Bored Betta?

[McCool]

I have a male blue butterfly betta, and when I bought him his fins were perfect. Now, a few months later, the beautiful white lining his navy blue is just gone. It started just a little I got him, and hasn't subsided. The tanks flow is very, very gentle. No tank mates other than small algae eaters and two ghost shrimp. Live plants, sand, smooth river rocks. I assume he is biting his tail, but in all the months I've had him I have never once caught him in the act. His tank is full of plants. I've tried a ping pong ball, new tank mates, everything. Nothing has helped. Any ideas?
Btw- My picture is him when I first got him. All that white is basically gone now.

 

[Flute]

Have you tried re-arranging his tank and adding more spaces to explore about in? It's not a sure way of stopping him from tail biting, but it might distract him long enough to let his fins heal. They do get bored after a while if nothing new is introduced, so try changing the tank up every couple of months to give him something new to do

 

[McCool]

Have you tried re-arranging his tank and adding more spaces to explore about in? It's not a sure way of stopping him from tail biting, but it might distract him long enough to let his fins heal. They do get bored after a while if nothing new is introduced, so try changing the tank up every couple of months to give him something new to do

That's the thing. I change it up every few weeks! He doesn't do well with any other fish swimming in his space, but he does tolerate shrimp, a couple otos and plenty of snails. Not really sure what else I can do...

 

[sausagewinkle]

first question to ask, have you checked you water paraments? im sure you have but got to ask

does his tail look raggy or uneven? or has the blue just disappeared?

 

[KuronoEnyo]

Oh hey btw did you know ghost shrimp are actually pretty aggressive? They will happily attack a sick or injured fish. I remember once my new betta fish was riddled with fin rot then I got to him and saw a ghost shrimp latched onto him I actually had to use my aquarium tongs to push it off. Was scary afterwards I chucked all the ghost shrimp and upgraded to amano haven't looked back.

I know amano shrimp cherry shrimp and a few others are very peaceful but there are some ghost shrimp said to of attacked other inhabitants in the aquarium.

Also water parameters might be an issue but just a small tip incase of the shrimp. Hope your betta fish recovers such beautiful fish are so hard to lose specially when its drawn out.

 

[McCool]

first question to ask, have you checked you water paraments? im sure you have but got to ask

does his tail look raggy or uneven? or has the blue just disappeared?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20

The blue is fine, just the white is missing. Very uneven and choppy. you can see a little white, but that's it

Oh hey btw did you know ghost shrimp are actually pretty aggressive? They will happily attack a sick or injured fish. I remember once my new betta fish was riddled with fin rot then I got to him and saw a ghost shrimp latched onto him I actually had to use my aquarium tongs to push it off. Was scary afterwards I chucked all the ghost shrimp and upgraded to amano haven't looked back.

I know amano shrimp cherry shrimp and a few others are very peaceful but there are some ghost shrimp said to of attacked other inhabitants in the aquarium.

Also water parameters might be an issue but just a small tip incase of the shrimp. Hope your betta fish recovers such beautiful fish are so hard to lose specially when its drawn out.

Yeah, I've heard of that, but I really don't think that's the case. He is very active and pretty aggressive, and I've seen him actually go after the ghost before. If one of the shrimps were messing with his tail, I think betta might have himself a tasty snack. I've considered it, but really doesn't seem likely with his personality.

 

[KuronoEnyo]

Hmmm I got no clue then I mean you could easily tell if the ghost shrimp were eating away at him if you caught there stomaches fast enough. I always noticed when I fed ghost shrimp blood worms there stomaches turned red and with algae wafers it was brown.

Hope he recovers regardless I know when I added in some aquarium salt my betta fish recovered very quickly, but you say you have bottom feeders in there and depending on what type they may not be able to hand a bit of salt added to the aquarium. Though if they can I had a 10 gallon aquarium with my betta fish soon after getting him he had fin rot while in the cup so in the aquarium I added about 2 table spoons, then within a few weeks he was completely healed. It might help to just add a little. Also if you have plants in the aquarium adding half the amount needed for a tank your size shouldn't bother them too much and if you do notice a change can just swap out an amount of water since the salt wont come out unless through water changes. But in my case I had no issues and i had java moss java ball amazon sword frog bit wisteria java fern and anubias.

 

[Flute]

Some betta are just awful tail biters! I had one who would do it no matter what, sometimes there's not a great deal you can do to stop them
Personally I'd just up your water changes in regularity for a little while until the fins start to heal, and maybe give him some blood worm and garlic juice soaked food to boost his immune system. Best to not add things to your tank unless it's 100% neccesary