Tug's like a little bullet when he wants to be, so I think your betta will be fine! ^.^
As for the notion of trimming his tail, I don't think there is a way.
Also, Halfmoons can have pretty large tails.
One of the issues with selective breeding for fabulous finnage is that sometimes, the fins are problematic. That's a large reason why low flow filters and places for them to rest and hide are so important, to compensate for the fins and lack of natural adaptation. One of my HM's has a little body and HUGE fins, and he does have more trouble getting around than some of my other guys, but he can rest on his plants and in his betta log.
I've trimmed a few fins.. My boy Eery is a HM and he's got a rather small body and large fins which caused him to swim very wonky. He got fin rot, which was actually a blessing, after battling it for over a month I just cut his tail off. It's regrown some but not fully.
I put him in a shallow dish (it was actually the lid off of a small pack of blank CDs), added some stress coat & a dab of BettaFix, put him in and once he was calm and not swimming everywhere i used my scissors and in one quick snip trimmed a chunk of his tail & anal fin off. He took off real quick and then was over it. I put him in a new little QT of clean water until I saw some regrowth and then put him back in his tank.
Sometimes it may take two or three snips to get it right. My boys don't stress very easily and if you do it quick enough it shouldn't be a problem. If he gets too upset you can always come back and get more off.
He's super happy now with a shorter tail. He's had his new short tail for 4+ months and he's much more active.
Below are photos of him with his full tail-or mostly, fin rot started-, when I trimmed it and now.
The photo of him with the trimmed tail, he had a problem with his eye- he ran into some decor in his tank (i thought it was popeye at first), i think, even though he had a very non-windy filter i think it might have thrown him into something. So ignore his eye, it's all better now.
The last picture, his tail looks a little messed up, it just grew out a bit odd, which happens. It's filled in a little more but thankfully his tail is still quite alot shorter then what it once was.
Last edited by TheCheese909; 08-27-2012 at 03:18 PM.
my rosetail, Todd, has some pretty massive finnage. all i do, is give him plenty of plants to rest in, keep him in a 2 gallon KK, no current AT ALL.... he rests in the plants when he's tired. and give him good food. what kind of food do you feed?
He gets hikari bio-gold pellets with some frozen bloodworms or leftover BBS every now and then. And he's got plants in his tank, I moved the tallest ones into his section, though recently I've placed him in a very shallow container and left him several things to rest on, plants, moss balls and leaf hammocks. When he does move it's very hard for him to get from one place to the other.
Need to do some research, I guess. I really do want him to be able to move around like the other boys do. He comes over to see me and tries to swim around but it's obviously very hard for him.
that's the sad thing about HMs. they're bred for huge fins, but often can'd handle it. if he hasn't started tail biting, the finnage might not bother him as much as it seems. Todd's one of my most active bettas, actually. ._.
My boy also has some big finnage, hes a double tail half moon, love his tail but he does have a tougher time swimming than others...he does have a filter on a low setting but I still see him float by often lol...he just stops to rest and you see him float on by to the other side of the tank...its almost funny..unfortunately he is getting a lot of tearing on the lower part of the tail, I caught him resting by the filter a few times which I think is leading to the tears :/ I think the big heavy tail just comes with the territory.
Personally, I wouldn't do anything with my betta's fins. Remember they were born with their fins, as the fins grow, the betta us used to his fins. Just make sure the flow of the filter isn't too strong. IMO.
Personally, I wouldn't do anything with my betta's fins. Remember they were born with their fins, as the fins grow, the betta us used to his fins. Just make sure the flow of the filter isn't too strong. IMO.
You have a point, except this boy is growing new finnage from lost fins and the new finnage is nothing like what he should have. It's literally draping behind him. *shrugs* I'll just leave him be for now.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
Similar Threads
