Betta bitting tail, please help!

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kitzo77

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Mar 27, 2017
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Location
georgia
Hello! I've had my betta since september/october 2016 and he has recently been biting his tail fins.
He lives in a 5 gallon glass aquarium with a whisper filter(cleaned water bottle to reduce flow), a tetra preset 78F heater, and air stone. White sand and brown gravel, three marimo moss balls and some anubias live plants. I feed him 6 (pre-soaked in tank water) TetraBetta floating mini pellets throughout the day in two pellet intervals and occasionally (pre-soaked) Tetra freeze-dried Bloodworms.
I preform 30% waterchanges every thursday and treat my water with Seachem prime and API stresscoat+.

Since he started biting his fins I have been treating his water with API BettaFix.

He did have decorations with caves to hide in but i'm paranoid that the caved were too rough for his fins.

Any help to stop his biting would be greatly appreciated!
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usually they'll bite their tails due to stress. are there any places where he can see his reflection? that can stress a betta out pretty badly. and do you have any silk plants or little places for him to hide in? they love the silk plants (not the plastic) with the wide leaves that they can rest on. one that's kind of thick with leaves will be a good hiding spot for them too. or you could get a smooth cave type ornament for him to hide in and not hurt his fins.

another thing, check for velvet. i've read that it can irritate their skin and cause them to rub up against things and bite themselves, like a dog trying to scratch his back. to check, get a flashlight and shine it directly on the fish. if he has it, he'll look like someone covered him in gold dust.

on another note, are you sure that isn't a 10 gallon tank? not that it really matters, it just looks way bigger than a 5 gallon to me
 
He has a few live anubias plants with him but no silk plants. He originally had some caves but they were rough so I removed them.
The two side panels are painted black and there are no mirrors behind or infront of the tank.

I shined a flashlight onto him and did see a gold shimmer. How can I help him get better?

I thought the tank was a 5 gallon but i may be wrong, i would have to measure it to be sure.
 
View attachment 296988 heres a photo with the light



he does look like he may have velvet. look it up and see if the symptoms match. i actually just found out about the disease recently because one of my bettas has it. it's a parasite that uses photosynthesis to survive, so keeping out light is essential. i have thick towels covering my tank right now, and i only take them off to feed him. they don't mind the dark, really.

the best treatment (from what i've read) is a copper solution that you can find in a lot of stores. i think it can harm live plants though, so you may want to check that. and as a warning, copper can be VERY toxic if overdosed, so if you end up using it be careful.

this is what my betta looked like when i found out he had velvet. his normal color is a darkish blue.
 

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at that point, i had been trying to figure out why his fins were disintegrating for months. so his fins are pretty bad right now. hopefully they'll grow back once he's better.
 
Ive removed the plants because I think they were the source of the problem. I bought them from petco about two weeks ago and added them. He has never bitten his tail before i added the plants.
He is now covered with towels so there is no light.
Tomorrow i'll try to go to my local pet store to see if they have copper fix or other velvet medications
 
Ive removed the plants because I think they were the source of the problem. I bought them from petco about two weeks ago and added them. He has never bitten his tail before i added the plants.
He is now covered with towels so there is no light.
Tomorrow i'll try to go to my local pet store to see if they have copper fix or other velvet medications



it may be possible that the plants brought it in but i'm really not sure. come to think of it, i think my bettas problem started around the time that i brought home a small plant from petsmart. not petco, but still. i wonder if that has anything to do with it.
 
it may be possible that the plants brought it in but i'm really not sure. come to think of it, i think my bettas problem started around the time that i brought home a small plant from petsmart. not petco, but still. i wonder if that has anything to do with it.



I did a little research and some sites say that it can hitchhike on live plants. So I'm 90% sure it was the plants. I'll have to buy some silk plants instead once he gets better.
 
I did a little research and some sites say that it can hitchhike on live plants. So I'm 90% sure it was the plants. I'll have to buy some silk plants instead once he gets better.



my bettas love their silk plants. they rest on the leaves all the time. i've said that ill never buy plastic ones again because they're just so much more lifelike.
 
My local pet store does not have copperfix or malachite green or any other velvet cures. All other pet stores are about 50 minutes out so I'll have to wait until the weekend to get meds.
I've kept his lights out and added aquarium salt, and API stresscoat.
How often should I be doing waterchanges?
 
My local pet store does not have copperfix or malachite green or any other velvet cures. All other pet stores are about 50 minutes out so I'll have to wait until the weekend to get meds.
I've kept his lights out and added aquarium salt, and API stresscoat.
How often should I be doing waterchanges?



id say as often as possible, especially try to gravel vac because the parasite sits at the bottom before it looks for a host. you can also buy the stuff online, it may be cheaper than the drive out. occasionally walmart will have it too.
 
Parameters reading:
Ammonia:0ppm
Nitrite:0ppm
Nitrate: around 2ppm
pH:7.6

I did a massive waterchange after removing the substrate. I could see all the tiny spores and freaked out! I have some diy bio balls in the tank to hopefully keep the bacteria alive.
Coppersafe is coming in tomorrow i hope!
 
When medicating should I still do regular water changes?
I'm using Mardel Coppersafe
 
When medicating should I still do regular water changes?
I'm using Mardel Coppersafe



that's a good question, personally i say yes. my sick betta is in a 10 gallon tank so im doing 50% changes every two weeks while medicating with the copper. just be sure to add the stuff to the new water before you put it in the tank!
 
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I cant tell if he looks better or not? I've had the treatment in the water since Sunday. He has stopped biting his fins, regained appetite, and is more active. I think his fins are healing but I may be wrong.
50% wc with Prime, stress coat, and coppersafe.

How can I be sure that he is rid of the parasite?

(He didn't appreciate the flashlight very much he kept flaring at me)
 
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