I did a water change an hour and a half ago, betta was fine, compacted and then chased his tail for a while--unclumped, and a the rear quarter of his tail is ragged!



Ammonia levels haven't changed, it's effected only his tailfin, and it's not fin rot. Too quick.

A couple slightly darkened specks on his tail, some dark edges on his scales. He had a few of those since I got him. He has a little thin spot on his tailfin.

Over the time it took to take a couple pictures!

He's active, but doesn't seem to be 'freaking out', and this seems like too much to have happened from getting himself caught on in the fake grass he was swimming through.

I've moved him into the cup I got him in, full of water from the leveled tank, in hope to curb the damage. He's not happy about the size.

What do I do!?

This post has been edited by Deus Machina: Jul 7 2008, 01:59 PM

What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
How big are the spots on his tail, do they look like grains of salt.
What colour are the dark spots on his tail do they look like a caulifower,
or a cluster of eggs.

This post has been edited by Wilder: Jul 8 2008, 07:42 AM

Hmm ok
what else is in the tank?
did you move him while doing a water change?

If it is just tail damage, then i wouldn't worry. you could get Melafix to help repair him, it should speed it up..

Need to find about about the spots first.
Melafix is only good once fins are healing if its bacterial finrot you
need a bacterial med.

This post has been edited by Wilder: Jul 8 2008, 11:03 AM

Ammonia spiked to--going by some math in the little test pamphlet here--a hair over 1 ppm.

Fish was alone in the tank.

Kept him in while changing water.

Nitrite at .05 ppm, nitrate untested--the bottle in my kit cracked and leaked.

Water is normally high-PH, and at the time was around 86 degrees.

He's currently moved into a 1.5 gallon that got part of an ammonia clear tablet and is stocked with zeolite to kill the ammonia as a temp home until I'm sure the 10 gal is cycled properly.

The damage to his tail has been halted by the move. The flecks on his tail were black, and just looked like where tail had died and not fallen off yet. The 'spot' I mentioned was just translucent--further damage.

Black marks can be ammonia burns that are healing.
Finrot is mainly caused by bad water qualityy.

This post has been edited by Wilder: Jul 8 2008, 02:36 PM

He's currently healthy in his 1.5gal, tail is healing well so far.

Added 7 drops of melafix. Too much for a 1.5, too little? Says 1 tsp/10gal just like my water conditioner, added a half-dose based on said conditioner's 10drops/gal conversion.

Will be testing stats and changing water daily, until I'm sure my 10 gal is cycled.

Zeolite seems to be working as a temporary quick-fix.

areu sure hes not eating his tail?

i had a fella who constantly had torn fins, turned out he was a fin muncher

He's keeping the veins/rays/whatever they're called, and it's more ragged than nips usually look.

Smoothed out and hasn't progressed since I moved him.

ahhh i see, tis just i had a problem with my DT male, looked like he was just falling to bits, but he was actually eating his tail