betta fish tail shredded

So I bought a 5.5 gal fish tank from petsmart it's a topfin and the filter intake gaps are huge and my Betta named squid his tail I think has gotten kinda shredded from it so my question is can I take the netting from old swim trunks and wrap that around it and tie it with fishing line to make it safe I would soak the mesh first to make sure it was free of any soaps or anything just looking for opinions on that
Thanks!

 

Can you use new pantyhose instead? Just to be safe, I'd use something that has never been washed.

What are your water parameters, just to make sure it's not a water quality issue? pH, temp, ammonia, nitrites, nitrates?

 

Also I was wondering if you have plastic plants in their with him?

 

Not sure a filter intake on a 5.5 would do any harm to a fish, he should be able to swim away easily

 

That's a fantastic idea about the panty hose! and I'll run over to my friends and grab the test kit ( right now she just lets me use hers whenever cuz I didn't have the money to buy my own ) thanks you!!!!!

 

Yea there are 2 plastic and 2 live plants I thought I saw it get sucked in there and then that's when I noticed his tail cuz it litterally happend over night I'll have to do some re thinking maybe silk plants ?

 

Live or silk is your best bet

 

Thank you I'm new to Bettas and I love the 2 I have ( no worries they are separate and will always be kept solo) so I'm learning I read a lot but didn't even thing about the plants so thanks for that!