Welcome to Gaia! ::

Hi guys. I'm never really around much, but I had to get out this fishy frustration.

My two beautiful HMRT betta boys' fins look like utter crap right now. Radeon got hit with fin rot (Lord knows how), so that's not his fault. The little blue b*****d, though, Corsair... He's another matter.

I think I have a stress or boredom biter on my hands. He's been ripping off his own a**l fin steadily over the past few nights, after ripping two/three rays from his caudal, and I can't stop him. He's doing it at night when I'm not in the room to catch him. All that's left of the "skirt" on this fish is a few rays between his pelvic fins and a few just under his caudal.

Thankfully I don't have to worry much about infection, since I've been treating them both for it. I had first assumed that Corsair got hit with fin rot, too, but then I caught him with his mouth full of his own fin. Little emo b*****d probably just hit the equivalent of fish puberty, too...

Have y'all ever had a boredom or stress biter?
What did you do to curb the self-mutilation?
For boredom, any ideas for toys or something else to give him something to do?
Is there anything to be done to speed the healing process? (I doubt it, but asking anyway.)

Oohh.... Yikes. >< Best of luck with him! Fin rot sucks.

Are we talking like, barely any fin left before the rot hits the body-bad? D;

I do have good news on my boys, though, at least. It's probably because Corsair can't reach it, but they both have new growth now. It's almost too much to wish that the tinting of the water made him stop (my tank looks like it's full of tea, damn medication).