LuvaBetta

What could Bo be doing that's tearing his tail? He's at work in a 5g corner, live plants, river-pebble gravel, fluorescent light on a timer.

Every morning I come in, he does his happy dance, wiggling and dancing. His tail looks just like it did yesterday.
Monday morning, same thing, but his tail is ragged. Pelvic fin is fine. Just the tail. (Pelvic fin is longer than the tail! If the tail is dragging, shouldn't this fin as well?)

What kind of weekend is this guy having? I hope it's better than mine!

Barbrella

Do you have a picture? It would be easier to know if it's biting his tail if we can see the damage.

LuvaBetta

I'll bring my camera to work tomorrow and Monday. He's really phone-camera shy.

0morrokh

Some bettas have a habit of biting their own tails. Hard to say what the cause is without pics or more info though.

LuvaBetta

Boredom? I can't think of any reason he'd do it on the weekend but not during the week! There are also a couple of otos in the tank with him. Or maybe one... I haven't seen the other in a day or two!

COBettaCouple

A new cave or betta-safe toy might help, as well as rearranging his tank from time to time. Vita-Chem and Fish Protector will help heal the fin damage.

LuvaBetta

I'll try that - A new cave or toy Friday afternoons might keep him busy through the weekend! Thanks!

I use both the Vita-Chem and Fish Protector, his fins are obviously healing by Tuesday of each week. (Oddly enough, the new growth on his tail starts out red then turns to the color of the rest of his tail.)

I'm crazy about this fish; he was a real

COBettaCouple

Sounds good.

Barbrella

What kind of filter do you have? Some bettas seem determined to let the filter rip up their tails!

LuvaBetta

It's an Eclipse, so it's their bio-wheel filter. The outflow does seem a bit strong. I put a wedge of filter foam in front of the out-flow, but I'm not sure it made a huge difference.
Sometimes Bo deliberately gets in the middle of it and looks like a mime walking against the wind!
The only other solution I can think of for that would be to shorten the intake tube. Has anyone tried that? I'm just not sure the end guard piece would still fit as the tube is slightly tapered.

COBettaCouple

I've seen that our Bettas like to swim into the outflow from the filter. It's exercise for them. The intake is what would be more likely to tear fins, but the intake on the eclipse filters are pretty good and I don't think they'd be too likely to tear fins. We kept a small double combtail male in a 5g hex and a female in another 5g hex - they never had trouble with the intake being strong enough to suck them towards it.

LuvaBetta

Okay, I haven't posted pics before, so here goes.... You can see the red where his tail is growing back.

And a picture of Butterfly, just for grins. She has two white stripes along her gills that I originally thought might be ick. But she hasn't gotten sick, Dragon Lady hasn't gotten it, so...

Barbrella

It's hard to tell from the pics, but it doesn't really look like he's biting it.

You can try taking a sponge, cutting a slit in the middle and sliding it up over the filter intake tube, just in case that's what caused it. If his tail grows back with no further damage, then I would say it's the filter.

He's a beautiful boy!!

COBettaCouple

He's a beautiful Betta! I would say that it's better than 50% that he's nipping his fins but can't be totally sure even if I think that's what he's doing.

LuvaBetta

Thanks!

Do you s'pose they eat the pieces they bite out? Such a big chunk I almost expect to find on the bottom!

It really doesn't look like finrot, does it?

COBettaCouple

They spit the pieces out. We never find them unless we're right there when it happens, I think the filter gets them.