaring their fins are already weak from something else

 

[Gingimaru]

what would cause his fins to be weak do you know?

below are some pics. there the best i could do

 

[lelouchzeta]

He's a pretty boy. I have that brown diatom problem as well right now although my nitrates are about 15-30 ppm...if I may ask, was his face always sort of a matte brown color? (If I'm interpreting the photo correctly). I had a silvery blue veil tail female (rhymes!) and when she was sick her face turned matte green... not that I know what that would be an indication of I'm just wondering.

 

[Gingimaru]

i think its just the photo that makes it look a little brown, he looks black when you see him in person (or fish ) and i dont think he likes my phone as he flared everytime i put it near the glass hence him flaring in the picture haha

also to point out his other fins look fine which does lead us to believe its not fin rot or an infection as it would be all his fins affected and he would be acting differently which he isnt :/

with regards to nitrates, unless we were to RO the water and then add all the good stuff back in which we dont really have the money for it so our nitrates will always be about 10ppm naturally

 

[corinne118s]

what would cause his fins to be weak do you know?

below are some pics. there the best i could do

That's worse than I was expecting and definitely fin rot the rotting looks like it's occurring all over not just one injure spot. Google fin rot treatment. It's hard to believe hes having problems when all your parameters are normal. Do you think there are any chemicals that might be added? What water are you using? If you use tap I would suggest trying out bottled water or get some from your fish store for a while see if that helps. A lot of people suggest salt but I think all salt does is just essentially cortorize (sp?) the wound to allow healing. Your fish seems to heal fine just has reoccurring injury.

 

[corinne118s]

Fin rot generally won't change their behavior and it really looks like all fins are damaged.. RO water is cheap. My LFS sells $0.50 cents per gallon just bring your own container. When I say cheap I mean it's a cheap fix fr a problem but obviously over time it could get pricey but it's worth a try

 

[Gingimaru]

we've recently in the last say 4 weeks had fin rot treatment in the tank (interpet anti fungus and finrot) for this very reason, we only stopped treating it last week as the holes etc went away and he looked fine as i've said. then they come and go. not loads but one or 2 holes over the last 4 weeks and then this state that you see now (this has only come about in the last 2/3days). and from what i've read around the net finrot generally comes with itchyness, shorter fins, discoloured scales or white bits near the ends (aside from where he has them naturally on his 2 fins that stick out near his face where they've had white in them since we got him). and none of the above seem to apply :/ we only used the finrot treatment because we figured its better to be safe than sorry

all other fins aside from his back one havent changed at all since we got him aside from the 2 that are on his belly which have infact grown since getting him and now look more colourful and vibrant than ever, its just his back one that seems to be an issue

 

[Gingimaru]

our local fishshops arent exactly great either.... the best one we have thats closest is called aquatica and it only sells discontinued stock of testing kits :/ and specilizes in reptiles and spiders mainly but do have a fairly broad tropical fish section. the only other fish shops are the likes of pets at home which.... well there not great. most of the times we go in there are at least 5 or more tanks quarantined for various reasons, give out crappy advice, and i've seen dead fish pretty much eaten to the point of just leaving the bones. its not great around here for fish so we do the best we can with what we've got. we cant even get betta food just have to use tropical fish pellets and frozen bloodworm

 

[corinne118s]

Hmm I'm sorry not sure what to do other than wait it out and make sure water is perfect. Good luck!

 

[Gingimaru]

i really do appreciate your help in the matter, its better to at least get some answers than none. guess we'll just have to see how he does in his new tank (pretty much on his own aside from when we get our planned snail and a few shrimp) and see if he gets any better. i hope (i say that loosley) that he is just catching it on something that we can get rid of/smooth down but i had to ask

 

[o5otato5o]

ick leaves small holes when it leaves the host so mabe that caused it try some stress coat in your water changes