Betta's tail fell off

[Sorrell]

Hi everyone. Last night my betta Gill was looking normal, flaring around, and he ate up his supper. This morning when I did my daily rounds, he had shreaded half his tail off. No signs of fin rot, he's still acting normal, there are no plants in the tank, but there is gravel. I change 25% twice a week.

I'll be gone all day, but I would appreciate any thoughts, advise, and suggestions. I'll be back this evening to check your ideas. Thanks

 

[Grams]

use some bettamax and some salt so the fins heal without infection like finrot.

 

[Phantom Thief]

There is also a pinned article above on the Indian Almond Leaf, which may help a lot when used according to the instructions there.

P.T.

 

[jacblades]

sonds like something that heppende to one of my bettas not too long ago. it wasnt finrot but all of the sudden he got shredded fins and then refused to eat. he would only lay on the bottom except for jetting up to the surface for air and then sinking back down. bettamax didnt work for me so i tried ial. he was starting to get better and then he suddenly died.

i dont htink i caught it early enough though.

 

[wrs]

my betta was doing that, but I put some plants in his tank thing, now hes fine.

 

[bunjiweb]

I heard that Bettas can do this if they do not have places to rest (plants etc.)

I may be wrong but I think I heard this somewhere.

Ben

 

[jacblades]

i do not think that is correct. when it happened to mine, he was in the breeding tank which had lots of plants. (i wasnt doing any spawns so i figured id let one of my fish have lots of room)

 

[endparenthesis]

Bettas "blow" their tails sometimes... but I've read it's mainly a problem with halfmoons. They just get tired of the weight of it I guess. But if you don't have a halfmoon it might be something to be concerned about. No way to say for sure.

 

[rollntider]

if it is a half moon, they are bad about blow outs from what I have been reading. The tail is so huge they just blow out and eventually grow back. I have been chatting with a breeder about some of their stock and they informed me one of the fellas I was wanting blew his tail out and they explained to me a little bit about it.

 

[DogFish]

My Flame has blown his tail twice, both times it was after I had trimmed the plants in the 10 gallon and he suddenly had more space to swim in. The LFS guy said it was simply going from swimming slowly around to swimming more and faster with a big tail. I used Melafix for a week in both cases and it grew back nicely.

 

[jacblades]

my fish usually blow thier tails in one place (just one slit in the middle of the tail) so i doubt it is a blowout. get some meds in there immediately sorrell.

 

[Sorrell]

Here's a picture of what it looks like. Thanks for the help, I'll check back again later.

edit-sorry I should add that the ends are clean, same color and no fungus or anything, it's almost as if someone cut it with scissors. I have added salt, but he's not acting lathargic at all, very active and eating. The tail used to be a long VT flowing tail. Thanks

 

[treefrog]

It is kinda hard to tell from the pic, but that does not look like a blown tail to me.

Edit: usually with a blown tail you can still see the rays only the area in between disintegrates.

 

[wuvmybetta]

I dunno Sorrell, got any bettamax? I'll agree that it's not blown fin though

 

[SailfinGirl]

That looks gross. Poor fishie. He looks just like my old fish.