anpa1019

I came home several weeks ago to see that my beautiful betta boy's tail looked like it had gone through the shredder over night. As many of you suggested, he was biting his tail, and several hours later I actually caught him in the act. Bubble's tail was looking so much better and I have been seeing some really nice gradual regrowth. I have added lots of decorations and a couple new hiding places to his tank and was really happy to see him not biting his tail any more and feeling much better. Until...this morning. I noticed he had some chunks of his tail missing. When I came home from work, around 8 pm, he had huge tears and holes in his tail and bottom fin. I am pretty sure he has been biting his tail again and I don't know what else to do. He is in a 6.6 gallon, filtered, heated (82 degrees) bookshelf tank, with a cave, some colorful plastic toys, and some glass containers he likes to swim into. I feed him hikari betta pellets every day and sometimes spoil him with brine shrimp for dinner. I have been doing daily 50% water changes for the last 3 weeks since I moved him to the tank. I treat the water with prime and add fish protector with every water change. I am all of out of ideas and I hate seeing him do this. I have gone through so much with this guy, with the fin rot and previous tail biting. He is my first fish and I am trying my best but I guess I really need help.

chickadee

The temp is a bit high so try to lower it to 80 and see if that settles him down a bit. I don't keep them above 80 as this raises their metabolism and can make them nervous. This may be some of his problem. He could even go down to 79 if that helps. No lower though or you risk getting it too low and disturbing his digestion. Just watch him for a few days after you lower the temp and there is a med that will "calm him down" and help keep him quieter. I do not remember if you were using it before. (Fish Protector) It is a calming agent and herbal so it is not really a med but a tonic of sorts. You do not need to remove your carbon or do anything but just use it. You cannot overdose him on it so don't worry about using it. Just put a teaspoon in his tank one time a day and I would put 2 teaspoons in on days when you do water changes. Between cooling him down and the Fish Protector and VitaChem and Garlic in his water he should improve big time.

Rose

COBettaCouple

We have our 2nd tail biter in our Betta Mickey. Like another of our Bettas, Aslan, he lets his tail fins regrow to a point and then nips them. For some, I think it's habit. You've got him in great conditions with a temp. lowering and are taking excellent care of him.

He wouldn't happen to be a red betta, would he?

joy613

I had a tail biter I tried getting a female to put beside him to distract him, that didn't work.

He has an orange ping pong ball in his tank to distract him and that seems to help he flares at it and pokes at it.

This is just a thought if he is doing it because of stress. Can he see himself in a reflection of the tank? I have an acrylic tank that the fish could see his reflection in. This had a really bad ending to it, the fish was always stressed, I thought it was just getting use to the bigger tank. One day I came in the room and the betta actually hit the tank so hard I heard a thud from across the room. When I checked out the fish he was basically knocked out I put him in a cup for a few hours to help him get to the top to breath. When I was checking out the tank before I put him back in I realized he could see his reflection in the tank. He never fully recovered I think he died of a brain or spine injury because he always swam funny after that. Now I keep the female in the that tank.

anpa1019

I did lower the temp to about 79/80 and I do always use fish protector. I haven't been able to find the other 2 anywhere but I will look into purchasing them online.

He actually has a ping pong ball but it's white. I put a colored ball in there and he kept trying to bite it so I didn't want anything in there that would stress him that much. He doesn't really seem to play with the ball though.

I have actually thought about him possibly seeing his reflection in there and I think he can but only on one of side of the tank. I have never actually seen him flare at it but he does seem to be kind of a feisty one. He will flare at people, highlighters, my cell phone...really anything with any color in it that gets close to the tank. I try to keep that stuff away and just show him a mirror for a 5 or 10 minutes a day. As for now, I don't think he is biting anymore but he probably just can't reach it for now.

It's just frustrating because he was doing so good and then all 3 weeks of regrowth and more were gone in 1 day. He is blue/green/turquoise with some red, VT that my mom bought a PETCO. She went in one day after work and they told her he can live in a wine glass, sold her one plant, some food and conditioner. When she brought him home, not knowing anything about bettas, I knew that didn't sound right so I took over caring for him. He was in a one gallon tank for awhile but I moved him to the 6.6 gallon when his fin rot wasn't getting better. That solved that problem. He is my first fish and I have had to learn everything from scratch, unfortunately as his expense at times, but I am definitely trying my best to give him a good home.

mrsmuffin

I wonder how the guy at PETCO would like to live in a wine glass!?

