Piece of Fin Just Popped Off?

[Pataflafla]

I was doing a water change tonight for Starscream. Nothing major, just a 50% using a small airline tube to make it less stressful. All went well taking the water out, but I noticed something red float a little bit when I tubed some of the new water back in.

Upon closer inspection I see that is is a piece of one of his fins. Not a small chunk, but like one of his rays just popped off. I think it's from one of his ventrals, but I won't be sure until the morning.

He's in a 1 gallon kritter keeper with 1 plastic plant and a floating chunk of plastic plant. Neither of them are terribly sharp and he's never had issues with them before. He gets 50% water change 3-4 times weekly mainly to get all of his poop out.

Temperature has been admittedly a little too cold for their liking, but I'm trying to find time during the week where I can test a warming option since I cannot buy a heater at the moment. for now he's being covered by 2 towels and a warm jacket (room for air flow is small to keep as much cold air out as I can while having enough for him to breathe).

He's had no other issues in health since I bought him about a month or over ago other than being shy. He's relatively young looking as his colors are still very vibrant and he's shown no change in behavior other than being a little sluggish due to it being colder.

Is part of a fin popping off something I should be terribly worried about? I make sure his water is very clean and that the changes are relatively stress free since he still hasn't warmed up to me.

[Pataflafla]

Housing
What size is your tank? 1 gallon
What temperature is your tank? ~76
Does your tank have a filter? No
Does your tank have an air stone or other type of aeration?No
Is your tank heated? No
What tank mates does your betta fish live with? None

Food
What type of food do you feed your betta fish? Topfin Pellets, Topfin Bloodworms, Hikari Krill, and Meal Worms
How often do you feed your betta fish? Twice a day with pellets with varying between krill and worms, fasting once a week or as needed

Maintenance
How often do you perform a water change? 3-4 times weekly
What percentage of the water do you change when you perform a water change? 50%
What type of additives do you add to the water when you perform a water change? Tetra Aquasafe

Symptoms and Treatment
How has your betta fish's appearance changed? Not that I can really see yet
How has your betta fish's behavior changed? No
When did you start noticing the symptoms?
Have you started treating your fish? If so, how? Just clean water
Does your fish have any history of being ill? No
How old is your fish (approximately)? 1 year or less

The betta in question:

This picture is before anything happened so it won't be helpful in finding where the piece came off from, but maybe someone could spot something wrong with him to cause this issue.

[Sakura8]

Are you sure you didn't accidentally snag his fin while changing the water? It's very possible to pin part of the fin to the bottom of the tank with the siphon hose, even a small hose.

If you're sure you didn't, I wouldn't be too worried unless it begins happening on a frequent basis. Because the fins of these man-made variations of bettas are so big, they are often also very frail and brittle. I think the diet you are feeding him is really helpful because of the high protein content. It will help strengthen those fins of his.

[Pataflafla]

I made sure part of my hand was blocking the hose because he won't go near my unless I have food, but that's only if the lid is still on. Once the lid comes off, I'm a horrible monster instead of a food bringer. Never once has he wiggled at me.

I don't think I got him with the hose at all since I put it above the water and on the wall of the tank when I refill because he likes to swim into the current, so the gentler I can make it, the better I feel.

I just wanted to make sure something wasn't terribly wrong with him. Paranoid because Iorek's tank just got knocked over by my mother's cat tonight too, but luckily he came out completely unscathed and was wiggling for food within minutes.

Never would have thought Starscream's fins to be so fragile since they look so rich in color. They're pretty short comparatively too. Oh well, I'll check on him after he's had a good night's sleep and see how he's doing.

thanks for replying. I got a little paranoid about this.

[Sakura8]

Don't worry about being paranoid. We all are about our betta babies. I really hope it was just a fluke accident and he's 100% okay.

[Pataflafla]

I do too. I don't think it's something genetic or else I'd have seen it happen a lot sooner.

Maybe he tore it off when he was scuttling on the bottom looking for any missed krill.

[Sakura8]

Could be. You know how bettas get about food. :D Honestly, sometimes it's really hard to know what happens with these fins of theirs. One of mine gets his tail almost healed up and then it splits in two again and I still haven't figured out why. I think they like messing with our minds.

[Pataflafla]

That's definitely for sure. Mirage started tail biting after doing so well next to Moonshoes for weeks. then I woke up one morening and it looked like he ripped his tail a little from over flaring, nope. The next morning and half his tail was gone. So I switched Lyra over and put her seran wrap over the middle portion so Mirage can show off for her instead of ruin his fins. they were healing up so nicely too.

That's 3 tail biters that I have. Ratchet, who is thankfully letting his tail regrow ever so slowly, Pants, who decided that if he can't live in a community tank he'll take it out on himself, and now Mirage.

I want to add Starscream to my 10 gal, but if Mirage is going to mutilate his fins, I think I'll take out one of the divisions and invest in a bigger tank for Starscream.

Oh the troubles they love to cause. If it's not directly the bettas fault, it's my mother's cat. Out of 3, her cat is the only issue.

[Sakura8]

Sorry to hear about the troubles with the cat. Squirter bottle maybe? It kind of works when my cats claw the furniture. Hard to be fast enough to squirt them in the act though. :/

That stinks you have so many tailbiters but at least you know how to care for them, that's the good side. You'll make sure they don't get fin rot from their biting. Someone else might not change the water enough or something like that.

[Pataflafla]

True. It looks like Pants has decided to stop now that he's in with the mollies. they get along pretty well and Pants enjoys the company at least.

As far as the cat goes, tonight was a freak accident of some sorts. My sister just left the room and I guess my mother's cat ran in and tried to jump to the top of the tank (she's not graceful in the least bit).She managed to pull a full 2.5 gal off of a book shelf within seconds. We have to lock her up when we do water changes and lock her out of the room since she's already managed to fish out elm and kill Tokyo. she's the worst around the fish.

My sister's cats are more interested in the fish food, and her male cat just wants the bettas to flare at him and to watch the molly fry swim. He's a clumsy boy too so we have to watch him carefully and redirect him to the cat tree occasionally.

I think we're more lucky the dogs didn't get into her room after the tank was dumped. the rottweiler eats anything face level or below, so that would have been horrible. There would be no saving Iorek after a dog bit, but a cat bite has a chance.