I've had Birdee for several months now, he's a veil tail, so common.
He was relatively small when I got him, so his rear tail (anal tail? I'm going to refer to is as his veil) looked normal size, but as he's grown, it looks as if his tail hasn't.
Also, the 2 fins under the head (not sure of their names) look weird as well. One of them is about half the length of the other.
He's always been this way, and there's no blackening on the tips (I read that those were signs of bites/nipping).
What do you guys think? Is there any way I can help him grow a nice, long tail?
This shows how short his veil is.
A little blurry, but a good angle of the veil.
If these pictures aren't sufficient, I can attempt to get some of him flaring or something tomorrow.
If you could fill as many of these as you can, we'd be better able to help you figure out what's wrong.
Housing
What size is your tank?
What temperature is your tank?
Does your tank have a filter?
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?
Is your tank heated?
What tank mates does your betta fish live with?
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish?
How often do you feed your betta fish?
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change?
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change?
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change?
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters?
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed?
How has your betta fish's behavior changed?
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how?
Does your fish have any history of being ill?
How old is your fish (approximately)?
Housing
What size is your tank? Previously in a .5 gal bowl, now in a 15 gal tank
What temperature is your tank? 79 degrees on avg
Does your tank have a filter? yes
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration? no
Is your tank heated? yes, at 79 degrees
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? 2 ghost shrimp and 2 panda corys, introduced yesterday
Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Betta Min tropical medley, and freeze dried bloodworms
How often do you feed your betta fish? [b]once in the morning before I go to work (small sprinkle of medley) and once when I come home, 4-5 bloodworms. (they're little)
Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? In the .5 i would do a 50-75% every 2 weeks, haven't had the 15 for very long yet, but most likely a 50% once a week
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%, 25% if I do it more often
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Nutrafin Aqua Plus to neutralize chlorine
Water Parameters:
Have you tested your water? If so, what are the following parameters? N/A
Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? His body grew, his "veil" fins didn't
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? behaviourly, he seems perfectly fine
When did you start noticing the symptoms? I've always noticed it, just never thought about asking because he swims perfectly fine and behaves normally
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Nope
Does your fish have any history of being ill? Not since I've had him
How old is your fish (approximately)? Not sure. He was relatively small when I got him, now he's not so small. I've had him since November of 2012
Sounds like his fins are stunted. In the .5 you prlly should've been doing daily water changes, as ammonia builds up incredibly fast. 1 50% for the 15g should be fine, but a master water test kit will help you monitor it as it cycles.
Corys should be kept in groups of four or more, I think~ though I see most people suggest groups of six since they're a schooling fish.
As for your little guy, clean water will help him a bunch. Also a nutritious diet - I'd suggest switching to omega one buffet pellets and frozen bloodworms, at the very least the pellets. Freeze-dried foods dont have any nutrients, and mostly filler. So with good nutrition and clean water, his fins should start growing in over time. I had a fish with stunted fins and hers took a while to grow, but they did come back.
I only got 2 corys cause that's all my LFS had left. Apparently they sell ridiculously quick, so he said he'd call me when the next school comes in and I'll go get 2-3 more.
I'll look into where I can find the food.
Thanks for your help.
You're overfeeding and the excess food that he doesn't eat is making ammonia issues you are unaware of because you're not testing. The pellets you are feeding are one of the lowest quality on the market. You should look for a good quality pellets whose first two or three ingredients are whole fish, not fish meal or wheat. He should be fed two small meals a day (how many depends on the pellet you pick up) and one fast day a week. You should never just sprinkle pellets in. As far as the blood worms, you should feed no more than one once a week in replace of pellet meal. Also anything freeze dried needs to be thoroughly soaked in separate cup with some tank/conditioned water to soften thoroughly before feeding.
In this fully established tank a once weekly water change of 50% with siphon should work. However, as the tank is new, it is currently cycling.
You need to be testing daily with a reliable drops kit for ammonia and nitrite and doing an extra 50% change any time you see either. In addition to this a weekly 50% with siphon should be done. It is not enough to just scoop water off the top ever.
First you will see ammonia, then nitrite. Eventually, hopefully, you will see ammonia fall and stay at 0 even after a week of no water changes, and finally nitrite. At this point you will be left with only nitrates after a full week of no changes and these can be kept <20ppm by twice weekly 50% change with siphon.
If you fix his feeding habits and get him some good regular nutrition and keep up on water changes he should recover.
Care to explain how I'm over feeding?
For one, I haven't been giving him pellets, I've been giving him the Betta Medley Flakes, and the freeze dried blood worms.
He always eats what's given, and he hasn't bloated after a meal once since I've had him. So no, there's not a bunch of food floating around to raise the ammonia levels in the tank. I'm going to find some frozen blood worms this weekend, but I did pick up a new food in pellet form with an actual nutrition chart on it.
You may want to try a broad spectrum antibiotic. He may be biting his tail, catching it on sharp or rough objects or have tail rot. Either way, many antibiotics contain healing agents that can help heal his fins if they are damaged. You may consider a quarantine and salt baths.
Check out the eBook Betta Fish Care Made Easy
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