# my betta's fins?



## jb_love3 (Jul 14, 2008)

His tank is a (tetra) 5 gallon, filtered, heated (78 degrees), a couple of fake plants and a fake rock cave, pebble bottom...

I feed him 5 pellets in the morning and turn on his light (turned off in the evening after dinner)... H gets a pinch of dried blood worms every other evening (he LOVES these)...

My concern is his fins. They are clumped (on the ends - or - tips). They're not fanned out (I don't think he could if he wanted to). 
How do I fix it? Am I doing something wrong?


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## jb_love3 (Jul 14, 2008)

*more...*

We've had him for 2 wks. His upper fins were like that when we got him (not as bad though - the lower one became the same way this last wk)...


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## ErinBBC (Apr 23, 2008)

I have never heard of that....can you post a picture? Also you could try searching the internet for those symptoms, maybe this is something that happens to other long finned fish.

Your tank set up and routine sounds great so I don't think it's you. One thing though - are the plants plastic and do any of the decorations have sharp edges? Stuff that's sharp can rip fins and so maybe he had a pre-existing injury on his top fin and has managed to injure his bottom fin now. How to tell if the stuff is too sharp is to run old panythose over them and if they snag they are too sharp for a betta.


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## jb_love3 (Jul 14, 2008)

I got rid of the sharp plastic plants.... we'll see if that does anything. I had read something about fin rot... what's that? 

-sorry no picture


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

I've heard of bettas' fins growing back wrinkled. A picture would be nice though.


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## dramaqueen (Jul 7, 2008)

Fin rot can be caused by temperature fluctuations or from dirty water. The fins may seem to be getting shorter and shorter There may be a darker or reddish color to the edge of the fins and the fins may be clumped. My betta's tail looked like it went through a shredder when he had it. I treated mine with BettaFix Remedy. It worked pretty good for my fish.


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## jb_love3 (Jul 14, 2008)

thanks for all the quick responses. I'm gonna try the BettaFix, if and when I find it; hopefully tomorrow. 

one more question..

What plant should I put in with him? What plant is the one that helps with the ammonia and nitrate levels?

*update* He is swimming around and went NUTS when I fed him bis bloodworms (downside- he seems to be snubbing his pellets (holding out for the worms)... and he's even playing with my 2 yr. old son again. Rocky (betta) follows my son back and forth... and it's like he'll hide and swim out at him (probably "attacking" him)... My son cackles and cackles... I hope he turns out ok, he's a real part of the family already...

and I have 2 cats.. one doesn't care about him: the other finds him highly interesting (follows him too) - he can't eat him or attack him- don't worry...


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## ErinBBC (Apr 23, 2008)

If you don't want to deal with the upkeep of a live plant, like making a substrate layer that it will grow in and providing it with nutrients, you could just use silk plants. That's what I do - you shouldn't have any problems with ammonia as long as you practice good tank care which you already do.


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