And Then There Were Two

[Pataflafla]

So on top of Ratchet tail biting, I get to add my sister's veil tail, Pantelaemon.

We noticed his tail disappearing when he was in the 2.5 gallon with a filter and thought that maybe he was getting caught. Eventually my sister decided he was probably tail biting out of boredom since he's a pretty social fish. We moved him into my split 10 gallon so he could see other bettas (He doesn't flare or hide so I'm assuming he wasn't stressed at all. He was also building giant nests like crazy).

In my 10 gallon, he somehow found a way to split his anal fin in half (up to his body). Changed the water and changed out plants from his section with the other two sections, and he managed to tear his dorsal fin in half (down to his body). So, to combat this since it looked like he was just going to keep tearing his fins and because he managed to get a little bit of rot going on his tail, I moved him to the hospital tank with 1 tsp/gal of aq salt. And then, when I check back on him, I saw that half of his remaining tail was gone with tell tale biting.

So, Pants is now officially the stupidest member of our betta group. If there's a way to hurt himself, he will find it and do it multiple times. If there's a problem to be had, he will have it. If there's a chance to scare us into thinking he has ick or popeye, he will scare us.

Tail biting sucks.

[laughing]

D'awww poor guy! I thankfully haven't had any tail biters. <3

I just saw you're in AZ, I'm in Mesa/Chandler area! Whoop whoop! I had a betta shipped to me over the summer here (HUGE mistake) who didn't make it due to the heat. I'm currently planning on sending my replacement around Halloween because for some reason it isn't cooling off like it's supposed to >_>

Bettas hate our weather, LOL

[Pataflafla]

Havasu gets to a horrid 120+ during the summer with low humidity and little to no breeze. Shipping anything living here is risky even in winter since it rarely cools off past 80* during the day. Add that to the lack of anything in this town and it absolutely has no perks to living here, especially when your car doesn't have ac.

I know for sure there's another betta enthusiast in town since our PetSmart has been corrected a few times on the gender of the bettas they keep in the big tank on the wall. They've "stopped" selling females but keep getting accidental orders, so rather than keep them in cups, they take one of the regular sized, filtered tanks and plop a few live plants and females in. Occasionally they'll mix a few of the young ones that they get and put juvie males in with juvie females.

I've been blessed with 2 biters now, but it's looking like Ratchet is just misplacing his aggression since he hasn't done it (yet?) since moving him to his own separate 1.5 gallon. Pants is going to be difficult because he's not aggressive and likes to see other fish, but can't be kept in the tank because he's constantly finding some way to tear his fins and get rot. So rather than do 50% changes on my 10 gallon every other day, I'll just do 100% on the hospital tank and keep him with a silk plant. I'm so tempted to say no more plants for him if he finds a way o tear his fins on this dinky, little silk plant. No sharp edges or anything even remotely sharp is protruding. All leave and petals are very soft and round and the stems are soft too.

[laughing]

I hope Ratchet stops biting for good! It's such trouble.. Poor Pants!

It got to be 120 here over the summer as well. It's terrible because we have wind, but it feels like a hot blow dryer... No a/c in my car, either! You get used to it after awhile. It's still going to 110 even though it's September! The only way I'm going to ship again is if it gets below 90 during the day, then we're packing with loads of "breathing" insulation to keep it cool and some cool packs as well. Priority gets here in 2-3 days, so if we time it right, he'll make it just fine. With the last boy gone, you can better believe we're taking every single pre-caution!

Maybe you can try live plants for Pants??

[Pataflafla]

Yeah, my sister's gotta save up for some once he gets a little better and once we're able to put him back in his original tank since Courage has taken over in the mean time. All of our live plants are in my sister's sorority to help keep the ammonia down since we're paranoid about it.

[laughing]

Smart idea. xD

I'm madly in love with my live plants, but they can get expensive (especially with the ones I like) so I'm saving up. I have projects for all my tanks that are just sucking my wallet dry. >_>

If Pants manages to tear a fin on a LIVE plant, I'll be amazed.

[Pataflafla]

He'll find a way, I'm sure of it. He already managed to get caught on the silk plant in the hospital tank. He's so incredibly uncoordinated. I think he did manage to cut his ventral fin on the plant in there too. He's becoming sucha disappointing cause. gotta be careful with water quality because he ets cloudy spots on his eyes easily. Gotta be careful of aq salt and water temp because he has chronic swim bladder issues. gotta be careful when feeding because of it too. :/ He's such a little pain in the butt.

[laughing]

Well I hope this doesn't go on because then you have to start to think of if it's worth it to you and if it's worth keeping him alive. (To put it bluntly...)

[Pataflafla]

Although it wouldn't be an enriching environment to him, it may be our best option of just no plants/caves for him and keep him in a smaller tank, with the required water changes of course.I can put things around his tank to make him feel secure, but he's obviously proving that he can't handle having plants or caves. Or maybe he just needs a bigger space than 3 gallons. He did well when my 10 gallon was split only once, so maybe he needs about 5 gallons to stop being stupid.

[SKA123]

awww :( I feel bad for the little guy. :(