Will He Finish Healing?

[Paradise3]

So I have this male Betta, I got him on the 27th April 2014. He's approx. 14 months now as he was about 4 months when I got him.
 
This is him on the 30th April 2014.

 
Anyway, in his time with me he's been attacked by a malawi... Long story, will explain if needed though.
 
When he was attacked...

 
And after he healed again.

 
After that, he was fine for about 3 months and then he started biting his tail. I could sit and watch him attacking his own tail, his dorsal and even his anal fin. I tried loads to stop him and in the end the thing that stopped him was adding a female guppy. Since then I've added two more females with three females in QT waiting to be added soon.
 
He stopped biting but he has never regained his full tail length or dorsal length... His anal fin is back to full size minus a chunk at hte front but his tail is about half the size it was and his dorsal about 3/4 the size. He's been like this for over a month now despite clean water and IAL in the tank. No-one is nipping at him and his tail even seems to have become a sort of "short Rosetail" rather than a Halfmoon again... He's healthy, eats well and everything and like I say no-one is bothering him... He just won't grow back fully. I'm just wondering if he'll ever regain his full length or if this is him now for good?
 

 
And here's a short video, something else to point out that you can see in the video when he lays almost flat to flare... After his Malawi attack and he'd healed he had an extension on his tail. It seemed to grow sideways off his actual tail. He's still got it now and I was just wondering if anyone could tell me why that happened?
 
https/www.youtube.com/watch?v=mK5LfjDQrss

 

[sawickib]

Are you talking about the operculum or the caudal/tail fin? 
 
If he stops biting it i think it would heal, but tbh i wont be of much help.

 

[Liv15]

I've just put some bettas in a tank that were living in jam jars for ages and their fins were a bit battered but they seem to be looking healthier already. I think fish heal pretty quickly if they are in healthy water conditions with a good diet.

 

[betta fish]

I find that bettas don't age gracefully, well mine don't anyway, by the time they reach around 12 months they all start to look quite knackered, I don't think it helps that my water is hard and most of my bettas were imports. It looks like the damage may be permanent now and the fact he is an older betta doesn't help either 

 

[Paradise3]

Are you talking about the operculum or the caudal/tail fin? 
 
If he stops biting it i think it would heal, but tbh i wont be of much help.

 
If you mean about the little extra bit of fin it's on his tail right in the middle of it.
He has stopped biting, he stopped biting months a go but has only ever healed this far.
 

I've just put some bettas in a tank that were living in jam jars for ages

and their fins were a bit battered but they seem to be looking healthier already. I think fish heal pretty quickly if they are in healthy water conditions with a good diet.

 
He's in clean water with Indian Almond Leaves and on a varied diet of Tetra Pro Colour, Tetra Prima, Tetra Prima Mini Granules and Bloodworm.
 

I find that bettas don't age gracefully, well mine don't anyway, by the time they reach around 12 months they all start to look quite knackered, I don't think it helps that my water is hard and most of my bettas were imports. It looks like the damage may be permanent now and the fact he is an older betta doesn't help either 

 
Hmm

So you think his age may be stopping him finish healing properly? Makes sense to be fair...

 

[Wildbetta]

Ok I will bite....how did he get in a tussle with a malawi?
 
As for his fins....he might have damaged his fin enough to the point it stays like it is.  After a while the fins don't always regrow but at least in his case, his caudal regrew most of the way out to a normal look.  That one odd ray is weird but not totally unusual.  It just looks like one got damaged and that is how it will regrow from this point on but I have seen some that had those without damage.
 
As for the way he flares....I have seen this a lot with RT because of the heavy fins and the weight causing them to list to the side, swim head up/tail down, or even not be able to fully flare.

 

[Paradise3]

Ok I will bite....how did he get in a tussle with a malawi?
 
As for his fins....he might have damaged his fin enough to the point it stays like it is.  After a while the fins don't always regrow but at least in his case, his caudal regrew most of the way out to a normal look.  That one odd ray is weird but not totally unusual.  It just looks like one got damaged and that is how it will regrow from this point on but I have seen some that had those without damage.
 
As for the way he flares....I have seen this a lot with RT because of the heavy fins and the weight causing them to list to the side, swim head up/tail down, or even not be able to fully flare.

 
I had a load dumped on me(mum spat them, shop wanted to get rid) and I only had one tank I could put them in. I had two tanks but they would have been eaten in seconds in the other as it had my BBG in who attacked anything but snails.
Anyway, they grew up and I managed to sell most of them apart from one before they reached the aggressive stage. The one remaining was a runt and was too small to send. So I offered to keep him a little longer till he was big enough and he matured a lot quicker(or maybe it was lack of other Malawi's) than the rest. At half the size of the other 12 he was ripping everything to shreds including killing one of my Scarlet Endlers. So he ended up being sent off for his new home ASAP.
 
The way he flares doesn't bother me, his swimming is otherwise fine it's just his flaring and I assumed it was the fins causing that.
 
I have been looking at RT's and they seem to have shorter dorsal and caudal fins than pelvic fins anyway so that may explain it as well as being injured twice.