Cheep-Cheep's Fins :(

[Goomba3]

I went to my boyfriend's Tuesday night and didn't get back until this morning. Before I left, I told my boys to behave and "no fighting", like I always do. Well, Cheep-Cheep (my biggest and oldest boy) apparently got into trouble because when I arrived home this morning, I was greeted by a betta with horribly tattered and ripped fins.



He is in the section with the filter, and though I baffled the filter flow, I hadn't put a sponge on the intake. I noticed, once I put him in there, that he would sometimes swim up to the intake and let himself get sucked onto it, but he would always swim away okay. Apparently that is not the case any more.

It's not the waterfall decor because I checked it before I put it in there, and there aren't any sharp edges, even inside. I have since baffled the intake with an intake sponge. I am just so mad at myself for not taking care of it sooner and thinking it wouldn't be a problem. He had such gorgeous fins! /cry

[vilmarisv]

What a home-welcoming! It's so disspointing when your fishies manage to get their beautiful fins torn... sorry.
Get him in some salt water and/or IAL... it'll speed up the healing.
Best of luck!

[Goomba3]

Thank you! I was considering doing salt baths, but he is in a divided 10-gallon with 2 others. Would I need to pull him out for QT? (I have a 1-gallon with a heater I can put him in.) I don't want to do the salt in the whole tank if it could harm my other two boys.

[kfish]

Ughhhhhhhhhhh. Mr. Fish tore up his anal fin this past weekend while I was gone, and I think it was on the filter intake. I know how you feel. I had a sponge over it for a while because he liked to get himself sucked up in it... I took it off, because he'd lost interest, and it's been off for a few months. Apparently, he's interested in being sucked up by the filter again.

[demonr6]

yeah, I was about to go to bed and stopped by to say goodnight to the fellas and noticed Polo has ripped his dorsal right down the middle top to bottom. @#*&^ I guess it is AQ salt and QT for a while now eh?