what should I do?

[DizzyDezzy]

I recently noticed that my male betta Caerulius has some fin damage. He has a few small holes and tears in his tail and fin where they drag on the gravel when he is looking for bits of food at the bottom. There is no sign of fin rot or fungus on the damaged parts of the fins... The gravel currently is pea-sized and rounded, and I really don't want to change over to sand at this time (would most likely involve dis-assembling the whole setup)... Is there anything Ishould do for my betta (other than chuck out the gravel and put in sand)?

 

[Angel Lady]

I recently noticed that my male betta Caerulius has some fin damage. He has a few small holes and tears in his tail and fin where they drag on the gravel when he is looking for bits of food at the bottom. There is no sign of fin rot or fungus on the damaged parts of the fins... The gravel currently is pea-sized and rounded, and I really don't want to change over to sand at this time (would most likely involve dis-assembling the whole setup)... Is there anything Ishould do for my betta (other than chuck out the gravel and put in sand)?

put your betta in some betta max it works great or mabey some melafex it is good for ripped fins or tore my betta went threw the same thiing and i used betta mx then I decided that was faster enough so I used melafex and his fins are almost back to normal now mine just recently went threw this so i know what worked for me.Do you have your betta in with anything else? If so I would watch it because one of the fish could be nipping him.And try not to switch to sand because it isnt good for the tropical fish

 

[DizzyDezzy]

He's in a 10 gallon tank with 10 neon tetras (they are only about 1/5 inch long at the moment, I will probably move them to another tank if they grow much bigger). I'm almost 100% sure that they are not nipping his fins, as they tend to stay as a scoal, always on the opposite side of the tank from the betta.
I added some melafix today

 

[smudge]

This is just my opinion so...... Most male bettas are kept in small plastic cups for the majority of their early adult lives. They are shipped to fish distributors in small bags with less than a tablespoon of water. Hardly ever do their fins come in contact with anything close to abrasive. Everytime I add a male betta to a tank (gravel bottom) their fins turn to tatters. Most of the time their fins grow back not quite as nice as when I purchased them. I decided with my first male betta that there was a fin hardening period they have to go through to stay as beautiful in a larger tank as the small motionless cups. Hope this helped.

 

[DizzyDezzy]

his fins are fine now.
he gets a little rip in them every now and then but it usually heals up a few days later.
I noticed that the new bit of his fin is a torquoise colour, looks very nice (the resat of him is a very dark blue/purple)
he wasn't in a little cup in the store - he was in a 20 gallon with cories and neons, and he was there for at least a month. I went to say hello to him in the store while my tank was cycling

 

[lila200098]

This is just my opinion so...... Most male bettas are kept in small plastic cups for the majority of their early adult lives. They are shipped to fish distributors in small bags with less than a tablespoon of water. Hardly ever do their fins come in contact with anything close to abrasive. Everytime I add a male betta to a tank (gravel bottom) their fins turn to tatters. Most of the time their fins grow back not quite as nice as when I purchased them. I decided with my first male betta that there was a fin hardening period they have to go through to stay as beautiful in a larger tank as the small motionless cups. Hope this helped.

I think I know why they stay on the other side.... because are saimese fighting fish and they love to fight smaller fish so the tetras are scared. Just like my fish cause i had a betta and two goldfish in a tank and the betta bit off one of the gold fish's tails so we returned the betta and got two platies instead.

 

[lila200098]

This is just my opinion so...... Most male bettas are kept in small plastic cups for the majority of their early adult lives. They are shipped to fish distributors in small bags with less than a tablespoon of water. Hardly ever do their fins come in contact with anything close to abrasive. Everytime I add a male betta to a tank (gravel bottom) their fins turn to tatters. Most of the time their fins grow back not quite as nice as when I purchased them. I decided with my first male betta that there was a fin hardening period they have to go through to stay as beautiful in a larger tank as the small motionless cups. Hope this helped.

There fins turn to tatters becausethey fight each other and they are called saimese fighting fish. you should never keep a betta with any other fish because they will pick a fight. they are kept in seperate cups so they won't wrestle each other.

 

[DizzyDezzy]

Bettas only fight other bettas or fish that they think may be bettas (long finned goldfish or guppies). My betta is perfectly gine with the neons and hasn't ever tried to fight/chase them. they are no longer scared of him now.
Keeping a betta in a cup is cruel. They need good water quality and swimming space to be healthy and happy!

 

[Teresa]

Hi, I have just bought a red betta, I have a ten gallon tank with gravel. The betta has VERY tattered fins, I have added melafix, I was wondering if DizzyDezzy could tell me what are the first signs that his fins are healing and how long it took for them to heal - what is the condition of the fins now? Did he add any salt?

 

[Angel Lady]

when the fins grow back they look transparent you can just about see threw them and I have to say this neons will nip fins I have seen them do this with my own eyes I dont like melafix either I know for a fact that it finished killing my red betta but that is just my point of view everybody is has one the best think you all can do for your bettas is but them in some betta-max it has the stuff they need for thier fins and all. I went and bought me some melafix when one of my angels decided they want to be mean and ripped all of fishs fins and I just tried this out once the fish that didnt have the melafix in growed back just as fast as the ones that did. But that is how i feel about the stuff

 

[DizzyDezzy]

His fins were only mildly damaged, and it took about four days for the rip to heal completely with melafix. I used about half the recomended dose of melafix, as I had some scaleless fishies in there (khuli loaches) and didn't wanna stress them out.
How did the melafix kill your betta? what was wrong with him in the first place that you were trying to fix with the meds? are you sure you followed the instructions?
melafix is for small injuries and fin rips only, and doesn't actually fix finrot, ulcers or bodyrot.

 

[Angel Lady]

His fins were only mildly damaged, and it took about four days for the rip to heal completely with melafix. I used about half the recomended dose of melafix, as I had some scaleless fishies in there (khuli loaches) and didn't wanna stress them out.
How did the melafix kill your betta? what was wrong with him in the first place that you were trying to fix with the meds? are you sure you followed the instructions?
melafix is for small injuries and fin rips only, and doesn't actually fix finrot, ulcers or bodyrot.

he had a bad case of ich which left his fins almost gone I followed the instructions exactly how it said the betta was hunting for food that I gave him so I figured I would let him finish eating then I would add the melafix so that is what I done and five minutes later he was floating on his top so that is one reason why I dont use it I recommended it to someone the other day but that is the only thing that I could think of but if I had it to do over I wouldnt have betta max does the same thing and plus it has the vitiams and stuff that bettas need that they dont get from thier flakes and betta bites and so on.

 

[Teresa]

I have been treating my Betta with Melafix and his fins are wonderfully healed, he seems a very happy fish.

His tail, top fin and main lower fin are three quarters healed - only the ends are still frayed although is front lower fins are still very straggly.

Obviously I dont know how fast they would have healed without the Melafix but I just thought that I would report my findings.

I have been treating him for a week. I will stop his treatment now and see how he does naturally.