[Enkil]

Something is very seriously wrong with our Hannibal.

He is in a 3.5 gal tank. Water temp is 78*. He gets a weekly 50% water change and has a filter. He has 1 decoration and a live anubias (floating). His water tests normal and he is acting fine.

In less than 24 hours, his dorsal fin has gone from growing back to being 2 little ribbons of fin. His tail is also missing quite a bit and he has some missing on his anal fin now.
He does have a history of what I believe was most likely fin rot. When we bought him, most of his dorsal was gone down to his body along with a very small section of anal fin.

I have checked him with a flashlight to get a better look at him. This does not appear to be fin rot. It doesn't look like it. No blackened ends. No curling. None of the tips are red other their natural color and none are bloody. This is moving very quickly as just a few hours ago his dorsal was fine. I do not know what is going on with him. I can't figure it out.
I've grown quite attached to him and simply do not know what to do as nothing seems to be working against this.

Could be something else eating away his fins? Is it possible he has a tougher sort of fin rot that never really went away?

I'm sorry if this is a bit jumbled at all. I just don't want to loose him.

 

[Sakura8]

Take a look at the pic on this thread and tell me if this looks like Hannibal.
http://www.bettafish.com/showthread.php?t=90086

In the meantime, get him into 1 tsp of AQ salt per gallon right away.

Also, has there been any unusual activity, anything that could have stressed him. Have you noticed him turning in circles at all?

 

[Enkil]

No. The fins are simply gone. His dorsal has 2 thin ribbons left. Between those 2 ribbons is gone right down to his body.

He has been acting like the normal Hannibal, so the abnormal betta.

The only thing different that we did today, I do every couple of days. He didn't get his first meal of the day but will get dinner. I do this about every 3-4 days. It's never bothered him before.

He's been flaring and swimming normally. Dancing for me when I'm close. It was just his tail before and at first it looked like just a blow out. Then there was a small chunk missing. Now there is a lot missing and bits of the anal fin too.

 

[Sakura8]

I'm wondering if he's fin biting. Sometimes when a betta gets really stressed by something, they can just take off all their fins in a matter of hours. For example, one time a cat fell into a tank. The betta housed next door must have been startled and stressed by the commotion because I took a 3 hour nap right after the incident and when I woke up, he had chewed off almost all of his fins. I'm not kidding. So I wonder if something is bothering Hannibal enough that he's severely finbiting out of stress.

 

[Enkil]

I'm not sure. I have a couple of pics though. Going to attach them to this post.

Picture 1 is a bit bad... But shows his missing tail as best as I can get. He's very upset about being confined to his cup right now.

Pictures 2 and 3 show his poor dorsal.
Pic 2: That blue strip close up? That is one of the two thin ribbons left and the longer of the two. The blurred blue line is the other.
Pic 3: Shows what is left of his dorsal - the two thin ribbons. Everything between is completely gone and had been the shortest section of his dorsal to begin with.

 

[Sakura8]

It doesn't look like advanced rot so that's good news. If it was, I'd expect to see blackened dead tissue and I'd also expect to see Hannibal acting sick too. I'm thinking it's either finbiting or he got caught in his filter.

 

[Enkil]

I just checked him again. He has a couple graphite colored strips on what is left of his dorsal. Also a small spot on his anal fin.

By the time we got to any of the local pet stores, the would be closed. I don't have what he needs on hand.

I'm going to release him into his clean tank so he's less stressed with all of this. I would say that I wish my eyes were playing tricks on me, but Devon sees the discoloration now too.

Edit: Can see the discoloration slightly in Pic 3. The spot there close to the lens. In actuality it isn't dark but a graphite color.

 

[Sakura8]

Okay. It's best not to stress him out any more than necessary. What you want is usually very hard to find in most stores. Look for Seachem Kanaplex at a tropical fish store (not Petsmart or Petco). Otherwise, you'll have to order it. www.kensfish.com has it. In the meanwhile, keep him in 1 tsp of aquarium salt per gallon.

