Blown fins...

[carbonxxkidd]

August has been in his NPT for about a month now. He aggressively flares at himself CONSTANTLY and I'm pretty sure that's the reason for his fin issues, just wanted to see if there's anything else I should be doing for him. Currently getting extra water changes with extra stress coat added. His tank is pretty heavily planted and there's really nothing else I can do to the outside of his tank to make him stop flaring so I am just hoping that he will get used to his reflection and knock it off, lol. Until then...

Housing
What size is your tank? 5.5g
What temperature is your tank? 80F
Does your tank have a filter? Yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? No
Is your tank heated? Yes
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? MTS, shrimp (amano and ghost)

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? He gets a variety, mostly NLS pellets with live daphnia and the occasional frozen treat thrown in
How often do you feed your betta fish? Every day, usually once sometimes twice

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? Once a week, but bumped it up to two-three once I started noticing his fins
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Stress coat

Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?

Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 0
pH: 8.1
Hardness: 204
Alkalinity: 288

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Holes and tears in fins
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? N/A
When did you start noticing the symptoms? A couple days ago
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Extra water changes and extra stress coat
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Yes, he was sick when I got him - most likely ammonia poisoning with some fin rot
How old is your fish (approximately)? I got him about a month ago...so not sure.

Here's his tank:

And his fin damage:


I do have a 2 gallon tank to QT if needed because I don't really want to treat him in the tank because of shrimp/snails/plants...hoping that what I'm currently doing is all that is needed. Any suggestions appreciated.

[callistra]

First off, beautiful tank!!!

He's also showing signs of biting.. see the u shaped holes in the back? But bottom I don't think he can reach so he's either blowing htem or snagging them on something. No way you have some extra rough drift wood or something right?

Sometimes the light makes them see their reflection on the sides. I have found wrapping it in opaque non reflective paper of some kind works. I try to make sure it has a pattern. I've used cardstock and wallpaper successfull in the past. This may help.

Also stress coat at 1 ml per 1 gallon might help, as well as fresh water vitachem at 2 drops per gallon (fish multivitamin). Some IAL might chill him out as well. All of these are safe for your plants.

[carbonxxkidd]

The driftwood isn't sharp, so it must be what you think with the biting and blowing. Didn't know plakats could physically bite their own tail, unlike my HMDT who has bitten his off AGAIN. I have heard multiple things about the vitachem, I should buy some, it'd be beneficial to all my fish. Do you think this issue in need of the QT tank or should he be fine with the stress coat/clean water?

Unfortunately the one side he has big problems with flaring at his reflection is the front of the tank (where I view him from most often), the rest seems to be "blocked" with plants. I knew plakats were aggressive but he is ridiculous! Haha, he even flares at my finger.

[callistra]

I wouldn't move him. That might stress him out more and make him bite more.

Hopefully he'll chill out with time. My most sensitive boy blew his fins out for months but has finally settled down in his 10g with plants and the stress coat.

[carbonxxkidd]

He has just started exploring his tank more which is good to see, he glass surfed constantly for the first couple weeks (flaring constantly too) and now he just flares a lot but isn't rapidly pacing like he was. I have been letting the algae build up a little on the sides/front so hopefully that will help block the reflection too...he is very entertaining to watch just unfortunate that he looks so ratty right now!