Wal-Mart Rescue - Yes, another!!

[Kara101584]

I went to Wal-Mart tonight for the sole purpose of getting more Bio-Gold food. I had just been there last night and had done a "wellness check" so I just gave them another scan tonight to find about 4 of the Bettas that were there last night gone, who knows where.
And, this poor guy, who last night was fine (as fine as a fish at wal-mart can be).
But he has now torn almost all his tail off and was working on his anal fin.
Couldn't leave him there...
He's in fresh water now, with some Bettafix & aquarium salt... Looks better already.
I plan on printing the following pictures and sending them to the Wal-Mart with a complaint.

Any name ideas?

See all this tail fin in the water??

 

[ManyFISH4Me]

How about Frosty, or Strawberry?

 

[mm_simb]

I'm not well with name ideas
but he's really handsome. I just love his color

 

[wrs]

well I must say that if the fish has a bitting his own tail issue, that is not walmarts fault, and they cant really do anything about it. it is the fishes fault. Many of those fish like that do have those issues.

But I dont know if that would make his tail off like that in the bowl. Now that is odd. It doesnt seem like he would be able to do that, would he?

 

[Skylar]

Dunno why, but in the third pic, it looks like he has a black eye. I would call him Bully if I were you.

 

[MegTheFish]

well I must say that if the fish has a bitting his own tail issue, that is not walmarts fault, and they cant really do anything about it. it is the fishes fault. Many of those fish like that do have those issues.

Actually, tail-bitting is caused by stressed. He was probably stressed sitting in that little cup with bad water. Thats Walmarts fault for having them in such tiny cups and not changing their water near enough.

 

[BettaMomma]

He was obviously pissed about where he was being kept. Hopefully he'll stop when he gets into his new home. Tailbiting is sometimes hereditary and there's not all that much you can do about it but to make him as happy as possible so he doesn't feel like doing it. Most times it's because of something that makes them unhappy.

They can do it because they're bored, or they don't feel good, or their water quality is bad, or it can be hereditary.

In a case like this where you said he did ALL of that overnight, my guess is that he was either bored off his butt or he HATED the condition of his water. Either way, I'm sure with the improvement in his living quarters, and some attention his tail will probably start growing back pretty soon. Salt and some clean water will do wonders.

Good luck - he is really beautiful

wrs - I hate to disagree with you - but the way I see it, it is entirely WalMart's fault. The fact that they keep them in those conditions, don't pay any attention to them, the size of their cups and that they don't change their water very often makes them at fault. But, to that respect - every pet store that sells bettas is at fault when the fish self-mutilate or die because of the conditions.

And also - yep, they can reach around and pretty much latch on to any fin they have - I have seen it happen. My Amos was upset and was eating his tail - he ripped hunks off and sucked them in like spaghetti and chewed em up. My new boy Petey was irritated by his java moss over the past several days and took a nice big chunk out of his caudal fin. Noticed it this morning.

They're odd creatures. You wouldn't think they'd mutilate themselves because they're irritated. If that was me, it would make me MORE irritated. But I doubt we'll ever figure them out.

 

[Synirr]

There's another possibility besides tail biting... someone might have put a another male in the cup with him. People can be more cruel than you can imagine; I see this at least once every two months at my local Wal-Mart. I only mention it because I've never seen a tail-biter as bad as that, and if they're biting their own tails off, they usually eat the pieces rather than just leaving them on the bottom like that

 

[BettaMomma]

I was thinking that too, about eating the pieces.
Whenever I've had someone bit their own tail, they have eaten it.
Do you see any damage to his body at all?
From the pics it doesn't look like there is any...

You know - I just went back and looked at the photos, and it kinda looks like his tail just sort of fell off in pieces. The only time I have seen that happen is when a fish has been sick and they just lost circulation in their tail - and then it only fell off in 1/2" hunks - not all the way up to his body....

Hmmmmmm...

 

[Kara101584]

There's another possibility besides tail biting... someone might have put a another male in the cup with him. People can be more cruel than you can imagine; I see this at least once every two months at my local Wal-Mart. I only mention it because I've never seen a tail-biter as bad as that, and if they're biting their own tails off, they usually eat the pieces rather than just leaving them on the bottom like that

Never thought of that! There were 4 Betta's left, one of them that had almost no water in his cup, I had to walk to the other tanks and get him some because he could barely swim. Maybe he had been dumped into the other cup with this poor guy and they just threw him in another with hardly any water...? Or since there were about 3 other Bettas missing, maybe one had died because someone put 2 together....
Sometimes I really hate people!

 

[Kara101584]

I was thinking that too, about eating the pieces.
Whenever I've had someone bit their own tail, they have eaten it.
Do you see any damage to his body at all?
From the pics it doesn't look like there is any...

I don't see any body damage... His gills stick out more than usual, but I thought it was from the horrible water quality.

 

[BettaMomma]

You know - he probably did have someone else in that cup.
If his gills are swelled up - it could be from damage done during the fight or from the nasty water.

Hopefully just being in some good clean water will get him on the path to a happy healthy life.

 

[Kiarra]

I think I have to agree with Synirr.

I bought two from Petsmart that were in the same cup for probably a week. They had fought and then quit fighting, but their water was never changed, and they were never observed, so they both caught something nasty during their vulnerable time and died within a couple days of me getting them. They had fin pieces in the bottom of their shared cup.

These are both photos of the same fish...the one I left in the cup after putting the other one into a different cup at the store. This one died first, by the way, and this is him IMMEDIATELY when he got home. He got changed to clean water less than ten seconds later that was waiting for him. But you can clearly see the fin pieces left from their fights, and the pattern of damage done to him. He had no marks on his body when I got him, but he died absolutely horribly and gruesomely on a Friday, after being bought on a Wednesday.

 

[Kara101584]

He looks a whole lot better already, poor little guy.

I still don't know what I am going to name him though.

 

[BettaMomma]

Aaaah, the things people do. That must be what happened.
The boys I rescued last week who had been in a bowl together for several hours before I found them had little hunks of flesh and fin at the bottom of their bowls. Part of the stuff in there was half of Simon's head, the rest of it was his fins. It had all been pretty badly chewed up so there weren't really any long threads of fins left, just hunks.

Poor little guy. Since he doesn't have all that much body damage he'll probably make a pretty good recovery.