Betta with badly torn dorsal fin

[joannde]

I don't know what he got into last night but Mr Piggy seems to have torn his dorsal fin pretty badly. He swims normally, eats normally and is still doing his "happy dance" when I turn to look at him. I think the fin has ME upset more than him.

He's one of the Betta's in the 4 way 10G tank.

I have a bottle of BettaFix,which treats a whopping 15 gallons. I also have some PrimeaFix and Melafix on hand.

Does he NEED any treatment to heal ? I'd rather not medicate if I don't have to. Is there a risk of infection ? (what do I need to look out for). Is there anyway to reduce the risks (I'm assuming water changes - would 10% a day be good ??)

Poor baby - he must have gotten behind the heater and gotten his fin stuck on the suction cup - its the only thing I can think of that might rip his fin like that.

 

[An t-iasg]

I wouldn't medicate either just yet. Be cautious of Melafix or BettaMax - their active ingredient is melaleuca which can irritate the betta's labyrinth organ. I've never used or read a label on Pimafix, but I wouldn't use it on a betta - there are other meds that are better for bettas.

If the cut edge starts to look black and tattered, medicate with Maracyn 1 or 2. You can give a second treatment, up to 10 days, if necessary. If the cut edge looks clear, or a little fin color is coming in, it is healing nicely on its own. IME the cut edge (just the tip of the edge, really) looks clear - like new "skin" growing back - when it's healing properly. The fin colors will fill in shortly, and they may even be a little different. Since he didn't lose his fin, the colors should fill right back in.

I think a 15-20% a day water change is a good start. If he does happen to get worse, you can pull him out for QT. I think that since he's in with 3 other bettas, you need to do more than 10%. If he was by himself a 10% would be fine. It's my opinion that you might want to change a little more out since he does have tankmates.

I had a betta once that lost his whole dorsal fin. I was afraid he wouldn't be able to swim up and down but he was fine. I think you're right - we get more upset than the fish does!

 

[Puriti]

Nah, he doesn't NEED it, but Bettafix helps it heal a bit FASTER than normal, but if it's not down really low, it should grow back fine Just may take a couple months even with betta fix... cuz the bones and finnage have to grow back

 

[joannde]

Thank you both. I feel a little better - I hope there wasn't (and isn't) any pain involved - it sure looks painful to me ! The tear is the whole front half his dorsal fin and it is pretty low and about 35% of the way back .... the part he tore is sort of just hanging off the bottom of the part he didn't tear. I'll keep a close eye on him - nothing unusually there, the 10G is right behind my desk so I'm always watching and / or talking to "the guys". I'll do the 20% water changes daily. I was doing 50% on the 29G every day for awhile so 5 gallons a pop is going to feel like nothing LOL.

 

[joannde]

Well, Mr Piggy doesn't seem to notice that he doesn't have a dorsal fin anymore - he's been building bubble nests since the day its happened.
Question - the end of his dorsal fin is white. Is this new growth ? Do the fins grow from the ends or the bottom ? (LOL - is that a stupid question ???). I'm assuming the white ends are not a sign of infection - they're not fuzzy or anything like that, just white.

 

[An t-iasg]

You say the white ends are not fuzzy? Then I'd be cautiously optimistic that it is new growth. It may take quite a long time to grow back. One of my bettas lost a dorsal fin and it didn't grow back all the way before he died. It should start to grow up from his back and then get longer. Hopefully what you're seeing is the "starter" fin.

 

[joannde]

Hmmmmmmm, the white part is at the end of the fin, not near his back. He had about 1/2 inch of fin left at first, it looks a wee bit longer now - the white part is pretty close to the difference between the length of his fin after the tear and today (about 1/8th of an inch, maybe a little bit more, but not much more)

 

[An t-iasg]

That sounds like new growth then. I know what you mean - where does the new growth come from? From his "back" or the end of the fin? In all my experiences, the whitish new area is at the end of the fin, not near the body, so I guess it grows from the end of the fin. One time when my betta lost half his tail, the half near his body stayed the same in coloration so I could tell it was still the old part. The new part was colored a bit differently and it grew from the end of the torn part, not near his body - so the original part of the fin that was not torn did not grow out to become the end part.
Does that make sense? If I continue, I'll confuse myself! LOL! Hopefully your betta is on the way to recovery!

 

[joannde]

The new part was colored a bit differently and it grew from the end of the torn part, not near his body - so the original part of the fin that was not torn did not grow out to become the end part.
Does that make sense? If I continue, I'll confuse myself! LOL! Hopefully your betta is on the way to recovery!

Oh GOODY - Thank you !! that makes complete sense and its exactly what I'm seeing. He's definitely not feeling any ill effects - he's making bubble nests, doing his happy dance, begging for food (his name isn't Mr Piggy for nothing LOL), and even flared at his neighbor today (pretty cute actually - he's still beautiful when he flares and neither him nor I am put off by his little stubby dorsal fin).

Now I have to figure out why I'm getting BGA in the tank ! And LOTS of it (yuck). I guess all the water changes have put some of the nutrients to an imbalance ..... but I'll save that for the planted tank forum LOL

 

[An t-iasg]

That's good to hear! I originally thought the fin would have to start from his "back" because I thought the dorsal fin was completely gone. I'm glad to hear that's not the case.

I bet with all your water changes, you depleted the nitrate levels, or got them pretty low. BGA, or cyanobacteria, loves a lack of nitrates. A 3-5 day blackout will kill it off pretty well, but then you have to monitor nitrates to ensure that they don't get too low. I add nitrates to my planted tanks since only one betta doesn't produce enough. Is this your 10 gallon tank, right? You should have enough nitrates from 4 bettas, but the extra water changes probably depleted the nitrates too fast.

 

[joannde]

Yes, I think that's exactly what happened. I happen to have some stump killer (KNO3) in the garage so I may dilute some of it in a cup and add teeny amts until I get to 10 - 20ppm of Nitrates. Seems like the BGA grows almost instantly !!! No soon as I remove as much as I can its starting to cover things again.

Never thought I'd ever get into dosing !!! LOL - the only plants in that tank are a few really really small java ferns and a clump of nice soft java moss for each of the boys.

 

[An t-iasg]

The stump remover is a popular nitrate source. I know that you know that adding too much at once will cause a "spike", so go slow! Isn't it so gross to grab a clump of cyano and pull it out of the tank - but you have to!

Java moss was my first plant (and only plant for awhile) in my 5 gallon tanks. My nitrates were almost always 0, and then I started dosing. If you have 4 clumps in a 10 gallon, even with four bettas, it makes sense that you'll need to monitor your nitrates and maybe start dosing regularly. You'll be able to determine that more easily once you get back to your regular water changing schedule.

 

[fish_4_all]

The first time my corys spawned my male betta got torn to shreds. All of his fins were shredded down to nothing but nubs even his tail fin. With a change in tank mates and some plants to hide in he recovered very nicely without much more than a little annoyance when he swam to get his food. Felt really bad for him to see this finless betta but he was a wonder of a swimmer without them and is still alive and healthy 3+ months later.