GAH! Naz is a tail biter I think! :(

[Danielle]

He just arrived yesterday.

here is the breeder photo



and his tail yesterday when he arrived



and now it's every time I come back into the room it's even worse.

I haven't caught him in the act yet. I'll take pictures again tomorrow.

I've covered the sides of the tank with white construction paper so he cant see his reflection, and his plants get here tomorrow I hope. The tank is bare at the moment.

It was all supposed to be planted and setup when he got here but the tank arrived broken and I had to get a stand in tank. My plant guy's website lost my order so those didn't ship until today.

What should I do!!!!!!! Nag doesn't bite his tail and fishy didn't either... but both have nice thickly planted tanks. I've never dealt with this before! I didn't even know bettas did this until just now.

sigh

[Min]

My dexter is a tail biter too Ive noticed he gets stressed super easy. Anyway I got him off aquabid & its been I guess close to a month & hes starting to settle down. I think that trip really freaked him out. He had his tail comp bitten off. I thought maybe he was bored so I bought him one of those floating betta logs he seems to like it. His tail (so far) is growing back. Hoping it was just a phase.

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

That picture just looks like a tear to me. Sometimes when they flare too much, their tail will rip a little. If he was biting it, you'd see huge chunks of the tail missing.

[1fish2fish]

Yeah that doesn't look like biting to me. Full tailed fish like HM and Deltas can and will arrive with tail damage just from being knocked around in transit. If its getting worse it could be because he is flaring a lot.

What color is the construction paper? If you put a dark color up and keep the tank light on he'll be surrounded essentially by mirrors and will see himself in all the sides. Put up light colored paper and he won't see his reflection.

Put a little aquarium salt (1tsp/gallon) for a week to 10 days and he should heal up fine.

[Neelie]

all my boys had that. i dont know if its stress, tearing from flaring, water change, biting etc etc... it doesnt look like biting. it'd be more wide U shaped chunks... defo throw in some AQ salt and give him plenty of peace and quite. poor guy is really pale lol

[Danielle]

Yeah I thought it was just a tear as well... but now he has chunks missing. He's starting to look like a CT.

The breeder said he never bit his tail before and to try giving him an indian almond leaf.

He even offered to replace naz if he didn't stop. Which is really nice, but I don't want to replace him!

[BettaxFishxCrazy]

Could you take a picture of him? When they get tears and it keeps tearing, fin rot can get nasty.

[Danielle]

here are some pictures I just took this morning.

[1fish2fish]

Now that looks like biting. Try aquarium salt and darkening the tank.. turn off lights and get some IAL and tint the water.. it might make him more comfortable. Sadly HM are prone to tailbiting because they have so much tail :(

[xxabc]

Poor thing...
I had a tailbiter. He started seeing his neighbor for about roughly 8 days. After 8 days of biting, he stopped, no stress or anything. Hopefully it was only the stress from the trip,which could last a long while. Definitely do AQ for 10 days. Good luck!