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poor fishy

1K views 10 replies 4 participants last post by  Myates 
#1 ·
I cleaned my tank and everything in it yesterday. My boyfriend and I put everything back in all neat and tidy, turned out the light and went to sleep.

this morning I went in and turned on the light and only one of my fish was in the tank. I freaked out and called my boyfriend. We looked everywhere for him and finally lifted up one of the decorations. The second fish had somehow managed to squeeze UNDER the decoration.

he's okay but he bit his tail to shreds. I feel so insanely bad. I actually cried a little bit when I saw what he did to himself. I have always LOVED sitting and watching him swim around. He's a very beautiful fish.

I know that it will grow back and that he's fine now as long as we keep the tank clean etc (we are very serious about keeping the parameters in order so this won't be a problem). It is just so awful and knowing that he was so upset that he did this makes me shudder.
 
#3 ·
Poor guy.. I have one that needs to be in a bare bottom tank as he will always get stuck under and in between things. Almost daily I had to rescue him.. silly fish. Good thing you got to him in time, as they can drown.



He doesn't need that at all.. he is fine in his home tank, continue to do regular water changes, DON'T add in AQ salt as it can hamper fin growth and it is potentially dangerous for them.. it should only be used for specific treatments such as rot and ich, etc. Not for fin biting- it won't do anything but stress him out more and could cause him more tail biting. Not worth it and too big of a risk with no good coming from QTing and using AQ salt.

Just keep him in his home tank, keep up on the weekly water changes to avoid rot and he should be just fine. Stress coat and a diet full of protein will help him regrow his fins- make sure the first ingredient in his food is fish/meat meal, and the crude protein % is above 42%- if you have frozen foods such as blood worms/brine shrimp, those would be good to mix in with pellets to give him the protein to help his fins grow.

It could take weeks or more for fins to fully grow back from fin biting depending upon how bad it is- you will see clear to white edging, as that is new fin growth.
 
#4 ·
thank you! He's getting his own tank for Christmas.

I think that I'll just stick to things that he can't make his way inside from now on.

one of my bettas is prone to health problems (he is very sensitive to ANY changes in the water parameters) and this one has emotional problems. Awesome.
 
#6 ·
Aww I bet he'll love it.. and I understand, I have a special needs fish myself.. but he brings it onto himself :p

Again, as i wrote in the other similar thread...

I only quote what it says in the sticky in the disease treatment forum in this board for this specific issue. If that is not the proper treatment then we need to get whoever is the admin for this board to adjust the sticky.

In that salt thread he states: "As I said, I'm no fish expert, but a vet I know says..." that's not an expert opinion i'm going to take over what the more qualified experienced betta owners on this site say.
It says you can, but it's more for a preventative- it's best to just use clean water rather then risk it with the salt :)
 
#5 ·
Again, as i wrote in the other similar thread...

I only quote what it says in the sticky in the disease treatment forum in this board for this specific issue. If that is not the proper treatment then we need to get whoever is the admin for this board to adjust the sticky.

In that salt thread he states: "As I said, I'm no fish expert, but a vet I know says..." that's not an expert opinion i'm going to take over what the more qualified experienced betta owners on this site say.
 
#7 ·
I don't want to separate him and give him aquarium salts. He gets really freaked out by change and I think if I put him in a hospital tank he will just freak out more. They have Stress Coat in their water anyway because one of them is recovering from tail rot so I think that he will be okay.

he looks fine.. he's a very aggressive fish and he isn't acting lethargic. He's still being a dick. When he stops being a dick I'll worry :)
 
#11 ·
Since he did it out of stress.. I would just leave things be with him as much as possible- return the decoration but make sure it's secure. Want to get him to where he is comfortable and stress free so he won't continue this bad habit. Once they get into tail biting, it's very hard to stop them. I have a VT that will take a chunk out now and again.. he started due to stress (he's a momma's boy, at my desk and when I was gone for surgery he was alone and no one to play with- he started tail biting at that time) Even though things are back to normal, I'm around and he has new neighbors.. he still doesn't fully stop. Grr.. (going to have surgery again soon.. I'm going to put him next to the bed for that one lol)

So if it's optional- return what you removed and make it safe.. sometimes they get attached to objects in their tanks- I have a couple that must have their cave/cup or they stress out if removed. Hopefully with the return of it, and just a calm setting for the next few days he will stop chomping.
 
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