Foolyfoo

I got my betta a couple of days ago and I noticed when I got him home that he had not been treated all that well
He has some rips in his fins and some bad scarring at the base of his tail.

I was just wondering if there was anything I could do to help him heal,
any food i could give him or a medicine that works well? I heard somewhere giving them epson salts (spelling?) helps.

Has anyone had something that worked well in this situation?

Nick Goody

Keep him in a heated tank with good water conditions and look after him well. Do this and you should find his fins heal up fine

Foolyfoo

Thanks, good to know he'll heal ok! I'll make sure his water stays good

I have some epson salts, would they help or make things worse?
I can't remember for the life of me who told me epson salts would help.

Shawnie

I would use stress coat+ and some garlic guard with the prestine water as nick suggested..salt is more of an irritant to bettas...

Foolyfoo

Alright will do! Thanks for the help!

Martinismommy

The #1 most important thing in repairing torn fins is clean water...

disturbedme

I'm glad you asked this. My betta Hermes is a tail biter and always has open sores/wounds on the ends of his tail. I breathe a sigh of relief when I see the white web of healing grow where the most recent bite(s) was, but then get nervous all over again when I notice he bit another chunk or two out of his tail. It's like a never-ending cycle with his tail biting. Arrrggg! So far, so good with them healing up fine, but it doesn't matter because he keeps biting them anyway. I'm worried though because I really don't want him to get fin rot from all the biting. That, and he shares a divided tank with Helios and if one gets ill, the other one has a huge chance of it too.

Shawnie

id say your tail biting boy is either bored, or isnt doing well with a neighbor...sometimes some bubbles or even caves to play around and hide in help..or even make the divider darker so he cant see beside him if it isnt already..I had a tailbiter so hes in his own pad now so he doesnt have to show off lol

disturbedme

Shawnie - he actaully was biting himself when he was alone with no neighbor or any other fishie around at all. I don't know why he does it. I also have hidy spots for him as well as a couple of plants, etc. So I don't think that has to do with it. Also, the divider between both of them is dark enough that they can't see each other. The divider we got at Petsmart is clear... but they were flaring so much, we went out to Michael's and got a black colored needlepoint canvas. Came home, that still didn't work and they still saw each other between them. So we went out and ended up getting another needlepoint canvas, a blue one. Put that up with the black one and now they can't see each other at all.

The only other guess I have could be because of the mystery snail I got and put with him. Maybe he doesn't like her with him, but I thought he enjoyed her around... maybe I'm wrong. I guess I could put her on the other side with my other betta and see if he stops biting when she is not around him, but then I'm afraid my other betta would start biting.