What happened to my betta?

Hi everybody ,I just came to look at my tank and I just noticed that my betta has a rip in it’s fins ,it’s quite big and I’m very worried ,I’m not sure if maybe the other guppies have bitten it or if he just scratched it somewhere ,shall I get some bettafix by API and see if I can heal the fin? What do I do? I’m very worried?

I’d just do a 75% water change daily for a week and add a teaspoon of aquarium salt for each gallon of water. Tomorrow, when you do the water change only add 3/4 of the salt dose since you still had 25% of water in the tank when you did water change. Salt stays in water. I think he caught the tail on something so look and find the culprit. Good luck!

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Post the results in numbers here.

What sort of filter do you have and how do you clean it?

Don't use Bettafix, Melafix or Pimafix on labyrinth (Bettas & Gouramis) fishes because it can leave an oily film on the surface and make it harder for the fish to breath.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate each day for a couple of weeks. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Is this the betta that spent a lot of his time flaring at his refection in a shiny label? It has been known for bettas to develop holes in their fins through too much flaring.
And they have very delicate fins which can tear easily on sharp objects. The tights (pantihose) test is recommended for decor in betta's tanks - rub an old pair of tights over the decor; if the tights snag, so will a betta's fins. Either sand the offending part smooth or get another piece of decor.

Lots of water changes will keep the water clean till the tear heals.

Dedeanasue= okay I’ll do a 75% water change everyday for the rest of this week ,I’m so sorry but I don’t rlly understand what u meant by the 3/4 thing and that ,I get that I need to add salt to the new water going back in but how do I know how much gallons are coming out ,Is there an easier way that we can figure out for me to put the right amount of salt in.Thankyou so much by the way ,you have helped a lot.

Colin_T= my ammonia is 0 and my nitrite is a little bit above zero but I’m working on bringing it down at the moment ,my filter is a cartridge filter and I rinse the sponges in the aquarium water during my water change ,I do this once a month. okay I will not use any of the bettafix and melafix and stuff,I have heard that it can cover their gills and make it hard for them.

Essjay=yes this is the betta I have had a couple of issues with ,but everything was fine until now ,wait so maybe the holes just appeared from the flaring then,because I literally found a plant and I took it out because it looked like it could have done it but when I was observing I watched it and it went behind like a rock that’s an arch and then when it came back round these 2 new holes were there ,behind that rock there isn’t really anything ,I feel like in that time it maybe could’ve just torn through it’s stress and flaring.It does flare a lot and a lot .Ill give the pantyhose trick a try soon and have a look to see what may have done it ,I’ll be sure to keep changing the water everyday.

How many gallons is your tank?

You can buy sponges for different brands of filters and use a pair of scissors to cut them to fit in your filter. You can also buy round/ cylindrical sponges for some brands of internal power filter. These round sponges have a hole through the centre and can be put over the intake strainer of most external filters.

Sponges will trap dirt and hold beneficial filter bacteria, and they last for years so you don't have to keep replacing them. When you replace the filter pad, you get rid of the good bacteria living in it and mess up the filter cycle, which causes ammonia and nitrite problems.

With sponges, you simply squeeze them out in a bucket of tank water and put them back in the filter.
With filter pads, you can make a small cut in the top of the pad and pour the carbon into the bin. Then squeeze the pad out in a bucket of tank water and re-use it until it falls apart. By that time the sponges should have developed the good bacteria and will take over from the pad. You will not have to replace the pad when it falls apart and you just put another sponge in to replace it.

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The easiest way to reduce ammonia, nitrite or nitrate in the tank is with a 75% water change and gravel clean each day until the levels drop to 0.

Hold on guys. Don't bother about cleaning the tank. First remove all the ornaments. Keep the betta in a vessel with an aerator. Do a full change. Then add a few drops of bettafix. It works like a charm.

The products ending in -fix should not be used in water that a betta will go in.

Removing a fish from the tank to a water change is very stressful for fish. It is OK to remove most of the water with the fish in the tank, just leave enough water so the fish is upright.


I forgot to ask, @Kayra101 does the tank have any plastic plants? These are notorious for damaging bettas' fins with their sharp edges. Live plants, or silk plants if you want fake, are recommended over plastic for bettas.

Okay everybody I’ll do the water changes and yes there are some like tiny fake plants that are attached to the rocks but I pulled the one off that I think was the culprit ,but I still don’t know if it was that ,my betta is in a community tank with guppies and I observed and I know it wasn’t guppies because none were around him when it happened when I observed,so it’s not them ,plus it’s in the middle ,if they bit wouldn’t it be on the edge of his fin???

Also everyone I do have some bristlenose cleaner fish at the bottom and they have no scales obviously ,so isn’t salt going to harm them?

This is them ,I’m not sure if they are bristlenose or whatever they are

I also have a black one that’s the same aswell

Where did everyone go?

I know little about bristlenoses - your photos do look like the albino (or golden) form.

As for salt, used at the therapeutic levels Deanasue suggested for a very limited time should not cause problems. It's high levels of salt for a long time that does the harm.