Who is nipping my betta's fins?

About a week ago I put a betta into my 20 gallon comunity tank. Then, I
started noticing that then end of his tail is shredded. Now, most of
his fins are shorter than normal, and he has a few missing scales on
his side.

What is puzzling, is that I have never seen any fish bite him. The tank
is heavily planted with the following occupants: platies, harlequin
rasboras, rummy nose tetras, neon + cardinal tetras, aftican dwarf
frog, mystery snails.

So who do you think is nipping the betta's fins? My best guess are the
platies. I have only females. I've seen the betta chase them around,
but with no visible damage to the platies. Any other ideas? Is there
any hope of keeping a betta in this tank?

The only other option right now is to put the betta into a floating
breeding trap (that's what I am going to do after I finish writing).
Recently I got rid of my other tanks, leaving only one. I just don't
have the time to maintain them right now.

Thanks.
Jan

You can see the tank at:

"Jan" wrote in message
oups.com...
About a week ago I put a betta into my 20 gallon comunity tank. Then, I
started noticing that then end of his tail is shredded. Now, most of
his fins are shorter than normal, and he has a few missing scales on
his side.

What is puzzling, is that I have never seen any fish bite him. The tank
is heavily planted with the following occupants: platies, harlequin
rasboras, rummy nose tetras, neon + cardinal tetras, aftican dwarf
frog, mystery snails.

So who do you think is nipping the betta's fins? My best guess are the
platies. I have only females. I've seen the betta chase them around,
but with no visible damage to the platies. Any other ideas? Is there
any hope of keeping a betta in this tank?

I've never been successful in keeping bettas in with other fish. Either
something nipped the bettas fins as in your case, or the bettas nipped the
other fish's fins. All my bettas live alone but where they can see other
bettas.

The only other option right now is to put the betta into a floating
breeding trap (that's what I am going to do after I finish writing).
Recently I got rid of my other tanks, leaving only one. I just don't
have the time to maintain them right now.

Then use the breeding trap or perhaps find the betta a new home.


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Aquariums since 1952
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Our Betta had the same problem. He was getting shredded in both the 75
and the 10 gal tanks. The 10 gal had only a couple of black neon
tetras and a CAE that the betta got along fine with by himself. We had
a 1 gal fish bowl that I paid a couple of bucks for a few years ago
(had this naieve notion of actually keeping a goldfish). I put the
betta in it, along with a cheap little heater from Wal-mart. He lives
in the bathroom alone, and I do a water change every couple of weeks
while I wait for the kids to take their baths. He has been there for
close to a month, and he seems very happy even though he has no other
fish interaction.

Good luck