Holy Moly What Has Happened To Your Tail.

[YamiHime]

Right, so a few days ago I was looking at my male betta and his tale seemed shredded. It's just him alone in there so I though, oh no.. Is there something wrong with the water? I just did a test now and it seems there is some ammonia!
 
I had my tank cycled, and I see some uneaten food in the gravel that I'm going to pick out right away and do a water change. But why would the ammonia be there if I had cycled my tank? Is my plant affecting it? I had cycled the tank with the plant and no betta.
 
I also want to know if his tail will get better! poor guy! This is terrible.
 
I'll post a picture if anyone wants it.


Quick update!

I just checked the water test results in better light, seems like there is actually 0 ammonia! so the tank is cycled, guess my new questions is:
 
Is he ripping up his own tale? could the gravel be hurting him? I have real plants and a hut, but the hut doesn't look sharp. Guess I'll test it out.

 

[Wildbetta]

With a good pic of the tail, I could more than likely tell you if he is biting his own tail or if there appears to be something else going on.  From what it sounds like -- he is biting his own tail.  There are some bettas that do this.  Clean warm water will enable his fins to grow back without infection

 

[372xp]

Oh no poor Gil. Could be to do with boredom. He is only a young fish so he should heal up quite quick, yo will see a sort of whitish membrane growing around by the tear, this will join up to reform his tail.
Maybe if you introduced something else into his tank it would give him something else to think about. How big is Gils tank? My male got depressed and his fins all clamped up when I introduced some ohther fish to his tank as part of his rehab program it wasnt long before he was back to his old self and nesting again.
Has Gil made a nest yet?

 

[YamiHime]

Oh no poor Gil. Could be to do with boredom. He is only a young fish so he should heal up quite quick, yo will see a sort of whitish membrane growing around by the tear, this will join up to reform his tail.
Maybe if you introduced something else into his tank it would give him something else to think about. How big is Gils tank? My male got depressed and his fins all clamped up when I introduced some ohther fish to his tank as part of his rehab program it wasnt long before he was back to his old self and nesting again.
Has Gil made a nest yet?

No I haven't seen a nest for gil, but I don't know if he's bored? He likes to hide in his plant and swim around in and out of his hut and he usually lays around on his betta bed I made him. His tank is 2.5 Gal, and I can't get him anything bigger for personal reasons. (parents, money, space ect.)
 
I noticed gil flares up A LOT. almost every time I come to see him he flares at me. which makes me think he's aggressive, but he does like me :> I mean I feed him everyday. I could put an air stone in during the day when I'm at school?  I have a pump and tube but no air stone.

do you think he would want to play with a floating ball?

With a good pic of the tail, I could more than likely tell you if he is biting his own tail or if there appears to be something else going on.  From what it sounds like -- he is biting his own tail.  There are some bettas that do this.  Clean warm water will enable his fins to grow back without infection

okay! I'm currently away from home but I'll be happy to post a picture soon. I think he's biting it too... but there has also been I believe so algea in my tank? could this affect him? I cleaned it off in the last water change, it looks like thread algea? almost like tiny green hairs on the walls.

 

[RCA]

Sorry to hear this YamiHime, and yes a picture would be helpful.
I had a male CT (still have him) and within 30 mins he had chewed off his tail, as you can see in these pictures.
I basically changed his tank around, got some small fish to go in with him and it is now growing back. 
 

 

 

[YamiHime]

Sorry to hear this YamiHime, and yes a picture would be helpful.
I had a male CT (still have him) and within 30 mins he had chewed off his tail, as you can see in these pictures.
I basically changed his tank around, got some small fish to go in with him and it is now growing back. 
 

 

ahh, those pictures help, Gil is a veiltail though so It sort of looks like he has a crown tail but it looks kinda shriveled? its like, shredded and strandy but it doesnt look burned. yours looks more bitten clean or in a straight line.

This is not my image, but it was the closest one on google that I could find that looks close to his tail.
 

 

[372xp]

Maybe a couple of neons or black tetras may be suitable, they are cheap and fairly robust and quick enough to get out of the way if gil is in a bad mood. Dont go for Rummy nose tetras as these can nip a bit. Gil flaring at you is a good thing, my male will flare at me and it doesnt mean he doesnt like you. This is just what male bettas do, just like in life males like to show off and let you know what big men they are.
My money is on boredom, if you cant get a few tank mates maybe a ping pong ball or just move his tank about a bit every time ypou do a water change will keep him interested.
Have you tried putting indian almond leaves in his tank? These release certain chemicals into the water that make the bettas feel at home, they frequently make nests in them as they float on tne surface.
Dont worry this is all part of life Gil will be fine, just do your best and keep his water good.

 

[Wildbetta]

That betta in the pic you pulled off the net looks to have bitten his own tail BUT now has fin rot as well.  The melting look on the ends of his tail is a bad sign so if Gil has that you might need to up the water changes to help him heal.   I agree that him flaring at you is a good sign.  I do not believe your tank is big enough for anything besides Gil.  You might need to try other things to liven his tank up.  Put brightly colored objects outside his tank, move stuff around on a periodic basis, or maybe get him a mirror to flare at (not all the time).

