Lucky, the Tail-less Wonder

[Kara101584]

Wow, he is so lucky to have found you! I have never seen anything like that, I can't believe the WM people actually put him on the shelf with the other betta's.
So lucky you came across him!

 

[SuckerLove86]

Ya know, I'm not sure how it works for fish, but have any of y'all ever heard war stories where soldiers lost body parts, but in recovery and for quite some time after they had "ghost feelings" in missing apendages?

Just a thought...

 

[OohFeeshy]

He is very cute though It would be very good if it did grow back, but I doubt it. Its better to have him as the tail less wonder than covered in ich at Walmart becaue he wasn't 'pretty'.

 

[Bettaman]

Looks at maybe a bit of tail here but as wuv say the rest looks so well healed time will only tell.......

 

[BettaMomma]

Well, it hasn't grown back yet this morning. lol

I did a bunch of research on the web last night and could find NOTHING anywhere about bettas without tails. Even from accidents. No stories, nothing.
I did find some stuff about fish who had been spotted in the ocean by divers and stuff who were missing body parts and living perfectly normal lives.
But nothing about fish in captivity.
I guess he'll always be my little mystery find.

 

[BettaMomma]

SOOO.....
I just looked him over REALLY REALLY good this morning.
Man, I wish the photos I took with this camera were closer to what he looks like in real life. the flash picks up all the reflectiveness of his scales. The more I look at him, the more I'm convinced that his tail was somehow taken off. There are a couple reasons why.... First, when looking at him in person, you can see 2 pieces of tail that hang out above and below where the MIA tail is. It looks like they are little "shards" or remnants of what once was there - tiny spear-like things that didn't come off when the rest of the tail did... Second, when I look at him from the back, it looks like there's really light hmm... I don't wanna say meat or muscle, but there's a very slight area in there that's really light colored, different than his outer skin.

Maybe I am analyzing this whole thing too much.
Later on I'm going to try to get some more pics, but I don't know if that will make much diff. hrmph

 

[Gill]

I think he is Very Lucky to have found you.

I have seen Missing Parts on Bettas. Seen them without Dorsals but never without Tails.

He is Gorgeous - Have fun

 

[BettaMomma]

Thanks! We get along very well. He watches me type all day long. And we now get lots of visitors. (MUCH more than before I had him!)

Oh, and Gill - I wanted to say that I LOVE your little boingy guys in your avatar.
laughed out loud when I saw them. lol

 

[50000_tears]

aw he looks cute for some reason..he must act cute

 

[BettaMomma]

He is one of a kind, in many ways.
He flaunts around like he's the most handsome boy on the planet.
As far as he knows, his little missing part is just a means to easier swimming for him. That's all.

 

[littlefishie]

He flaunts around like he's the most handsome boy on the planet.

Don't all bettas? The haughty little creatures.. must be why we love 'em so much!

 

[BettaMomma]

Yep.
They sort of remind me of men who go to the community swimming pool... who are very hairy... and wear a very tiny speedo swimsuit.
And don't realize they look like a very ugly grizzly bear with a rubber band on for shorts.



Yeah, just like that, except bettas actually don't look completely ridiculous - they really are very handsome.

 

[littlefishie]

Yep.
They sort of remind me of men who go to the community swimming pool... who are very hairy... and wear a very tiny speedo swimsuit.
And don't realize they look like a very ugly grizzly bear with a rubber band on for shorts.



Yeah, just like that, except bettas actually don't look completely ridiculous - they really are very handsome.

I probably shouldn't have read that in seminar.. laughing randomly is not well looked upon.

 

[BettaMomma]

heh heh heh

 

[BettaMomma]

So, today's my day off.
I decided to swing out to the office and see the boys.
After feeding Jasper & Charlie, I turned on Lucky's light and was pretty amazed at what I saw. His tail has actually started to grow back. There's some clear growth coming in.
Given the fact that I've only had him for 2 days and it's growing back already, this had to have happened VERY recently.

I'm really tempted to call up WalMart and chew some a$$, then see if I can find some answers... But, i'll just keep his water really clean and see how much of a tail he regrows.

And of COURSE my isp right now isn't allowing me to ftp into my server to upload my photos, but I think I can post one by attaching it. I'm going to give it a try. I'll post more pics later when I can figure out why my ISP is being stupid. uugh

Oh, and also - I think it might be giving him some pains because every once in a while he sort of jumps around like somebody pinched him. Poor little guy