Tail biting rant

[a123andpoof]

I have been fighting tail biting with Koi, finally moved him out of the divided ten gallon and into a one gallon as it was getting to expensive to use stress coat + in required dosage. So his tail is slowly getting better, and over summer will look for something bigger at garage sales.
Now last night power went out in my bedroom. I sleep in the basement and my room stays mid- sixties. Couldn't do anything about it at time so just went to bed and around 9 this morning my dad helped me out. Well over night the temps in my tank went down and Arashi shredded his tail. Now the tank is reheating. Hopefully the low temps are what caused it. If I have any more tail biting problems I will only get PKs and females. It's so fustrating! And stress coat + is to expensive to be dosing a ten gallon all the time. I would QT if I had another heater.
Just my little rant cause I am getting fustrated with my two boys.

[ZackyBear]

Boys will be boys. :) I hope things get better!

[a123andpoof]

lol

[Rosso1011]

Nothing like a good chomp to vent off some stress. Good luck with getting his tail to grow back, again.

[SageMyster]

I've had horrible experiences with boys chomping their fins off! The best advice I can give is to get some aquarium salt, which de-stresses them and isn't as expensive as stress coat. Try a pingpong ball or a new treat of some sort in the tank just to distract him for a while. Good luck!

[Hallyx]

IAL (Indian Almond leaf) is reputed to relax Betta, perhaps reducing tail-biting. Same with Rooibos tea and oak leaves. Has to do with the tannins. Makes the water look funny, but the fish like it.

[nel3]

my vt will chomp on his 1.5 inch long tail if the anacharis is too densely packed in on his side of the tank.

[Hallyx]

Originally Posted by SageMyster

... get some aquarium salt, which de-stresses them...

I have not heard this before and am not sure it is correct. The advice I have received from experienced members of this forum is to only use salts (aquarium or epsom) for the treatment of disease.

Having said that, one teaspoon per gallon of AQ helps to prevent infection of bitten finnage.