Problems with Mushu

[Foxers]

Hello all, hope you're having an extravagant holiday.

I have a problem with my little betta, Mushu (named after the tiny red dragon in mulan- clever eh?)

Anyhoodle, I got him back in October, as one of those baby betta fish from petco, he bulked up a bit and his tail grew slightly but not as much as i would have thought a male's would. I believe he's a veiltail, ill take pictures and post them below. He lives in a 2.5 gallon tank with sand, natural plants, cycled, low nitrates and ammonia, and a 6.8 - 7 pH balance. The tank is filtered and heated to a peachy 78*. What more could he want?! goodness he's so small i have to crush his pellets still. And i feed him live/frozen food 3 times a week.

Also, at the same time, i got another betta, also baby. She grew to a normal female size and even bulked full of eggs and lives in a community tank just fine.

What am i doing wrong? will someone inform me please?

[registereduser]

If he's not sick don't worry! Maybe he's a runt or maybe he was younger than you thought. Try to keep the ammonia at 0.

Where did you get that ceramic rock thingy? I love it!

[Foxers]

He's not sick in the least, never has been (knock on wood, am i right?) and as for the rock thingy, when i got my first tank, it came with it. Its plastic but super easy to clean and has no sharp edges. i don't know if they still sell them or not but it was a tetra water wonders 1.5 g, I've kept the rock ever since. I put little Anubis sprouts in it.

[Foxers]

little stinkers already flaring at my make up mirror, so cute. Oh by the way, i have a lot of small cichlid pellets left over from when i had cichlids, can i crush them and feed them to mushu? Its higher in protein then plain pellets, so i think its better, thoughts?

[xShainax]

Are you sure he's male?

[Foxers]

I've yet to see a white 'egg spot' on his chest and he flares at mirrors as well as builds nests. I know females have a tendency to do so as well but i dont know, i thought he was male... Ill keep a lookout!