Naughty tailbiter - recovering !

[Bloo]

Well here is my one HM Mustard Gas boy. He looked really gorgeous when I got him and was quite happy in a divided tank. Until I got a new male and shuffled them around a bit (same tank, same decorations just different neighbour) - he started eating his tail ! At first I thought it was finrot, but no - each morning there would be more large chunk missing - thus not finrot.
Anyway, so I tried to swap him back to his old neighbour but that didn't help at all. After a week I tried yet another neighbour and still no luck. I was getting rather fed up not knowing what to do with this young man, until I decided to try something "new"

Giving him a couple of wild guppy neighbours ! They're only teensy tiny and not even half an inch big each - obviously too small to take much note of. And voila ! Tail biting stopped and we are seeing some re-growth !
Ps: I realise the re-growth might be a tad hard to spot on the pic but trust me it's there - and improving almost each day !

Well here's a series of pics.

1) His Bettaman pic
2) A pic I took myself
3) Tail bitten
4) Recovering !

 

[riogal_11]

Aww how sad. I have a tailbiter too. I took him away from anything that could be making him get anxious and he is finally recovering. Goodluck

 

[OohFeeshy]

I've had a tail biter too, he seems to have stopped now but he now has a SD tail . Hopefully his rays will grow back

 

[Elisabeth83]

He's got some nice regrowth now at least I have a recovering tail biter too. I used to have 4 boys in a divided tank and they were never happy. I remember 2 would regularly bite their tails. Once I put them all on their own they were happy as can be and their tails grew out. Although they never grew back right. I still have one of those boys and he probably has the ugliest fins ever. Short and choppy What can you do though ya gotta still love them He did it again lately when I moved his bowl to another part of the house. I guess he wasn't happy there Now I have 4 boys in their own small bowls/tanks with paper dividing each of them and everyday I take the paper away for about 10-20 mins. It seems to keep them happy and they all build bubble nests happily

 

[Durbkat]

Hey you can add salt to speed up the process. I also have a tailbiter but it seems to have stopped and I'll be adding aquarium salt to speed up the process.

 

[Naughtygirlrlw]

He's still beautiful

 

[Bloo]

Thanks guys I'll add some more piccies in a week by week progress - I always find it interesting to read threads where one can actually get (see) and end result. It's sometimes baffling when I find old threads with problems people had, and then they never came back to to say whether or not they managed to cure it.
So I'll be back - fingers crossed he keeps improving, but so far so good !

 

[Bloo]

Just thought I'd add a couple of regrowth piccies - it's amazing how quickly it acutally happens. The guppy neighbours are obviously well liked

 

[Durbkat]

Hey quick question bloozoo would you mind telling me what you do to help your betta regrow his fins. Because like I said mine just stopped biting his fins and I add a 1/8 teaspoon of salt per week with a weekly water change and a new dose of salt. So is that what you do, add salt or what do you do?

 

[Bloo]

I did absolutely nothing whatsoever apart from giving him new neighbours (the couple of tiny wild guppies). Wish I could give you a magic forumla.
I guess it would beharder even if it's a fish in a non-divided tank, as you can't exactly even change neighbours.

 

[JackDemp528]

I just have to say that he is a gorgeous betta, and he just shimmers!

 

[Bloo]

Thanks ! He is definitely my favourite (if I'm allowed to have one ) ) and a very feisty little man. The original photo (from the breeder) really didn't do him any justice at all and I was pleasantly surprised at how beautiful he really was.