How to help Betta fins grow faster?

[JNorjack]

Hello, 

I was posting on here in hopes of helping my Betta get back to his former glory a bit faster than he seemingly is...

First up I will give a bit of back story;

Myself and my partner decided we wanted to get a fish tank summer 2021, after a month or so of research we bought a 105L tank and heater/filter etc. And begun a fishless cycle. When water parameters were ready we begun slowly adding fish, a male Betta was our last edition as we had of course read about them being territorial. Things seemed fine at first but in just one month our Betta went from being the top left picture to the 2nd picture in the top row. He was not at all agressive and wouldn't even try to compete with the rummynose tetra we had who ended up taking control and bullying/fin nipping him. We rehomed the rummynose and separated off about 1/4 of the tank which is now his private bachelor pad. It's been about 3 months between the bottom left picture and the bottom right picture but his progress seems to have stalled. There is 6 weeks between the middle bottom picture and the right bottom picture and we can't see much difference 😔

Any tips to help him are greatly appreciated! 

[Guppysnail]

In my experience with betta Indian almond leaves do wonders. The tannins comfort them as well as have anti fungal anti bacterial properties. I used several leaves to get the water a nice brown tea color. Best wishes to your little one. Welcome to the forum. 

Edited January 29, 2022 by Guppysnail

[Flumpweesel]

Looks like he's healing really well unfortunately fins take much longer to heal and grow back than they do to waste off. Good food and clean water (which look to be exactly what you are doing) and he'll get back to his old self. 

Great to see his colour come back. Personally I wouldn't risk any meds or treatments that could stress him again when he's clearly improving. Fins are very delicate when they are regrowing so it can be a slow process

[xXInkedPhoenixX]

I agree with @Guppysnail find yourself some Almond Leaf aka Catappa

[Torrey]

There are a few things I see that you can do to help.

Fabulous that you have lots of live plants! They help you keep good water parameters. 

1. He can focus more calories on healing, and expend less calories on survival, if the water level is lowered a little bit. 

2. Until finnage is fully healed, he will benefit from warmer temps. If the aquarium isn't already between 80° F and 82° F, slowly raise the temp. It will speed up metabolism so he can consume more calories which can then be used to grow back fins.

3. Bettas need Indian Almond Leaves. The tannins specifically from IAL support their healthy immune system. 

4. Bettas need 90%+ humidity for their labyrinth organs, and 85° F air (or warmer). I bred bettas, and didn't learn about that until Gianne Souza gave her talk to the members of the Co-op. Not having sufficiently warm and humid air for their labyrinth organ increases their stress... which slows down healing.

5. For healing, for early growth, and to prime bettas to breed, they need live protein (frozen if you can't get live). They eat bugs, microfauna, and crustaceans (small shrimp) as their normal diet. They do not eat potatoes, wheat, corn, barley or any of the other binders in prepared fish foods. Exoskeletons of shrimp / crustaceans provide roughage to prevent constipation, as well as aggressively defending their territory with flaring and fast swimming. 

So bettas need enough room to exercise for a few minutes each day. 

 

His color is coming back beautifully, if you want to speed up healing IAL, temp & humidity, and diet will be your best investments for both healing and long term health. 

[JNorjack]

Thank you @Guppysnail @Flumpweesel@xXInkedPhoenixX and @Torrey for you informative replies ☺️ I will look at IAL and bump the temp up a degree. We bought him Betta Specific fish food but I can look into getting him some frozen bits alongside his special dry blend 🙂

[BAT]

I agree with @Torrey i found that increasing temp and frozen food really helped my betta with fin issues.  I also used salt - BUT i had him in a hospital tank with no plants. So that isn’t an option for you right now. If he gets worse and you have to put him in a hospital tank, i would not hesitate to start with salt therapy. He is a beauty! Good luck!

[Torrey]

On 1/29/2022 at 12:30 PM, JNorjack said:

We bought him Betta Specific fish food

Read the ingredients on your betta specific food.

I know of 5 brands that sell betta pellets, that list corn, wheat, and or potato starch, in the first 5 ingredients. I know of 2 brands that list grains and plant ingredients for the first 3 ingredients. 

If you are a Member of the YouTube channel for the Aquarium Co-op, Gianne Souza touched on identifying quality betta foods.

[Not harping, just frustrated with the industry. Ingredients are listed by weight, and most of us are never taught how to identify high quality pet foods, and very few people understand what we are reading in the ingredients. "Meal" as in fish meal, chicken meal, and beef or bison meal means they are using the weight *after* cooking. Same thing with soybean meal. So if ingredients read "Black soldier fly larvae, salmon, soybean meal" it **looks** like there is more protein coming from the black soldier fly larvae and the salmon, but actually the soybean protein is the first ingredient by *cooked* weight. 80% of the larvae weight and salmon weight is water weight, because they are using the pre-cooked weight. I teach about nutrition, a lot, for people and pets]

[JNorjack]

@Torrey oh wow right! I had a look on the Betta food and despite being manufactured by a well known brand it does contain some wheat and other ingredients that aren't just shrimp/fish (protein sources). Ill have a look at the co-op video you reccomended and get him some of the frozen stuff. Of course having the right nutrition will help him ☺️

[BAT]

I searched but can’t find the beta food video. @Torrey was it a live show? Or was it the one where she talks about breeding?