Yet ANOTHER shredded tail at my house.

[BettaMomma]

Okay i am SICK SICK SICK of this nonsense.
Woke up this morning and Harvey has now chewed off (or somehow managed to shred the crap out of) his tail. He has NEVER done this in the 4 months I have had him.

What the heck?
Is this still the aftermath of the melafix OD???
Why would these guys (he and Archie) suddenly be chewing their tails off within one week of each other? Nothing has changed with Harvey's tank - I did add a teeny slight bubble drip to his tank, but that was weeks ago. He doesn't even pay attention to it and it creates NO current...

GRR - I'm getting SUPREMELY pissed off about this.
Jack (whose tank is cleaned just as often, uses the same city water, etc.) has GORGEOUS finnage. No rot, no curling, NOTHING. In fact, his fins were in worse shape when he came in than both of the other guys' fins combined are right now, and Jack's are perfect...

The only diff is that Jack is in another room without a lot of activity.
Harvey and Archie are right out in the living room where we are and they're always active in response to our moving around. Would that make any diff?

WHAT is the deal and what do I need to do?
I have started water changes on these guys every 3 days

 

[cation]

The only diff is that Jack is in another room without a lot of activity.
Harvey and Archie are right out in the living room where we are and they're always active in response to our moving around. Would that make any diff?

It might, BMom. You might switch Jack out with Harvey, and see how he does in a quieter environment.


You are finding something out that some of us have struggled with for a while - Discovering why one well-cared for betta is is when the other well cared for bettas are not. This is a topic that lends itself to quite a bit of discussion. Some of the issues seem to go back to the fishes genetics, or maybe the way they were spawned and/or raised as fry/juvies. Maybe for others it's treatment in the lfs, or longterm exposure to unhealthy water. Some believe that fish from that part of the world are healthier then those from that other part of the world.

Many, many theories, not very many definite answers.

 

[BettaMomma]

It just makes me so mad! Grr...
I do everything I can for them and it seems like I invest WAY more time into my fish than some people (for instance, a guy I work with has his betta in a 2.5G tank, but he doesn't change the water ever except about 1 time a month) and he's perfectly healthy.

NOT that I mind investing time into my fish - because I love fishkeeping. It's JUST so frustrating... it seems as if the problems they have arise no matter if I give them clean water, a whole slew of a variety of food and clean healthy water always, does not matter.

I might try moving Harvey to my bedroom where it's much quieter.. Give him some quiet time. I just hope he doesn't get depressed and lonely in there.

I could also try moving Archie to the kitchen, maybe. It's not like I'm in there a lot - I don't cook. heh heh heh

 

[SRC]

Personally I have found Veils and Crownies to be much hardier in the fin deartment then doubletails, deltas or halfmoons.

And I have found solid colored halfmoons and deltas to be hardier then their butterfly counterparts.

From my experience..butterfly's have horrible problems with fin rot problems...it's like they are just too fragile.
But of course that just in my group though.

 

[veen]

Personally I have found Veils and Crownies to be much hardier in the fin deartment then doubletails, deltas or halfmoons.

And I have found solid colored halfmoons and deltas to be hardier then their butterfly counterparts.

From my experience..butterfly's have horrible problems with fin rot problems...it's like they are just too fragile.
But of course that just in my group though.

that's been my experience, too. my crownie has a bubble wand that bubbles the crap out of his tank (necessary to keep his nitrite or maybe it's nitrate levels at 0) and he loves it & the filter's current. i have never seen stress lines on him the entire time i've had him. he deals with the bubble wand, the filter's current, numerous water changes & gravel vacs and is always active & hungry no matter what. my 2 veils are so hardy they endured a traumatic fight that should have left them dead, they have 2 filters in their 2.5 tank and 1 of the filters bubbles like mad. they're active, flare like mad and eat like pigs not matter that their fins look like someone took some scissors to them! on the other hand, my double tail seems like he can't even handle a simple case of ick without having stress lines that are so glaringly obvious i can see them from across the room. sheesh! fishkeeping is almost as stressful as having children

 

[BettaMomma]

This afternoon I hadn't moved Harvey yet, and he was COMPLETELY freaking out about something. So I dropped everything I was doing and moved him to the bedroom. I noticed something when I was moving him - under his chin there is a tiny little lump, almost like there's some loose skin under there (like an old person's skin under their chin lol). Not growing that I can see, so I'm not concerned about it just yet.

Also, he's been flaring and freaking out so much that most of the scales on both if his gills (the part where they crease while he's flaring) have completely come off. And he's got red and black tips starting up at his tail and fin ends. The fun never stops with this boy.

I'm gonna keep up the Maracyn2 and see how he does in the seclusion. I hope that doesn't have an adverse effect on him.

 

[Kiarra]

Maybe you should try putting him in a dark, quiet room all by himself where no one's going to bother him for a few days. Check in on him and keep him company, but have nothing there that can startle him.

 

[BettaMomma]

Yeah, that's kinda how our room is.
He's down on the second shelf of my bookcase in my room. It's pretty dark in there during the day except for a little daylight that peeks in thru the blinds in the afternoon.
We don't go in there much except to go to bed - and that's really the only other room in my house that's not used that much.
We'll see if this helps him - cuz man that boy is messed up right now for some odd reason. We keep joking that he has turrets syndrome, cuz that's what it seems like.
lol

 

[FishyLoveBug]

You need to get them those neck cones like pets get to keep them from chewing on their stitches after surgery.

 

[BettaMomma]

the therapeutic doggy lamp shades?
I wonder if they make them betta-sized?
Man, that could really slow his swimming down.
LOL