BettaMomma
Fish Aficionado
The most FRUSTRATING thing that can happen to a betta owner, in my opinion, is when your seemingly perfectly happy betta starts ripping his beautiful tail apart. I've seen many many threads on it lately (and it's happening to me again, too) so I just thought I'd type up what my observations have been with all my tailbiters over the past several months, and what I did or plan to do in order to get them to stop - hopefully it will help someone.
First instance of it was with my little Amos. He was perfectly happy in his little 2.5G tank. Moved him to a 5G tank with a filter. He HATED the current, and started biting his tail. He ended up dying so I was never able to fix his problem, but I know it was because he was very unhappy with his new tank and the current.
Next instance of it was with Archie. He was in a very high traffic area of my house, where we had to walk past his tank every day all day long to get to our bathroom and bedroom, to answer the phone, to go to the kitchen, etc. We think he was highly bothered by all the traffic. AND there were MAJOR temperature fluctuations. Both he and Harvey went through major tail rippings, and eventually i got so irritated by it that I went out on the spur of the moment and bought a whole 10G divided setup. Got them in it, they've been at a steady 78 degree temp, and have been doing really great, growing tails back and bubblenesting - the whole 9 yards - until recently when harvey decided to start up again. I think, honestly, it's because I haven't spent enough time with them lately, crazy as that sounds.
My newest little CT, Barnacle Boy, has been eating his beautiful crowny tail off since the day I brought him home. He is in my kitchen in a 2 gallon tank. I have a feeling his issues have been a combination of things - he had velvet when I got him, which he's recovering from very nicely - he also had some sort of gill issues which could be a side effect of the velvet - so I think his issue was a combination of uncomfortableness and temp fluctuations.
So, while I could go on about it for days with more examples, I'd rather just give a quick summary of the things I have learned that cause tailbiting, and how I fixed (or attempted to) them...
Temperature fluctuations - occurs when tank is too small to have a heater put in, and seems to occur when you live in a place that does not have a controlled-climate environment. For instance, we have baseboard heating in our apartment, hence major temp fluctuations. Pretty much every instance of this has been fixed by upgrading the tank to a suitable size for a heater, and giving him steady temps, or figuring out how to keep the temp steady by some other means.
Boredom - I guess if you think about what they have to do all day long, it's totally feasible that they get bored. I've equated it to little kids getting bored, and going to the junk drawer, spying a scissors and snipping off a hunk of their own hair. I always change up the decor in tanks after water changes, try to give them something new outside their tanks to look at, etc.
Nervousness - This can be obviously caused if you have a fish that's scared of everything in general, or if something is up and in the face of the fish that might be terrifying him. Take a look around at anything you can think of that might be bothering him. Move it. Give him extra plants to hide in, on, around and behind. Caves are wonderful nerve soothers. Honestly, indian almond leaf calms them down also.
Illness - They might just not feel good and it might be irritating them to no end. They don't have anything to do so they bite. Could be the equivalent to biting the fingernails in we humans, or really anything we do when we're uncomfortable.
Stress - If they're stressed out, either by one of the above... or by ANYTHING... they'll bite.
Chances are they will bite when you're not looking - because if you're standing there, they think you're going to feed them or smother them with attention, and therefore biting is second on their list of "to do right now" things. I've actually seen a couple of my fish do this - they curl themselves into a C, and swim around in a circle until they get ahold of a hunk, then rip it off. AND EAT IT. Yuck. That's generally why you don't find any pieces of it laying on the bottom of the tank. It's rather disturbing that fish are into self-mutilation, but if you think about it, they don't have fingernails to bite, they don't have legs to pace with, they don't have anti-anxiety drugs to calm themselves with, etc. so who really can blame them? What else do they have in order to express their unhappiness?
