Fins Growing Back Abnormally?

RandomWiktor

Rabid Betta Activist
Joined
Jan 24, 2005
Messages
1,845
Reaction score
3
Location
USA
Tiny Tim has had it very rough. When I got him, all of his fins were down to nubs, and he didn't eat for close to a week. They've since grown back, giving him long, flowing, beautiful fins indeed, but he would have finrot reoccurances in times of stress. The fins always grew back just fine.
Recently, he fell seriously ill and I almost lost him (You can see my thread "mystery illness" somewhere back on the main Tropical Fish" board). While he was ill, Massive chunks of his tail, dorsal, and ventral fins fell off within hours of showing symptoms of illness. He managed to pull through, but his fins are growing back a little.... funny? There was good connective tissue for the majority of the recovery, but in one spot where a particularly large chunk fell out, he grew a bunch of little, curly, red thread-like bits of fin, but they never connected and are just sortof... there. It makes him look terribly scruffy, but everything else is growing back fine and he isn't losing any fin (I know sometimes curly-cues can indicate fin rot, but these are new fin growth, not fin loss).
Should I be worried about this abnormal new fin growth, or is it typical for a betta who has severe damage to his fins to have some irregularities as they come back in? It doesn't seem to be affecting his swimming, so I'm not too worried, but I want to make sure that he doesn't need anything to assist them in growing back properly.
(Sorry I can't have a picture; my digital camera can only take blurry photos from a distance, so you wouldn't see anything but a red blob)
 
Aw poor little guy! :sad: Was the spot totally normal before when it grew out? My guess is that he may just have weak fins from all the trouble he had with them. :/
 
Well before his dang fins fell apart, they were huge a beautiful. Do you mean was the edge of the place where he lost fin normal looking before growth re-started? Because if so, yes; whatever this illness is, the fins will very literally fall off in bit neat chunks like someone took a scissor and went wild. They usually die with 24 hours of showing the first sign (not eating and breathing heavily), but I caught him early and after a rocky few days, he bounced back. I still haven't found anyone who knows exactly what it is, but it sounds like some of the rapid-onset bacterial infections you'll see in badly stressed fishies who already have weak immunities.

Oh well. I guess I'll just have a curly betta. Its kindof cute I guess, but it makes telling if he has fin rot or not confusing.
 

Most reactions

Back
Top