whats happened to my betta??

[evelyn80]

i came home from school today to find my halfmoon betta lying at the bottom looking very weak. i tapped the tank to see if he was alive and he started up to the top to see wats happening and look for food and had a hard time making it to the top. now heres where it gets weird! hes missing a whole chunk of his tail! his halfmoon shaped tail is a an ax shape ill post a pic tonight. in his tank is a rock covered with 3 phillipine java ferns and the only other inhabitants are 3 brigg snails. and a stick which i put in but no way he could get caught on it. HELP!!:help::help: oh and params are:
0 amm, 0 nitrites 15 nitrates ph 7.0. hes the one in my avy

 

[saram521]

Maybe the nitrate is too high? I would think in a smaller tank, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia would need to stay very low. Sounds like your betta has a bacterial infection. How often do you do water changes, and what volume of water are you changing each time? Might need to do a partial water change today. Is there anywhere you can move the brig snails to? They might be contributing too much to the bioload, being in such a small tank.

 

[fgump]

His tail wasn't like that the last time you saw him? If it really happened that fast, the tail could have got sucked in the filter and he tore it getting out of the filter.

 

[jm1212]

do a couple of water changes and see if that helps.

 

[evelyn80]

its definitely not bacterial no signs of infection at all. and i really dont think its the filter its very light its one of those eclipse 5 hex tanks. i did a water change and ill do 1 if hes still here tommorow to. hes also not looking good now i dont think ill have him tommorow :'(

 

[rich311k]

That is how my old one went. He lost his fins over several months though. He spent most of his time resting on the bottom as well.

 

[saram521]

You can't see all bacterial infections. Something else that could have caused a tear in your betta's fin is your bridg snails munching on it. I recently had a fish laying on the bottom of the tank, nearing the end of its life, and a bridg snail came wondering upon it. Most likely thinking it was dead, the snail started "chewing" on the fish's tail until the fish got enough strength to move away. I removed the fish so it could die (somewhat) peacfully. If your betta was laying on the bottom for a long enough amount of time, one of the snails could have thought it was dead and started rasping at the fins. What is your water change regimen?

 

[snoopy65]

I have my VT betta in a 5 gal hex as well with the filter that came with the kit. He use to wrap himself around the filter intake and his tail would get sucked up in and would be tattered and torn. I ended up covering the intake.

 

[evelyn80]

more of his tail is missing today. i sually change 40% once a week in all tanks but hes goten increased i did 1 last nite ill do 1 tonite 2