Here's some background- I've had Sawyer, my veiltail male betta, for about ~2.5 weeks now. His previous owner kept him in a divided 1/4 gallon container (in a cold basement, used no water dechlor either, fed him 2 tetra pellets every other day) with another male betta. I moved him to a heated (78F) filtered 5.5 gallon (decor was bare with 2 ceramic flower pots, no substrate, and 3 soft plastic plants (they were out of silk). 2nd day I believe it was I had him, I replaced the flower pots with water logged driftwood from a pet store, and the plastic plants (I found a pin hole tear in his fin) with a couple silk plants.
He got ich (nothing severe at all, at most 10 spots were on him at any time), and was treated with heat (raised to ~87F) and aquarium salt (1tbsp/2 gallons). I moved him from the 5.5 gallons to a 10 gallon. When the spots were gone, I carried out treatment for another week. Then lowered the temp down to 85 the last day of treatment, and right now it's at ~83F. All the salt has been removed from WC's.
Oh, and I also added a small anubias plant when I moved him to the 10 gallon, and two days ago added an amazon sword plant. Along with added ~30lbs of eco complete around 5 days ago.
Since I've had him, I've given him freeze dried blood worms, and frozen blood worms. The first night I gave him frozen blood worms, he got really "frisky." Darting around, trying to get them all. Last night, I noticed he was biting his tail after I fed him the frozen blood worms. He was swimming in a circle, with his tail in his mouth. I didn't see any damage.
This morning, I woke up to find his beautiful tail fin "shredded" in the middle. Like this http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6994/edit5l.jpg how it is shredded on the bottom fin. Except, it's only in the middle of his tail fin, and goes 1/2 way in. (I'm at the library now, but I'll try to post pictures later, I have plenty of before pictures so you can see the difference).
His tail was perfectly fine last night (I got home at midnight, woke up at 9:30am, so 9 and a half hours later). So it happened over night, and very quick.
I have no idea what the water params are (still waiting for my test kit), but he is showing no other signs of any illness/stress. I know my tank is still cycling, I'm at Day 18 in my cycle, doing around 30-50% WC every other day (with a few 100% when he moved tanks and I put eco in.)
More info:
~~30lbs eco complete
~I don't use any lighting right now, just sunlight and the room light.
~No background either
~There is a ~2" diameter, ~2" deep round hole in the driftwood (it's a complete circle, it had the anubias stuffed with that brown wool like plant stuff in it, I took it out) that he will go in and barely fit and spin around in circles.
~His tank is situated in our one room (we have a studio apt), in the corner (we have no tv either, and he's away from the ac unit), so there's plenty of activity (he's learned to recognize me as the food bringer, and doesn't get startled when the cats jump on the stand (or when I practically put my face up against the glass to stare at him or take pictures-no flash used)
~Currently there is 3 pieces of driftwood (2 form a cave he can swim under), 2 plants in the corner (1 fake, 1 sword), and the anubias on the other side.
~No other tank mates
Does this sound like fin rot or damage caused by tail biting? How should I go about treating his tail? Any idea why frozen blood worms would cause him to bite his tail, or is it just a coincidence?
Thank you!
He got ich (nothing severe at all, at most 10 spots were on him at any time), and was treated with heat (raised to ~87F) and aquarium salt (1tbsp/2 gallons). I moved him from the 5.5 gallons to a 10 gallon. When the spots were gone, I carried out treatment for another week. Then lowered the temp down to 85 the last day of treatment, and right now it's at ~83F. All the salt has been removed from WC's.
Oh, and I also added a small anubias plant when I moved him to the 10 gallon, and two days ago added an amazon sword plant. Along with added ~30lbs of eco complete around 5 days ago.
Since I've had him, I've given him freeze dried blood worms, and frozen blood worms. The first night I gave him frozen blood worms, he got really "frisky." Darting around, trying to get them all. Last night, I noticed he was biting his tail after I fed him the frozen blood worms. He was swimming in a circle, with his tail in his mouth. I didn't see any damage.
This morning, I woke up to find his beautiful tail fin "shredded" in the middle. Like this http://img822.imageshack.us/img822/6994/edit5l.jpg how it is shredded on the bottom fin. Except, it's only in the middle of his tail fin, and goes 1/2 way in. (I'm at the library now, but I'll try to post pictures later, I have plenty of before pictures so you can see the difference).
His tail was perfectly fine last night (I got home at midnight, woke up at 9:30am, so 9 and a half hours later). So it happened over night, and very quick.
I have no idea what the water params are (still waiting for my test kit), but he is showing no other signs of any illness/stress. I know my tank is still cycling, I'm at Day 18 in my cycle, doing around 30-50% WC every other day (with a few 100% when he moved tanks and I put eco in.)
More info:
~~30lbs eco complete
~I don't use any lighting right now, just sunlight and the room light.
~No background either
~There is a ~2" diameter, ~2" deep round hole in the driftwood (it's a complete circle, it had the anubias stuffed with that brown wool like plant stuff in it, I took it out) that he will go in and barely fit and spin around in circles.
~His tank is situated in our one room (we have a studio apt), in the corner (we have no tv either, and he's away from the ac unit), so there's plenty of activity (he's learned to recognize me as the food bringer, and doesn't get startled when the cats jump on the stand (or when I practically put my face up against the glass to stare at him or take pictures-no flash used)
~Currently there is 3 pieces of driftwood (2 form a cave he can swim under), 2 plants in the corner (1 fake, 1 sword), and the anubias on the other side.
~No other tank mates
Does this sound like fin rot or damage caused by tail biting? How should I go about treating his tail? Any idea why frozen blood worms would cause him to bite his tail, or is it just a coincidence?
Thank you!
I got some hikari bio gold pellets as well, and plan to switch to omego one or that other brand that has three words that's highly recommended that I can't think of right now.. Ah I remember, New Life Spectrum
