Fin rot.... or something else?

[KelliShaver]

My Betta, Norman, currently my only fish, has been living a happy life in his 1.5gal tank for about a year and a half now. He's in the tank by himself, water permanaters are good, the tank has been stable and cleaned regularly forever now.

He wasn't too healthy when I got him, but after a few weeks of good water and good diet, eh perked right up. He had some damage to his tail fin, though, that never quite went away.

Well, I guess today it's gone away, because I go to check on him and find that hsi beautiful tail fin is, for the most part, gone. I check water perams and they're all good. No change in diet, lighting, water temp, etc.

I can't figure what could have caused this.... old age?

I'm worried about him. Any thoughts on what's going on or what I can do for him?

There has been absolutly no change in his tank conditions in over a year... this just came out of nowhere.

 

[OohFeeshy]

If it happened suddenly, he's probably eating his own tail. One of my CT's does it, it seems to be a hard nut to crack though. Do a search for tail biting.

 

[KelliShaver]

Thanks. I'll look into it.

 

[floppydee]

I am going through the same thing now! All of a sudden I looked and half of the tail was gone!! Out of nowhere, but now I notice its getting worse. I put some stuff in the water for fin rot to see if this helps.

I did move on friday in which he took a car drive for 20 mins, a little rough in the car-but not too bad. Also I have super AC in this place, maybe its too cold? Can stress cause fin rot or is he bitting his own tail? Thankx!

 

[KelliShaver]

From my understanding (and I'm certainly no expert) stress can lower their immune system and make them more suceptible to things (just like it can a person) so if there was any harmful bacterial/parisites, etc. in the water, stress can make them less able to fight it.

Please forgive the horrible grammar. It's beena long day and my brain is about to give out on me.

Norm is now getting the fishy spa treatment, nothing but rest and relaxation for him. I would love for his beautiful tail to grow back, but I have my doubts that it will. My main concern is that it doesn't get any worse.

After reading the toher threads on the subject, I'm now certain he was biting his, because there were no pieces of tail anywhere when I did the water change, and it was very sudden.