Unknown tail problem...????

[Gen2387]

Hi,
My betta Winchester has chewed off his tail about 3 months ago... He had this amazingly beautiful cellophane double tail and now...you can look at my avatar (he's the one on the right)...it's just a little ugly tail. At first I thought...oh well it's going to grown back. But it's been 3 months and it's still hasn't grown back. I know it's not because he chews it off again because I check it everyday and it always looks exactly the same. I also know it's not fin rot because he has none of the sign..... There one spot where there's a tiny bit of regrowth... maybe 5 mm by 5mm...but that is it. I don't know if I sould be worried because he acts completely normal and he's very healthy but the tail thing bothers me. Has this ever happen to anyone? No regrowth???

[TwilightNite]

Can you post a picture of his tank? Because sometimes what happens to Bettas is that their tails get scratched by decor. Also, some Betta's fins don't grow as fast as others, my Betta Angel's tail was bitten off in places back in 2011 and is almost done with regrowth.......What can help to get the growing going is doing your regular water changes (gallon 2-3 times a week 4-5 gallon twice a week and five and up once a week) and you can use some aquarium salt to help heal his tail but use as directed. And for fun, to see if he is tail biting this might require a little work but I find this fun (I used it as a anti cat surveillance) set up a web cam and use two different devices, one you can watch at any time and one focused on the tank. I hope you find this info useful! Good luck with Winchester!

[callistra]

Unless he is not getting adequate nutrition and/or there are water quality problems, the tail should grow back.. This goes for both of you.

More info would help: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=49233

[Gen2387]

Yeah, I thought about the decor but everything in the tank has passed the scratch test, he's in a filtered, heated, 5 gallon and I always keep up with the water changes once a week AND he has good quality food... I even supplement with frozen brine shrimp and frozen blood worms sometimes..... it's really bizarre.

[Laki]

Hmm. Some of the heavier tailed bettas just don't allow regrowth bc of the weight.

When you see clear re-growth does he chew that off too? Unfortunately, he might be a lifer at it. You can try to improve his tank by adding many more silk and live plants. Like, think OFL's tanks. Heavily heavily planted. A heavy tailed betta won't be swimming like a PK anyway and the extra plants could help him lean and rest more.

I wouldn't dose with aq salt if there is no fin rot. You want to keep him immunity to salt down so it will actually help him if he runs into a problem later on. Clean, warm water is the best thing for regrowth.

[DragonFyre14]

I've kind of had the same problem with my boy Raphael. He chewed on his tail a bit (or got it caught on something, I'm not really sure). This was about a month and a half ago, and even though I've kept his tank clean and it's heated he has had little to no regrowth. I'm thinking it might be because I don't feed him enough but I feel like be gets a lot of food (about 8 omega one betta buffet pellets a day) so I'm not sure. Maybe as was said, he's just a bit slow at re growing it.

[Laki]

It depends on age too. My +1 year old VT might have lost whatever it is that recolors the regrowth. His regrowth stays clear, he has not bitten in a few months now.

Genes play into it as well.

[DragonFyre14]

Really? I didn't know that

[callistra]

I have a 2 year old betta regrowing fins.. I've had 3-4 year old bettas regrow fins.. They should grow back.

[Laki]

What I meant was, they might take a bit longer to regrow.