Why are my Beta's fins all shredded looking?

Question

I got out of the shower and fed my Beta.. a ritual I always do every day... he looks different though. His fins look as if they have been cut up or shredded.. they are shorter and jagged now. They have never been like this. What happened? It is on his top back and bottom fin... Help!!!

I have no other fish in the tank.. he lives alone...

AGAIN.. I repeat.. there are no other fish in the tank with him.

Also does anyone know if there are nerve endings there.. is he in pain or was he in pain when it happened? (whatever "it" was)

Answer 1

Its an infection that is very easily treated. Its called fin and tail rot. Any pet store will sell the medicine for treating this and it is very easy to get rid of.

How often do you change the water. If it is in a small bowl the water should e changed atleast once a week, preferably twice. Clean water will help to prevent this from coming back.

Dont worry, anyone who has a fish tank deals with this eventually, it is very common, and like I said, very easy to treat.

Answer 2

This could have 2 different causes. 1st it could be fin rot. This is generally cause by poor water conditions. Have you been cleaning the bowl/tank regularly? 2nd he could have ripped his on something in the tank. In either case just keeping him warm, and clean is likely enough. You might start him on melafix/bettafix, or a course of antibiotics like marcyn. (I wouldn't pull out the big gun like trisulfa yet.) Also take a look at the betta talk disease page. Fin rot is a common secondary infection.

As far as pain I've not observed injury to the fin as being painful to betta. I'm sure the initial injury is fairly painful.

Answer 3

well he's either got fin rot, as the others have said, easily treatable with meds from the fish store.

or he could be like one of my bettas who seems to take great pride in eating up his own tail when he gets stressed or something changes in his tank. i call him Shredder. He's a bit emo like that! When he does it it does look like it has been through a shredder! His tail quickly regrows though, only to be eaten up again! They will often also do this if they find their tail is getting too cumbersome, often found with well finned veiltails, or halfmoons.

Answer 4

its fin rot -- you want to change the water tonight asap. as soon as you can you want to get him on antibiotics if it looks like it has even slightly spread overnight after the water change. putting him on a maracyn and maracyn2 in combination works for me. its a 5 day treatment. after that i do a week of melafix. feeding him frozen bloodworms -- like 3 a day for a meal -- will give him extra protein he needs to grow fins back. you will see little white patches where the fins are growing back.

if it doesn't look like it is spreading just go with the melafix.


most bettas get this -- it is usually a sign you need to change the water more often. they look awful for a while but they do grow back. there is no pain involved really until it hits their body -- then it eats their flesh and that is pretty nasty.

Answer 5

Sounds as though there's another fish in the tank that's nipping at his fins. Depending on what you have in your tank, any number of different fish can be aggressive enough to do this.

Answer 6

The answer is a disease called Fin Rot, my site has the remedy, it's some kind of medication you can buy, www.aqua-reliable.co.nr good luck, don't worry it is treatable.

Answer 7

It's a Beta fish! It's starting to grow to an older adult. Come to my daddy's pet clinic and he will help!

Answer 8

Your other fish are nipping them.