Is this fin rot or tail biting?

[Leopardfire]

I have had my male half-moon betta for about about 1 1/2 months and his tail is really ragged. He lives in a filtered 10 gallon tank that stays about 82-83 degrees. His tank was cycled but I get a new filter so it's not any more. (I have been struggling to keep the ammonia down, but I just added ammo chips today so that should help. Even when his cage was cycled, my betta's tail began to slowly get more and more shredded.. He had sharp plants in his cage which I removed, but he just kept getting more shreds. It looked like someone took some scissors and made little snips all down his tail.
I thought he had fin rot, I treated him with maracyn 2, but he didn't recover. The night after I finished it, I woke up to find that the number of shreds on his tail had dramatically increased. I was really worried and thought he had extremely severe fin rot. I am currently treating him with triple sulfa, which I have been using for 3 days. While his tail doesn't look worse, it's not noticeably better either. Here are some actual pics of him. Sorry that are kind of blurry.
[IMG]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbccduzHfC1qck5z3o2_500.png[/IM]
[IMG]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mbccduzHfC1qck5z3o1_500.png[/IM]

Here are some better pics I found on the internet that look almost exactly like him.



What does this look like, fin rot or tail biting?

[Irishdancer]

I think tailbiting is more likely. Two of my fish are tailbiters, and one looks a lot like those pictures right now. Probably he's stressed because of the ammonia levels, and once you get that taken care of, the tail will heal on it's own.

If it's fin rot, AQ salt is supposed to help with that. Whenever I buy a new fish, they usually come with fin rot, and I've never had to use any stronger medication.

PS. Usually the best way to tell the difference between tailbiting and fin rot is whether the tail looks darker around the tears. If it is darker, then it's probably fin rot.

[Leopardfire]

His tail looks kind of clear around the edges. It seems to have lost color on ends which I'm guessing is a sign of fin rot. Because of my betta's dark coloration, it is hard to tell if the tips of his tail are actually darker. His tail isn't getting shorter, instead the number of cuts and their deepness seem to be increasing. I looked at him today though, and he seems as though some of the cuts are melding together and healing. Is it normal for fins with fin rot to get cuts instead of getting shorter?

[laynisample]

Clear edging to fins is regrowth. It doesn't look like fin rot, it looks like biting. My fish does this as well. Try to keep it from getting infected by keeping the water VERY clean, and try giving him fun things to do. I increased the number of decorations for my tank and now the biting has pretty much stopped. Another reason fish bite is because their fins get too heavy. They'll bite it back to a point, stop, let it regrow, then start the process all over again. Good luck. It's extremely hard to get them to stop, but it's not really hurting him, you just have to make sure you keep up on water changes.

[Silverfang]

That is classic tail biting. He looks just like my boy Scuzi did. Keep his water extra clean, do extra WC's to keep ammonia down, and prevent infection. If you have any IAL or dried oak leaves that are pesticide free (like you collect from your back yard). You can add them to his water. They are supposed to help toughen scales and promote healing.

My boys got happier with more plants (silk and live), a place to hide away in, and good food. You say he's in a 10G right now? If there isn't enough in there for him to swim around and feel secure patrolling around in it might spook him

[Leopardfire]

He has almost no decorations in the 10 gallon because I was using it as a QT tank. All my betta has is a hide out and 2 silk plants in the back. He is going to move to a 20 gallon that is well planted, but I'm having some major problems with it so that will have to wait. Is there any way to stop him from tail biting so much?

[BETTACHKALOVE]

I also have tail bitter. But his tail looks different though. His looks like ''U'' shape. Not sure but just like Silverfang wrote keep water super clean to prevent infection . Like do extra water changes. Also make sure your filter not too strong i think less water movement is better for him.

Also i think you giving him too much medications . Sometimes it really stressful on fish and do more harm then help. Usually even if it fin rot and if fish eating and active you can treat it with frequent water change.
How much and how often you change the water? Do more water changes with gravel vacuum and see if it helps. If you think it getting worse do aquarium salt treatment . Also a lot of people on the forum recommending to add stress coat it helps to replenish slime coat.
I would have aquarium salt on hands just in case you need it.
Do you know instructions on that?

You also can do this. I found someone put lin with that post check it out. Someone was treating betta with daily or every other day water changes 100% and it amazing healing.
You can try that too. Put him in smaller hospital tank and do 100% frequent water changes with stress coat and if it not helps then you can do salt.

check out those links
See page 1 page 43#422 page 42 and page 52 it all the same fish.
www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=108151
www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=113927

[Leopardfire]

I would do more water changes, but my water comes out at 1ppm ammonia. Because his tank isn't well cycled, I don't like doing frequent water changes because it only makes it worse. I put some ammo chips in today, so that should help with the ammonia. I also bought some prime to add to the water so I will be able to do more water changes. I'm going to do a 25% water change tomorrow.
I wouldn't have gone so drastic into meds, but my water quality is bad so I can't keep the water as clean as I would like. I tried 100% water changes daily, but since I was dumping 1ppm of ammonia into his water after each change, he didn't get better. His fins weren't looking good and I wanted to fix them. I know it's kind of a lot, but I couldn't just sit there and watch him get worse. I'm going to let him rest for a while after I finish this treatment.

[ANHEL123]

What do you mean water quality is bad?

[Leopardfire]

My water comes out pretty hard at about 180ppm with 1ppm ammonia. The ph is also at 7.5 which is a little high. This makes it hard to change the water because I'm just replacing old ammonia with new every time. I'm hoping the ammo chips will fix the ammonia problem though.