Did my husband almost kill my betta?

[New2Betas]

I'm still trying to figure out what caused such horrible fin rot (over night). Last night until almost midnight my husband was watching a movie and set up his sound system on the kitchen counter that Master Betta is on. I kept telling him to turn it down but the base was still loud and shook the counter. Do you think this caused him to stress and get Fin Rot or was it from my cleaning the tank too thuraly on Saturday?

[kelly528]

If anything, the loud noises might have evoked some tail-biting,

[New2Betas]

I posted pictures here: http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=32700

Does that look like tail biting or fin rot? If its tail biting do I still treat as if its fin rot?

[kelly528]

Yeah treat exactly like fin rot. Keep the water clean and encourage growth.

It's hard to see whether it's rot or biting because your betta's fins are so fine.

What are your water parameters? The thing the lady on the pet-store mised out on is that doing smaller water changes is good, but only on a cycled tank. If you cycle the tank with him in there, it will probably get worse before it gets better.

Having an uncyceld tank with 100% water changes shouldn't be stressful if you are cleaning it regularly and matching the pH and temperature of the new water to that of the old water.

[New2Betas]

I just read what you said about tail biting on another thread.
1) Tailbiting happens super fast
2) It just eats up the tail with no sign of other symptoms
3) If your water quality is good, it's probably biting, not rot.
4) If it looks shredded (between the rays) it's probably tailbiting.

This sounds like what happen. I checked on him last night around 1am and he was sleeping and looked fine, then this morning his fins looked awful!

He has no other symptoms, happy as can be (he acts like a puppy lol) checking out his new heater, watching my type this, eating great.

Water is great (I cleaned it out this morning just to be sure because I was so paranoid and added conditioner and salt)

Only shredded between the rays. The rays are still thick and long but the parts in between are gone. Only his longest fins are affected. Some of the rays are red (looks like blood)

[kelly528]

Yeah probably tailbiting. Keep the lighting subdued and the noise to a minimum. See if that helps.

It's a really hard problem to defeat because the behavior is pretty much only noted in bettas. It's just a resultant drawback of breeding them to acquire the longest finnage possible. Sometimes it is stressor boredom, but other times it is just the betta's undying interest in those swirly fins flapping in the corner of his eye every time he turns!

[New2Betas]

I'm happy to hear that its tail biting and not fin rot. I don’t have a light on his bowl but he seams to like to be in the brighter part of the tank, but will turn the kitchen light off anyway. I added a cute candle holder (size of a terracotta pot) but he is more interested in swimming back and forth watching me. Going to keep using the BettaFix as directed over the next week. Maybe I’ll add more plants too. He is very interested in the new heater though. Thank you for all your help.

[dramaqueen]

Hopefully, adding some new stuff to your tank will distract him from tail biting.

[ChristinaRoss]

oh i hope he gets over that soon!

[LaniBaby]

i've heard that tail biting can leave the tail open to fin rot since it's damaged. be super clean with his water!
haha. master betta. my cousin had a betta with the same name.