 

[YamiHime]

That betta in the pic you pulled off the net looks to have bitten his own tail BUT now has fin rot as well.  The melting look on the ends of his tail is a bad sign so if Gil has that you might need to up the water changes to help him heal.   I agree that him flaring at you is a good sign.  I do not believe your tank is big enough for anything besides Gil.  You might need to try other things to liven his tank up.  Put brightly colored objects outside his tank, move stuff around on a periodic basis, or maybe get him a mirror to flare at (not all the time).

ahh okay :> oh no, his tail just looks shredded he doesnt have fin rot or burning (atleast I think). I checked his tank and there is no ammonia or nitrite so I think he just bit it.

 

[YamiHime]

 
Hope these pictures are clear enough for you.

 

[attibones]

It looks somewhere in between tail biting and fin rot. I have a veil tail (the last one I will ever have) who is still healing from his fin rot. His looked much more like the first image you posted. However, now that he is healing up, he looks like your fish does now. Every week he looks a little better, though. I would do a water change at least every two or three days, and maybe try to add a little dissolved aquarium salt. It's good for healing, and I believe it helps prevent infection, but I may be confusing that with something else. Either way, frequent water changes dechlorinated with API stress coat should help him heal right up. If you want to use the salt, it doesn't do any harm at all. 

 

[RCA]

I used IAL (Indian Almond Leaves) in all my Bettas tanks and if a Betta is having issues at all I will give them a salt bath, up to the max of 15 mins.  I gave my CT in these pictures salt baths daily for about 3-4 days to prevent it turning into fin rot, as well as daily WC's.  I will try and upload a more recent picture so you can see how it is now growing back.
 
I recently got a product called Betta Spa by Ocean Nutrition for my old VT, like you attibones he will be my last VT.  The reason I got the product to try is that it has IAL and other ingredients, but also a little bit of salt.  I will be adding a TOPIC about my VT in due course, but basically due to his age and sitting on the bottom all the time, he was always getting fin rot.  He is now in a "retirement" tank on his own so he can have all the extra luxuries he needs, just like Gil
 
Wildbetta has put some good suggestions forward for you to try with him.
 

do you think he would want to play with a floating ball?

 
No harm in trying anything to keep his mind off his tail, a ping-pong ball would be good, as it should float and be light.
 
Keep us posted on his progress...

 

[Wildbetta]

I am not a personal fan of adding salt to a betta tank.  In all truth it really doesn't do anything to help the betta.  it just irritates the skin and makes the betta produce more of the slime coat but the fact that it does cause stress to the kidneys as well since the fish is not accustomed to being in any salt concentration on a normal basis is why I do not use it.  That being said, I do believe that Gil is a tail-biter and I do not see any signs of fin rot from your pictures.  Keep his water really clean and warm and you should be fine.  Tail biters are one of those cases where you have to extra careful about your water and make sure that you keep up with your water changes.  I agree with the previous posters who recommend IAL (Indian Almond Leaves) as they do tend to have an antibiotic property to them that helps repel any infections and actually help calm bettas.  There are many causes of tail biting.  Some bite because of boredom, some bite because of stress (which can be caused by a number of different things-water quality sensitivity, other fish in the tank, something going on near the tank, ect), some bite because their fins are so heavy they can't swim well with the long fins (this happens a lot more in the really big finned HMs), and some bite for no understandable reason.  Finding the reason if possible can help keep him from biting again but don't be surprised if there is no reason that you can find for him to bite his tail.  Once he has started to bite his tail, he may continue off and on from time to time especially as his fins regrow because they "itch". (like a scab from a sore)  
I had a double tail male once that would bite his tail if I missed his water change by as little as 1 day.  I didn't have any ammonia or nitrIte reading ever but he was so used to the routine or he was overly sensitive to nitrAtes or something like that which caused him to shred his tail.  Took me a couple of times to figure out that was the reason he did it so he tended to regrow his tail quite a bit when I first got him.  

 

[RCA]

ahh, those pictures help, Gil is a veiltail though so It sort of looks like he has a crown tail but it looks kinda shriveled? its like, shredded and strandy but it doesnt look burned. yours looks more bitten clean or in a straight line.

 
That is how I knew he was a tail biter as it was so uniform, neat little job he did really!
 
As promised here is a more recent picture to show his tail regrowth, albeit somewhat slowly.
 

 
Keep up your regular water changes to make sure Gil does not develop a bad case of fin-rot, as I do find my old VT more prone to it.
 
Wildbetta makes a good point with the salt, hence the reason I have only ever given salt baths for a limited period before and have found them to be successful.  In terms of the Betta Spa I had read that it had been very good with Bettas.  Therefore I thought I would try it in very low quantities, as I have been battling with my old boy, to keep him in good health for awhile now.  I may contact the company to find out more about their research into making the product etc.  Will let you know if I get anything back worth sharing

 

[YamiHime]

I'll read up about the Leaves and keep up with water changes :> I can't tell if his tail is getting better but I feel like it's just bitten and not fin rot. I did actually change and ornament in his Tank so hopefully that makes him less bored. I'll see if I can get him a floating ball too :>
 
Thanks for the help I'll post more if anything comes up!