For those of you with fish....

pittsabowawa

Is it really this hard?

I currently am nursing a Betta fish addiction. Started with one in a 1/2 gal tank and now I have four males (2 in a divided 10 gallon and 2 in 1 gallon bowls temporarily).

Well one of my fish (freddie) is a tail biter (do other fish do this?). He gets stressed out and actually bites his fins, tearing them to shreds. I was told that if I upgraded him (he was originally in a 1 gallon bowl) that he would have more to do thus stop biting.. well that didn't work.

NOW my oldest fish (Fish.. awesome name I know) is biting HIS tail now I have to go out and buy stress zyme and a new divider that is completely obscure, salt to help him heal... etc.

It seems the more I try to do to give my fish good homes (bigger tanks, silk and live plants, heat, filter, good food) the more problems I run into.

Im sorry for the rant but I needed to vent. For such a little animal these fish can be a pain in the a$$.

So those of you that have fish.. any kind of fish. Do you find it to be a p.i.t.a some times? I really enjoy my fish.. especially since they are the only pets I can have in my dorm... but ugh you think they would appreciate all I do and at least not be such masochists

Katzyn

Yes, tail biting happens. =(

But, I have a theory. Have you ever treated them for parasites? Try it, and tell me what happens over the next few weeks.

I ask this, because I had three tail biters. I treated two of them with an anti-parasitic, becuase they always seemed hungry, and when they seemed overly hungry, they seemed to eat their tail.

So, I treated.

The two stopped biting.

The other one didn't.

So, try it, and let me know.

Otherwise, they could just be bored, and, monkey-see, monkey-do.

And I totally understand. I now have 10 bettas (though, that's down from 6 months ago - 18 bettas).

Twinney

I have a betta too, I think he's going to die soon...but then again, I said that 8 months ago when I got him.
He used to be a really bad fin nipper, I gave him some anti parasitic...and he stopped. He started again when he was in the 20g until I moved him (yes, i know, 1 little betta in 20g of water) to a 2.5 gallon tank with tons of plants, he has totally stopped.
Have you thought of adding more things to his tank, ping pong balls, tubes, etc? It might help to releive boredom.

Kuma'sMom

Good advice above. Also, is he in a divided tank with another male, or situated where he can see the other males all the time. Constantly being next to other males without being able to get to them can stress some males to the point where they'll start fin nipping. If he is where he can see the other Betta's constantly, I'd try moving him, or putting an opague divider in the tank and see if that helps.

pittsabowawa

Thanks both of you. Great advice.

What type (brand) of parasitic would you recommend?

I will get some tubes and other little things to see if it helps. I am also going to get some plastic mesh canvass to put in the divider so it will be almost entirely opaque.

I think the parasites could be a definite possiblility because this fish didn't start biting until recently now that he is in the same tank as the original tail biter... maybe some parasites got on him from the other fish.

I got a 3 gallon tank to put my oringinal tail biter in so he wouldn't have to see the other fish and would have the place to himself but I still need a few things before I can put him in there.

Katzyn

Yeah, that's how it happened with the two that were treated - one was already in the 10 gallon, and when I split it and added the second, a few weeks later, the second had picked up biting, too. Which sucked, because those two boys were my special tails - a halfmoon and a doubletail, lol. The halfmoon, Banana, never recovered, and his tail was always ratty, but at least he'd finally stopped biting.

And Astra, the doubletail, looks great now. =)

The third betta, died from temperature issues a couple of months ago. =(

pittsabowawa

oh Im sorry.

One of mine is pretty old. I'm going to be very upset when he goes. He is already 3 but I'm hoping he is one of those that lives till he is like 6 or so. He seems very healthy but I've had them die on me before when they seemed healthy and happy.

MoosMom

yea fish are fun, I nursed an addiction for a long time that landed me a 50g saltwater tank with a reef and all!! BUT the move pretty much cured me for a time. I agree with the treat for parasites thing, there could be more to it than boredom.

pittsabowawa

yeah.. i'd like to have a bigger tank some day but I think the biggest I want to go is 30 gals with some goldfish. I don't want to do saltwater and all that.

Im going to try blocking the divider. Adding some toys and doing 25% water changes with aquarium salt for 10 days.

