Petco Babies: Any problems when adults?

[meiperfectneina19]

Well in August I bought a cute little baby Betta, my tiny Bit. He has spend the last couple of months growing and about a week ago we finally placed him on his new 10 gallon mansion/maze tank. Now the thing is, we have notice that as he grew his dorsal fin started to curl. He also has his ventrals all twisted in strange angles. Someone here told my fiance that it might be due to hard water... We have tested the water and it isn't hard. We asked at the local fish shop and they told us that it was probably just genetic. Now he also seems to be smaller than other bettas, or at least I feel like he hasn't grown as much as others I have had or seen. He still can't eat the bigger pellets we have for him, so he still is eating the baby hikari pellets, with the occasional blood worm.

My friend also bought a Baby betta about a week or less after mine. Her's took a long time to start growing. He is still little but growing and at least shows no observable deformities.

So I was wondering, for those of you who have bought baby bettas that have lived to adulthood (seeing as I have seen quite a few people complaining about their death rate), do you find the fish have any problems? Either developmental, anatomical or behavioral?

I just feel between sadness wondering if I did anything wrong that caused his fins to be crooked and anger at Petco for possibly selling fish that are not "healthy".

Besides his crooked fins he seems fine, he swims, is active, eats, poops and flares at anything that gets too close. He also makes his little bubble nests and struts his stuff trying to protect it.

*pictures in the next post*

[meiperfectneina19]

Here are pictures of him. As he grew his colors changed and his fins curled up.

[aemaki09]

I dont know if its common or anything, but my VT has the same problem, I got him from Pet Supplies Plus though.

More than likely it's just bad genetics. They mass produce the fish sold to pet stores worse than puppy mills, he is probably perfectly healthy on the inside, just isnt the prettiest to look at from the outside. If he is acting like a normal fish I wouldnt worry about it.
you cant really do anything about getting his fins to go back to what you think they should be, you could try AQ salt but I highly doubt it would do anything

[meiperfectneina19]

Yeah since he isn't acting like the hinder his swimming or hurt him in anyway I am not to worried about his health I just wanted to see how often it happens. He seems happy enough, but one as a parent... kinda worries about every detail.

[aemaki09]

Yeah I was curious to know that too. I really only see veil tails with defirmities like that but one of my Crown tails has a dorsal like yours apparently it happens when there is too much fin and not enough muscle to support it.

[hedgehog]

I got my baby betta almost a year ago. He hasn't had any issues with fin curling but he's a lot smaller than other bettas.

[shellieca]

I've heard that the curling can be caused by hard water which I have & my VT has some slight curling. He doesn't seem to have any problems swimming around or flaring to his full beauty so I haven't worried about it.

[meiperfectneina19]

Originally Posted by aemaki09

Yeah I was curious to know that too. I really only see veil tails with defirmities like that but one of my Crown tails has a dorsal like yours apparently it happens when there is too much fin and not enough muscle to support it.

That is interesting. Wonder if by exercising the fish it would lower the risks or amount of deformation.

Originally Posted by hedgehog

I got my baby betta almost a year ago. He hasn't had any issues with fin curling but he's a lot smaller than other bettas.

Yeah that is part of what I wondered, if they tend to have something odd about them. Smaller sized is not much of a problem but I do find it interesting.

Originally Posted by shellieca

I've heard that the curling can be caused by hard water which I have & my VT has some slight curling. He doesn't seem to have any problems swimming around or flaring to his full beauty so I haven't worried about it.

yeah, well that is what some told my fiance, but we don't have hard water. Bit though as much as he tries he can't quite flare as grandly as he wants I suppose. The only way I know hi is flaring is because his gills puff up and he dances around all though like. lol but he can't open up or uncurl his dorsal when he flares.

[SDragon]

One of my Walmart bettas, tails curls.

[meiperfectneina19]

Originally Posted by SDragon

One of my Walmart bettas, tails curls.

Did it always do that or was it something you noticed afterwards?

I saw some Walmart Betta's and they truly broke my heart. They had one in the service desk that had a sign that said "Pablo the betta" All I could think was "Pablo looks like death..."