Do I treat, or leave him alone? :/

[Alcemistnv]

Pudge has been tailbiting for awhile now (about 3 weeks), and although he isn't reducing his tail to a stump, he has chomped away decent chunks out of his fin. He now looks part Delta and part Crowntail.

It upsets me to see his tail disappearing like that, especially since his tail was my favorite thing about him :/

Now, I noticed that he flares more, and has his tail open more (I guess it was somewhat clamped up, but not extremely). I guess he's more comfortable with those pieces of his tail missing, but should I use the AQ salt to help heal it? Or do I leave it as is? :/

I don't want to have the tail heal and he ends up doing this all over again, so do I just let him do what he wants?


His tail a few days ago (notice how he has it "clamped")


His tail now (his anal and caudal fins line up, he was in the process of swimming so his tail looks shorter) :



What it used to look like 3 weeks ago:

[Luimeril]

it's possible that living next to another betta is stressing him out. constantly having to show off could be blowing his fins, as well.

if you want him to stop, i'd suggest moving him to a solitary tank. not a hospital tank, just a tank by himself. if you're not worried about him stopping, just leave him alone. don't have to treat or anything. just keep up with water changes.

[megaredize]

like Luimeril said being in a divided tank is probably the cause i would get a lot more fake or real plants and line the divider with them to try to block it so they see each other less.

[Bettanewbie60]

Double the divider like I did with mine...only way they don't have to see each other...I have my filter in the middle part and a fake plant that really blocks their view.

[Alcemistnv]

The divider is actually doubled with about 2 inches in between them. He can't see Squirt, and he used to flare only at his reflection when he was in the direct sunlight.

He currently has some hornwort in the tank as well as his log, so he has a lot of things to play around with. I'm blaming the tailbiting for having heavy finnage because once it reached a certain point he began flaring again.

[laynisample]

If you think it's due to his finnage being too heavy, I would just really leave it alone. I've been treating my guy for tail biting but he's just continuing to do it. I've tried everything, but if you are keeping up on water changes, I think he'll be fine. I don't think I need to tell you not to let it get infected. ;)

[Luimeril]

there might not be enough in the tank for him to feel safe around. i had that issue with my very first tail biter, and learned real fast to keep him planted up and rearrange them at every single water change. i know that, with live plants, you can' really DO that, but getting some large silk plants will let you keep things interesting for him.

in all honesty, i gave up on stopping tail biters. might sound horrid, but Ichi and Twitch are happier when they don't have their finnage to weigh them down. i *am* trying to get Twitch to stop, but only because he's my spoiled adopted HMDT, and i love his fins. and, i'm gonna work on getting Todd to not nip anymore(he's my first and only rosetail, so i don't have hope on keeping him from biting forever).