If they are still biting in about 2-3 weeks I'm going to investigate parasitics

Max's Mom

Good advice above. Could be parasites, boredom, or stress of trying to fight with other males. Have you checked the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? How often do you do water changes?

pittsabowawa

yeah that was the first thing I did. All my levels were fine and since my tank is cycled I was only doing one partial water change a week + substrate vacuuming. But now I'm doing a 25% pwc every day to see if fresh water helps him heal.

Katzyn

Keeping the water pristine with a pinch of aquarium salt and warmth with do wonders for him to heal, however...if he's biting it himself, it won't do too much good with actual healing, haha. At least it'll keep him from getting an infection. =)

I'd probably do the 25% water changes every other day, rather than every day, just because any water change can be stressful, and you're probably ruining the cycle with changing it so often...

PeanutAndOmar

Fish addict here.

If he can see the other males, he is probably attacking himself for them. Keep him isolated and out of the sight of other males.

Test ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. All three can irritate the crap out of a fish. Make sure your water is testing well. Post your tests here, might give some insight.

Raise the temp in the tank slowly to 80-82 degrees. Sooths and helps heal a fish.

How's the poop looking? Normal? Any signs of bloat, shimmying, lethargy, pop eye?

Dechlorinating the water? Use Prime. It's hands down, the best dechlor out there.

Add a bubbler at night. Increases O2 in the tank.

Post a pic =)

Katzyn

Bettas don't "attack themselves for other fish".

Bubblers are not ever needed with bettas (unless you use a medication that leeches the O2 out)- in fact, they can sometimes stress them out.

Oh, forgot to recommend a anti-parasitic medication - Jungle Parasite Clear is really good and easy to use. =)

Max's Mom

I respectfuly disagree here. If the water parameters are the same, especialy PH and temp., your fish should not be stressed out by water changes. Breeders often change 100% of the water daily. The biological cycle is not effected by this. Ammonia and nitrites are broken down by bacteria in the filter not the water.

pittsabowawa

Thanks kat for the parasitic name.. i'll write it down.

I've decided to take things one at a time to help discern what is causing them to bite. Today I bought some plastic mesh to put in the divider so it is a lot more obscure. I've added aquarium salt when I did their 50% water change today.

I've decided not to do pwcs everyday for the simple reason that I am going home for the weekend starting tomorrow so theres no point in starting only to stop for three days. All my fish got their water changed because I'm going home so everyone has nice clean fresh water.

When I get back on Sunday I will have some nylon to cover the intake on my filter which i have seen one of my boys get his tail sucked in (that is not the reason the other is biting as he isn't near the filter). I also hope to have a few more live plants for them. I'm going to get some duct tape so I can make some tunnels out of plastic bottles for them to play with.

If the aquarium salt to reduce stress and promote healing, and the less see-thru divider don't help them start to heal and stop biting then I will look into doing the daily water changes... then if that doesn't work I'll look into parasitics.

Peanutandomar... My water tests are normal 0ppm for ammonia and nitrite and 5ppm for nitrate. Besides torn tails my boys are acting and looking completely healthy. I already use prime.. and as kat said.. bubblers can really stress bettas out.. infact I have the lowest flow filter I could afford and still need to buffer it because the current is too strong.

As requested here are a few pics of my boys

This is fish.. he is my oldest at 3+years and is the second one to bite his tail


This is Freddie.. he is the first one to bite his tail as you can see from the pic (the tips of his fins used to be red)


My two new boys are Blue Jeans and Damon Salvatore(in that order)

Katzyn

I don't mean water parameters. =3 I mean, movement of water. ALL of my bettas always come up to the top to investigate what I'm doing, and then when I pour the water in...yeah, they get...um..."flung", I guess? around by the water.

Max's Mom

Ahhh...I see your point. Mine live in 1 gal. bowls so I just scoop them out in a cup when I clean.

pittsabowawa

I try to pour the water in as slowly as possible... now that my tank is cycled I usually just cup them when I do a water change because I also have to vacuum and I'm just slightly paranoid about sucking them up (my boys have enough psychological problems without being vacuumed).

My boys lived in one gals before I upgraded to the 10 gal so they are used to a lot of water changes (not to mention I did them everyday during my tank cycle) so water changes don't stress them out too much.. but its such a hassle for me

Katzyn

Mine get way more stressed out, being back in the death cups they used to live in, so I don't cup them unless I have to.