[loveDelphine21]

Hey guys, so my 2 half-moons, Merry and Pippin, have got some seriously torn up fins. I don't know whats going on. At first, I thought it was my ghost shrimp because I actually saw one come up and tear at Merrys tail, but I have since removed the shrimp, but Merry's fins have got like 50 times worse. They seriously look awful. I really don't think its fin rot, because I do a 100% change every week, and I add aquarium salt. They're in a 16 gallon too, so they have lots of room.
Then I thought that maybe they were tearing them on something in the tank, so I removed everything for a couple of days, and then their tails got REALLY bad. I've never seen any tail biting besides the ghost shrimp incident, but I dont know what else could be going on. There are also 4 cory cats in with them, but I haven't seen any problems with them either.

Any ideas?

 

[sainthogan]

What about tail biting? Is he biting his own tail? It's actually quite common, especially among long finned fish.

 

[loveDelphine21]

That's what I'm thinking it is, but I've never actually seen any biting. So I can't be 100% sure. And if it is, is there something I can do? I'm planting all my tanks this weekend, so I was hoping that might soothe them.

 

[sainthogan]

Entertaining, lots of hiding places, low filter flow, live plants for hiding and resting, playing with them (i.e. teaching tricks). Anything that will lower boredom or stress may help. Many fish bite when they are alone, without their human companions around out of boredom or stress from being alone. So anything that will help those things may help.
I say may help because some just never stop - it's a very hard habit to break, especially in heavily finned fish. My half-moon male finally stopped simply because he has chronic SBD and can't swim well enough to bite.

 

[Taboo]

When I upgraded my boys into a divided tank, one of them didn't cope very well at all with having the other males in plain sight 24/7 and bit most of his caudal fin off. Long term solution is making the dividers opaque, but until then separating him from the others has worked a treat, and his tail is growing back already.

Are yours able to see each other? Maybe it's stress?

 

[loveDelphine21]

That sounds about right, they can see each other, and Merry (whose fins are the worst), flares all the time. Okay, if thats the case, I redoing their entire tank this weekend anyway, so I'll get some stress coat and make their divider not see through. Hopefully that helps, because he seriously looks awful and I feel so bad.

Anyway, thanks so much guys, I feel better now that I actually have an idea of whats wrong.