I’m so broken hearted right now and crying. Please help, I hurt my beautiful boy! I am a new betta fish owner, but I tried my best to create a great environment for my fish. I bought a 10 gallon tank, tons of live plants, natural gravel, driftwood, and many hideouts. I bought Fluval Bug Bites, and frozen bloodworms and frozen brine shrimp for enrichment treats. I buy him enrichment toys like hoops and mirrors to play with him daily.
But still, I made such a horrible mistake. This morning, I got up in a bit of a sleepy state and was testing his water parameters as I do daily. I’ve been using a syringe to fill the little water testing tubes, and he came up while I wasn’t paying attention. I felt a large vibration and realized I had sucked up his fins. He won’t come to me anymore, and I’m crying because I caused him pain. Please help, what can I do from here? Will he ever recover his fins with such a large chunk ripped out? Please be kind.
https://i.redd.it/paxol884zz5g1.jpeg
Posted by maligatorkoda
5 Comments
I’ll be honest with you, you seem like a very aggressive tank mate. He could probably use some less prodding and poking and definitely less enrichment while he’s in recovery for sure.
Mistakes happen. Just remember that it’s his home and not your backyard creek to play in. He’s not a dog to teach tricks to, he’s a fish. While I do admire the tenacity to give your betta a really enriched life, sometimes you got to just let fish be fish.
Oh my gosh! This is such a freak accident! I know it’s extremely scary, but I think he will be able to recover. Fish can regrown entire fins when their water is clean and healthy. I have a gourami who somehow ripped one of his feelers off, and banged up his head (I think he was trying to fit between a rock and driftwood), but he has since almost completely regrew his feeler, and his head has no signs of injury. I have also received a panda cory who was missing his two ventral fins, and have since been regrowing new ones.
I know this was a large chunk taken off of his fins, but if you make sure his water is clean, he should be able to regrow them in a couple months. Some additives like kanaplex or paraguard may help keep the fins healthy and prevent any fin rot, but if his water is clean, there may be no need for them.
It seems like you really care about your betta, and this was a completely freak accident. He might be a little scared for a while, but he will regain his confidence and his trust for you. He might have not even lost any trust, he is just scared that he got hurt randomly, and may lay low until he feels safe. Please dont beat yourself up over this, I really think he is in a great home, and will recover fine!
Sorry for what happened, it must be heart breaking. He should be able to regrow most of the fins if the damage isn’t deep enough to the base tissues. But currently the most important thing is to prevent infection, get methylene blue bath for him (out of the current tank, short baths only) to prevent or reduce infection.
Make sure your water parameters are good too, feed nutritious food (frozen or live) to speed up recovery
Stress guard asap! Give him a couple of days on lights off. You need floaters to block off the lights. I would also recommend blacking out the back panel. He will be very weary of you for a while, so the best you can do it make him feel safe in his own.
https://preview.redd.it/tmi5jvpz406g1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=c75d9f84d32b5be3de2022b0d0eec84356722931
This is the backing I recommend
Oh my gosh. I’m so sorry this happened. I know the exact feeling. It’s so awful. But please forgive yourself. Wr all make mistakes. And sometimes they’re completely preventable which makes them feel even worse.
I have a similar story: I have a tank with African dwarf frogs and had just started hand feeding my little guy so his buddy wouldn’t eat all his food. He’d taken to swimming up the top to get the food from me. A few minutes After a feeding I went back to the tank to see my happy guy and couldn’t find him. And then the hang on back filter suddenly stopped. I unplugged it right away so the motor wouldn’t burn out and I looked through it and I saw my frog IN filter. He’d gotten sucked in through the skimmer and stopped the propellor with his tiny body. . I quickly picked it up and dumped the water into the tank hoping froggy Would get out but he looked stuck and sortof looked like his arm was gone. I finally got him scooped out. And to my surprise he was moving a little. I put a betta bed in right by the surface and he sat there for the entire day. Didn’t move unless I poked him. And in the morning he was gone! I looked all over in the tank and decided maybe he died and his tank mates ate him. And then yesterday morning I was peeking in the tank and his little face poked out from under the almond leaf and now miraculously he’s moving around like normal!
(Also I switched to a sponge filter right away. I already had it and have no clue why I was using the other one )