Small tail splits

[Irksome]

Hello everyone. My lovely betta appears to have a couple of small splits in his tail. I am aware of their delicate reputation but figured his tank was safe. His driftwood is smooth, his terracotta pot is sanded and has the hole enlarged. All his plants are real and he has an air driven sponge filter. I do a 30% water change twice a week with conditioned water but haven’t checked the levels in a while. The splits appear clean with no discolouration or loss of fin. Will they heal on their own? Is there a good way of encouraging regrow beyond regular water changes? He does love to squeeze into and through small gaps where he can find them. I will post a picture when the tank lights come on.

 

[Colin_T]

The best way to encourage healing in sick fish is with clean water and a bit of salt.

Wipe the inside of the glass with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for 2 weeks.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks.
Wash filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use them.

Add 1 heaped tablespoon of salt per 20 litres of tank water. Keep the salt level like this for 2-4 weeks.

When you do water changes, add some salt to the new water before adding that water to the tank.

 

[Barry Tetra]

You can add almond leaf to help regenerate the tail faster.

 

[Irksome]

This is a picture of the two splits. To me it doesn’t look too bad yet so I’ll do my best to make sure it doesn’t get worse.

 

[Irksome]

Thanks for the advice. I’ll get in it tonight.

 

[Valkyrie_Lips]

Another thing to consider is that some bettas just have crappy genetics and are more prone to tail splitting than others. Especially Halfmoon tail types.