I feel soooooo bad

[Haiku]

I was going to do a big water change today so I decided to put Draco in his cup so I could get the water level down pretty low as well as vacuum his gravel out better without worrying over him in the tank. I scooped him up and put his lid on and went about doing the water change, but I noticed he was really stressed in the cup, he kept frantically swimming into the edges and I even heard him jump against the lid a couple times. I tried to hurry it up to get him back ASAP, but when I picked up his cup and looked at him, I saw he had two little tears in his tail . They are towards the top of his tail, and are close together leaving a little strip of tail between them. I looked closer in the cup (in horror) but there were no bits of tail or anything so I can only assume he either bit himself or tore it somehow in his struggles to get out (nothing was in the cup other than him).

He's back in his tank now swimming happily but I just feel so horrible. Every time I look at him and see those tears I think if only I had just left him in his tank, doing a bit less of a water change, he'd still have his perfect tail. He doesn't seem to be in any pain, does it hurt them to tear their tails? .

I just feel so bad. Live and learn I guess, but it's hard to chalk it up as "lesson learned" when dealing with a living creature

 

[newfishies]

one of my guys split his tail on a plant. it healed in a little over a week, just added a little salt and melifix to his tank! good luck!!

 

[WILDER]

They should mend, hust add a little bit of salt, though they will heal fast with good water quality.

 

[wuvmybetta]

Haiku~ for future reference, here's a real time-saver. I understand that it takes quite some time to do a large water change,this is the reason people usually do small quickies And I know that your betta getting sucked up the syphon while you're not looking is the biggest concern,it's mine anyway but anyway instead of removing the fish, just take a small piece/ball of new filter floss and stick in the the vacuum cylinder. That's what I do on the nursery and grow outs. First I syphon along the bottom and then stuff the cylinder and leave it to drain for however long it needs to. This way nobody gets hurt and your large changes are a breeze
I use the cheapo "poly fil" pillow stuff from the craft department in Wal-Mart. It's cheap and effective and lasts forever.

Sorry to hear of your boy, he'll heal quickly

 

[Haiku]

Thanks for the tips and reassurance everyone! Wuv, the vacuum was a thing I've worried about, especially because they seem so curious and like to swim right up to the thing. I'm always scared of sucking them up. So I'll for sure take your advice about the filter floss. I actually have some poly-fil on hand that I use to re-stuff the dog beds when their stuffing gets too compacted.

He did not like being taken out of his little kingdom at all!