Devon

Can you put a black matte background on the side where you think he is seeing his reflection? And is there any way to change the ambient lighting near his tank to reduce the reflection that happens inside the tank?

anpa1019

I put a black mat binder on the side of the tank but he still seems to be flaring it at times. He doesn't get as worked up about it as when he sees a mirror but he does spend a lot of time on that side. I can try and play with the lighting but I am not sure how it needs to be diminish the reflection. I wish I could see what he sees to know if it's making it better or worse.

ara

My Betta also continues to have exactly the same problem. I have not caught Buddha biting his tail but I am afraid that's what he is doing. First, I thought he had fin rot. I treated him with 2 doses of Fungus Clear, did not help. His tail could be fine in the morning and all shredded in the afternoon. Actually, he has only a half of his tail left. It is amazing how fast it happens. I don't think fin rot spreads so fast.

anpa1019

Yeah, I thought it was fin rot too but it's definitly not. Bubble had fin rot before so I definitely know what that looks like. Fin rot is a lot more gradual and the tail looks much smoother. His tail was just slowly getting shorter and had some spliting. Now that he is biting, his tail looks shredded and 50% shorter in just one day. He manages to bite in between the spines...I think he is secretly trying to look like a crown tail. He is reached the tail, the dorsal and caudal fin, and even took out a huge chunk of one of the pelvic fins (the ones right under his head). I was sure he was biting and it wasn't fin rot since one of his pectoral fins was almost completly gone and the other one looked perfect...there is now way only one side would be effected by fin rot. Bubble is missing about half of his tail too now but it surprising how fast it grows back. The parts between the spines filled back out in practically a couple day and I am seeing some white, clear regrowth over the bottom edge. All I can do is cross my fingers and hope he doesn't do it again.

ara

"I think he is secretly trying to look like a crown tail."
That's what I think about Buddha!

seagullnz

hi Everyone

After reading these posts I am now wondering if my little betta boy Zen is actually a tail biter and does not have fin rot after all.

It started around a week or so ago with a huge chunk missing from his tail, then yesterday I noticed that his other fins (all but the top one which is perfect) were just shredded up - around 1cm (all in a matter of hours!)

So I rushed out and got some triple sulfa and have just added the second dose.

I don't have a digital camera so can't post a picture!

If it is in fact not tail rot as I thought have I done the wrong thing by treating him

Should I continue with the last two doses of API triple sulfa or not?

I treat his water with vitachem, weekly water changes, cycled 10G, gravel vac, add garlic guard etc

It would be great if you could post a picture of his tail, so I could compare with my guy's.

Don't these little guys just make us worry!

thanks
Lily

ara

Lily, you can see pictures of Buddha's tail in my post "What the... Help!". That's how everything started. Now he has 1/2 of his tail left. Anpa posted pictures of his guy too (different post). I don't know about Triple Sulfa. I would continue to use it (only 2 doses left anyway).

anpa1019

If you check out my threads, you can find some pictures that might be good for reference. I have a thread about his fin rot which has a couple pictures and then there is a thread called "Help! It's a betta emergency" that has pictures of him after just one day of biting. That might help you distinguish the two.

Devon

Hm, I noticed the other day that my betta was missing about half of one of his pelvic fins, I have never seen any damage to his fins before, but I wonder if he didn't get feisty and decide to chomp on himself. It's already getting little pink-white tips so there's regrowth, but I really hope he doesn't make a habit of it.

chickadee

If he is biting then he is unhappy about something, the little stinker. they can get unhappy about almost anything and it may be anything from water to temperature to food or just not getting enough attention in his opinion. Has anything changed in his tank lately? Have you changed foods? Did this start right after a water change? Does he need a water change? Not accusing or blaming just throwing out possible questions. You do not even need to answer them to anyone but yourself. They are just possibilities.

I would give him a complete 14 day course of the antibiotic and the Vitachem and Fish Protector and Garlic Guard or garlic juice daily. You should be seeing regrowth by then.

Rose

COBettaCouple

Mickey actually bit his fins for the first time when he got Chloe's tank put too close to his. She got him all worked up and ever since then he's had the habit of biting his fins.