Ripped Up Fin

[Betta splendens]

Ok I spend the night at a nice Halloween party (Happy Halloween btw! ), and when I came back I found my male guppy, his caudal finn ripped up pretty badly. He is still lively enough to chase my females but he (understandably) has a hard time swimming.

How long will it take to grow back, and what can I do to speed up the process?

I'm making sure he gets plenty to eat, so is there any food that will help heal?

How can I tell if his tail gets infected?

Would hard or soft water help it heal?

Can the chlorine in the tap water keep the tail clean or will it do something bad?

Is he going to be ok, or will he be belly-up soon??

Furthermore, I KNOW my betta did this, who else would-a tetra? What caused this aggression in my betta! Every source I know says that bettas are only aggressive to other battas! Is it because my betta is red as is my guppy's tail?



By the by, heres a pic that dullens the injury

 

[stang1]

Bettas will attack anything that they feel resembles them especially guppies. I think it is because of the tail and their colouring. If you can put your Betta in a seperate tank or he may attack your other guppies.

 

[andyt_uk]

DO NOT use tap water - that will do far more harm and little or no good..

there is areason why betta's are called siamese fighting fish...

use something like melafix to help look after the fin, its fairly cheap, just pour some in - smells good too, make sure your water is clean, but treat new water dont just dump fresh tap water in there if doing a water change
most small wounds like this will heal quite well in good water

 

[sharkbaitwoohaha]

most things ive read on bettas say do NOT keep them with guppys of a similar colour because they mistake them for other bettas. also heard several reports of them being aggressive to other fish and people bring them back to the shop where i work all the time because they have tried to kepp them in a community and it hasnt worked.

depends how bad the wound is as to how quickly it heals. id use melafix (i always use it with pimafix) which does an awesome job at healing extreme damage and just make sure the water is clean, this is very important. and use a decent level of aquarium salt to reserve his energy for healing. nutritious food like bloodworms and the like id say would be best. if the betta did it he will do it again so they need to be separated i would say
good luck

 

[l.michelle]

Exactly what stang said, bettas can't be kept with fish that have colourful flowy fins.

I find that the bettas I have are very happy on their own, in their own tanks. They can become agressive to a lot of other fish. Sometimes at the beginning when you first put them together, they won't seem to care much, but their temperment can change as they get a little older.

You can use tap water, just if you do, make sure you have a water conditioner in before you put the fish in it. Ever test your tap water on it's own? Kind of scary what we are drinking sometimes lol

 

[dwarfgourami]

Well, the good news is that you caught them in time and as long as you're able to separate them, the guppy should heal quite quickly. Good water quality (they prefer hard water, but don't go messing with it just now, the important thing is to keep it clean), a touch of melafix, and he should be as good as new in a month's time. Be sure to use a dechlorinator when you do water changes, the chlorine would stress him out further. If you have no salt-sensitive fish (no tetras, corys etc), you could also add a touch of salt to speed healing.

 

[Betta splendens]

Ok good, as soon as I saw him I did seperate the betta, into his old origional tank. Its strange because they've been living together for a month now.

I also put in one of those half-dollar sized dechlorinater tablets I believe 2 or 3 days ago, should I put another just in case?

Thank God he's not exactly doomed, and thank everybody who posted.