One last point - one thing that has worked WONDERS for some of my little guys is Indian Almond Leaf. Everyone has significantly improved with the introduction of one single leaf into their tank. It floats around, and anyone who has ever had anything floating up at the top of their tank knows that's an ideal place for the little guys to build a bubblenest. It also calms them down and seems to do wonders for fin regrowth.
Hope that helps some.
First instance of it was with my little Amos. He was perfectly happy in his little 2.5G tank. Moved him to a 5G tank with a filter. He HATED the current, and started biting his tail. He ended up dying so I was never able to fix his problem, but I know it was because he was very unhappy with his new tank and the current.
Next instance of it was with Archie. He was in a very high traffic area of my house, where we had to walk past his tank every day all day long to get to our bathroom and bedroom, to answer the phone, to go to the kitchen, etc. We think he was highly bothered by all the traffic. AND there were MAJOR temperature fluctuations. Both he and Harvey went through major tail rippings, and eventually i got so irritated by it that I went out on the spur of the moment and bought a whole 10G divided setup. Got them in it, they've been at a steady 78 degree temp, and have been doing really great, growing tails back and bubblenesting - the whole 9 yards - until recently when harvey decided to start up again. I think, honestly, it's because I haven't spent enough time with them lately, crazy as that sounds.
My newest little CT, Barnacle Boy, has been eating his beautiful crowny tail off since the day I brought him home. He is in my kitchen in a 2 gallon tank. I have a feeling his issues have been a combination of things - he had velvet when I got him, which he's recovering from very nicely - he also had some sort of gill issues which could be a side effect of the velvet - so I think his issue was a combination of uncomfortableness and temp fluctuations.
So, while I could go on about it for days with more examples, I'd rather just give a quick summary of the things I have learned that cause tailbiting, and how I fixed (or attempted to) them...
Temperature fluctuations - occurs when tank is too small to have a heater put in, and seems to occur when you live in a place that does not have a controlled-climate environment. For instance, we have baseboard heating in our apartment, hence major temp fluctuations. Pretty much every instance of this has been fixed by upgrading the tank to a suitable size for a heater, and giving him steady temps, or figuring out how to keep the temp steady by some other means.
Boredom - I guess if you think about what they have to do all day long, it's totally feasible that they get bored. I've equated it to little kids getting bored, and going to the junk drawer, spying a scissors and snipping off a hunk of their own hair. I always change up the decor in tanks after water changes, try to give them something new outside their tanks to look at, etc.
Nervousness - This can be obviously caused if you have a fish that's scared of everything in general, or if something is up and in the face of the fish that might be terrifying him. Take a look around at anything you can think of that might be bothering him. Move it. Give him extra plants to hide in, on, around and behind. Caves are wonderful nerve soothers. Honestly, indian almond leaf calms them down also.
Illness - They might just not feel good and it might be irritating them to no end. They don't have anything to do so they bite. Could be the equivalent to biting the fingernails in we humans, or really anything we do when we're uncomfortable.
Stress - If they're stressed out, either by one of the above... or by ANYTHING... they'll bite.
Chances are they will bite when you're not looking - because if you're standing there, they think you're going to feed them or smother them with attention, and therefore biting is second on their list of "to do right now" things. I've actually seen a couple of my fish do this - they curl themselves into a C, and swim around in a circle until they get ahold of a hunk, then rip it off. AND EAT IT. Yuck. That's generally why you don't find any pieces of it laying on the bottom of the tank. It's rather disturbing that fish are into self-mutilation, but if you think about it, they don't have fingernails to bite, they don't have legs to pace with, they don't have anti-anxiety drugs to calm themselves with, etc. so who really can blame them? What else do they have in order to express their unhappiness?
One last point - one thing that has worked WONDERS for some of my little guys is Indian Almond Leaf. Everyone has significantly improved with the introduction of one single leaf into their tank. It floats around, and anyone who has ever had anything floating up at the top of their tank knows that's an ideal place for the little guys to build a bubblenest. It also calms them down and seems to do wonders for fin regrowth.
Hope that helps some.
