Betta fins, damage or fin nipping? Help please

[Becca99]

Hi. Wonder if anyone can advise what could have happened to my Bettas fins. Firstly the dorsal fin got damaged but by the time I noticed, new growth had seemed to appear, no sign of infection then today I've just seen him like this? I'm gutted. Has he damaged them on something? Filter intake possibly? Or is he nipping his fins? There's no plastic in the tank, parameters are 0 ammonia,0 nitrite with 5/10 nitrates. I did a 30% water change Friday when I noticed the first damage. Otherwise we go a change every 5/6 days. He had such lovely fins. I'm gutted. Any advice please? Thank you

 

[lknowles]

RAGGED Betta fins

My little guy is doing the same thing! I'm so frustrated because his tank is kept spotless and I only have real plants. Not sure what's going on!


Anyone out there have some ideas?

 

[Becca99]

I've just had all my filter out and now know it's definitely not that. There's so much damage that seems to have come overnight so think it has to be nipping only live plants here too and plenty of places to hide/relax

 

[Mother of fish]

He is nipping his fins. Have you done anything new in his tank? Can you list his tank gallons, filter, temp, his diet, water perimeters and any other information possible? Can you post a picture of his tank?

 

[Mother of fish]

I gave a list of things such as pictures and housing to list so I can help you out as well!!

 

[Becca99]

Hi. That's what worried me. No idea why. Had him 5 weeks. Tank cycled, water parameters checked before every change (every 5 to 6 days) 34l. No tank mates. Only thing i will say is that I upgraded his heater to one that was supposed to be better and more safe and it's doing a rubbish job of maintaining 28, keeps fluctuating to 29 and as low as 26.5 so that's going back today and I'll put the old one back in and I also swished his filter out a little (in tank water) which made the flow stronga er (which I know they don't like) so I'd anyway stemmed it a little with a sponge (it's quite a large tank so only effects a small area so didn't think he'd object to it this much) but just in case I've stemmed it even more with more sponges. He's fed a few fish science pellets in a morning and then evening we rotate a mix of frozen, tubiflex, daphnia, brine shrimp, mysis, blood worm. Pic of tank below. Thanks so much for your help

 

[Mother of fish]

Has he been fin nipping since you got him or is this new? How many gallons are his tank?

 

[Becca99]

Nope this is the first time in 5 weeks. 54l/ 14 gallon tank

 

[Becca99]

54 litre I mean

 

[Mother of fish]

Once the temp is steady, give him a little bit of time. If his fins continue to be nipped, downgrade his tank size to a 5-10 gallon. I breed bettas and have a crown tail that will freak and start nipping his fins in anything over a 2.5 gallon.

 

[Becca99]

Thank you. So you definitely think it looks like nipping? On the basis of how quick it happened I think it has to be really. I'm just really sad he's not happy, do you think it could be the fluctuating heat? That's the only thing that's changed in the last week and he did seem happy before. I'm worried I won't actually be able to tell if he's stopped biting, how long does it take for his fins to grow back do you know? This is still quite new to me and stressful ?

 

[Mother of fish]

Don't worry! His fins should start growing back pretty quickly, it will look clear at first. I am assuming it is the fluctuating temp. Hopefully when you get that fixed, it will stop. Keep me updated!

 

[Becca99]

Thanks so much. I will do. Someone on a Facebook group suggested fin rot which is worrying me now

 

[Becca99]

Hi. I hope you don't mind me getting in touch again. So a week since I saw the damage and I would say it's looking worse if anything, I'm sure he's nipped at it again. I'm doing water changes every 3 days and increased tannings so today I decided to put a divider in to cut his swimming space down, do you think that's worth a try or could I stress him out more? It's probably meant that he's now got about 9gallon instead of 14 and it's still heavily planted with lots of hides. I just get the feeling his tail has become so long and heavy he's fed up with it, he's a very active fish. At the moment he keeps looking at the divider and I feel really guilty �� the divider has holes in but the filter and heater are the other side, I thought him being away from any flow would be better but could this cause any issues so you think? Thanks for your help.

 

[Mother of fish]

Keep the divider in the tank. He may give you puppy eyes, but stay strong lol. (Most) Bettas can be in tanks as small as 2.5 gallons, so 9 gallons is definitely no big deal. Another picture would help.

 

[Becca99]

Thank you. Before the damage his tail had become really thick and long so could see how he'd get annoyed with it (never realised just how much he's grown since we've had him till you look back) We've had him just over 6 weeks now and only noticed this the last week or so but then his fins were still growing when we first got him. Here's a pic from yesterday that made me think he was worse than last week. I know it's dark , it's so hard to get a good bright pic. Still no amonia or nitrite. I did find a hitchhiking snail that must have been in there with him from the beginning from the plants so he's been evicted the temp has been stable at 28 for the last week so I can't put it down to that anymore

 

[Mother of fish]

He looks better!! What I would do is keep the divider in until his fins have started to grow back. Move the divider 1\4th inch down about 3 times a week until you can remove it once your see growth. I would recommend live food mainly right now if you are not already. If you can absolutely not find live online or locally, go with frozen. It should help speed recovery.

Fun fact: If you didn't already know, you can feed wild mosquito larvae, just make sure to dip it in some meth-blue, or aquarium salt water before feeding.

 

[Becca99]

Thanks so much. I was worried he'd chomped all the edges down even more but fingers crossed then. I'm actually in the UK so not many mosquitos around unfortunately, I wish we had the climate for them, lol ��. He does get a different frozen daily though like brine shrimp, mysis, tubiflex, blood worm or daphnia. That's a great idea with the divider though, thank you. Thanks very much for your help again, I'm new to all this really and never realised how stressful it would be!

 

[Mother of fish]

Don't worry, not missing out on much with the mosques lol! The stink besides the fact you can feed them to betas. The bad\infected\damaged fin just fell of, that's why it looked worse. His diet sounds great.

 

[Becca99]

Lol. Yeah we do definitely miss the climate they come with though. Having some awful cold weather in England so far this year. I've been doing about 30/40 % water change every 3 days.. do you think that's enough? Ah hadn't appreciated thats what would have happened with his fins, that's a relief then really. Thanks so much for your help and reassurance. Really appreciate it .