 

[Enkil]

We have several tropical fish stores nearby. They wont be open until tomorrow though. I'll fish around their sites to see if they have it. If not, I'll order it and hope it gets here in time.


Also, as I was typing the above, I looked over at him since I'm feeling rather upset. I found part of his missing fin. o_o It is on the bottom under his heater so we didn't notice it before. He was sleeping under it last night and took a nap there earlier today...
Devon says he may have caught the fin in the one suction cup since it seems to have come loose slightly (now fixed). Is it possible this happened? Could he have maybe burned himself on the heater?

 

[Sakura8]

I doubt he burned himself on the heater, as they're designed to not burn fish - there are big fish who will actually bite their heaters out of boredom. If he did, the heater would have to be malfunctioning and in that case the water would probably be really warm. It's more likely that he got sucked into his filter or got caught in the suction cup like Devon said.

Don't panic. He's acting normally so whether it's finbiting, filter suction, or a bit of rot, he's got plenty of energy left to fight it off.

 

[Enkil]

I feel so bad that this has happened though. We had only just gotten his dorsal out to where it seemed like it was going to stay and now this happens to him. That the fin rot is back (as I assume this is what happened to him before we bought him) is rather disappointing as well.

 

[Sakura8]

These things happen. Whatever it is, he's healthy otherwise. We'll get it taken care of, don't worry.

 

[Enkil]

He seems to be acting ok still. He has started a kill-the-bubble game but blowing a tiny bubble and then attacking it... Along with snapping at his filter from time to time. I think he's upset at the fact it stopped working for a minute because it wasn't sitting right.

 

[Sakura8]

Silly Hannibal. Never seen one who loved his filter so much.

 

[Enkil]

I was sitting here watching him and then got the going because he started biting at the filter. As you know, that is not like him at all. He loves that silly thing and uses it as a fishy-treadmill. So his biting at it and jumping and biting at it was very odd. Then he started to flare and attack it. So I checked on it. Turns out, it wasn't sitting properly so it wasn't pushing out water. So dear Hannibal was upset about it. Now that it is working properly, he's still going over about once every 3 mins or so to give it a little bite.

Mostly he is now playing kill-the-bubble. This is only interrupted long enough to give the filter a bite now and then and then when I gave him some dinner. He gobbled it up like he's been starving. I think frozen foods are in his near future to give him extra protein for growing back the dorsal. Again. That is... if he'll eat them. -_-

 

[Sakura8]

He should. If he likes freeze-dried worms, he should love frozen. They're even closer to the "real" thing. What a character that he told you his filter wasn't working right. Smart little fellow, too.

 

[Enkil]

He's sleeping now. Under his heater. So I'm going to try to relax for a while. I probably wont sleep much if at all because of Devon and his silly clown picture. *glares at man*

 

[Enkil]

Update: Despite all my efforts, his dorsal is now one thin ribbon with that being at the back nearest his tail. More of his tail is also gone. I'm not sure why it keeps advancing like this, but if it continues he'll end up with no fins. He was such a pretty combtail until yesterday!

His behavior is still normal for him. He's still very active.

 

[Sakura8]

I dunno, Enkil. This really sounds like finbiting or he got caught in his filter. If he had such severe rot that his fins were falling off like that, he would also be acting very sick. He would be lethargic and not eating. I'd start by baffling the filter (hopefully he won't hate me for suggesting that) and making sure all suction cups are attached. Try switching his decor around a bit. You can still look for the Kanaplex to have on hand but HOLD OFF on treatment for now.

 

[Enkil]

I double checked all suction cups today to make sure that I did get them on properly last night. They were all fine.
If he's managing to take off his dorsal this badly with biting and possibly thrashing, I hate to say it but... I'm impressed.

His activity level is holding pretty steady. His appetite is good. Got very upset with me for being late with his evening meal but I had been cooking. His meal was 5 mins late at the most.