neon tetras attacking my betta

[Bravofleet4]

Hi

I have two female bettas but I usually keep one in a ten gallon and the other in a 3 gallon. After having 5 out of my 10 neon tetras go missing over the weekends in my 10 gallon when I wasn't able to feed them, I tried swapping out the bettas in case the betta got hungry and decided to have himself a neon snack.

So the betta I swapped her with is much more gentle and less aggressive. At first, everything seemed okay but then I noticed that my betta spent almost all of his time in one corner of the tank only coming out to feed. Today I looked at her closer and realized that she was only using one of her fins. Her right fin is fine but her left fine is almost completely shredded. So now she has great difficult moving himself left or right. I knew that tetras can be aggresive but I thought I would see them go after the tail fins first. Could tetras have actually done this?

P.S. swapped the bettas back and put some bettafix in with my injured betta :-(

 

[Lupin]

It is always possible that tetras can nip long-finned tankmates. Do plenty of water changes until the fin grows back. I don't use meds to treat for tattered fins.

 

[davexstumpe]

can't go wrong with melafix or pimafix... i forget which one ?

 

[Lupin]

can't go wrong with melafix or pimafix... i forget which one ?

Melafix but I don't see why we should use Melafix when clean water will help anyway.

 

[Bravofleet4]

just surprised they went after the left fin since those kind of fins are more membrane like and clear. I would think those are less attractive targets.

 

[Mgamer20o0]

not uncommon.

 

[247Plants]

Melafix but I don't see why we should use Melafix when clean water will help anyway.

We only have to wash our own wounds to make them better, but a little bit of neosporin and a bandage helps heal twice as fast......

 

[J double R]

if there is no bacterial or fungal infection, why treat for one?

keep the water clean until you see evidence of infection, then treat for it.

 

[jm1212]

:iagree:

clean water will also be less stressful on the fish. meds have been known to put an extra burden on the stress levels of the fish.

 

[wataugachicken]

Melafix but I don't see why we should use Melafix when clean water will help anyway.

Melafix is the chicken soup of the fish world, and Pimafix is the orange juice.

As far as the betta/neon problem, it's probably like a 50/50 chance it'll happen (as you've seen). it happened to me too. depends on the character of your fish. i guess the first betta was assertive enough that the neons didn't go after him, and the other wasn't mean enough to them.