is this fin rot or tearing?

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lavathebetta

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for some reason both my tanks are seeing issues recently, and i need some advice about my betta, lava.
when i first got him, he had some minor fin rot. this healed up all on its own thanks to the good water quality + tank size, but then i noticed a small split in his fin. it seemed to be healing, so i didn't do anything about it, but kept an eye on it. now the split is larger and is about a third of the length of his fin. the edges of his fins grew back but now they look a bit split and tattered. there also are a couple small bits missing. the pics are not great at showing this as he is so active, it's hard to get a good pic of him.

what makes me think he's tearing his fins is that the light creates reflections, which make him get all excited and he chases his reflection around. although, he never does totally flair out (he never pushed his gills out). so i'm not sure what it is. not sure why he would have fin rot. pics are below

he has a 5 gallon cycled tank with a sponge filter, all live plants. water temp is at 78F. he's fed a mix of hikari betta pellets + new life spectrum pellets. he gets 3 in the morning 3 at night, and once a week i only give him 3 a day.

parameters: 7ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-20 ppm of nitrate (is a little high, went away this weekend and skipped out on a water change, doing one right now).

tankmates: one little ramshorn snail

IMG_20201013_095839.jpg
IMG_20201013_095917.jpg
betta 2.jpg
betta 1.jpg
 
Beautiful fish. He looks pretty healthy to me and doesn't seem like fin rot, at least nothing to worry about yet. It looks like your water quality is great. Is there anything sharp or with edges that he could be tearing his fins on? I wouldn't worry too much based on these pictures. Just keep an eye on it and see if it gets worse over time.
 

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