OK, so I went into Petco to get a battery operated air pump.... I got it! But, I also got a little, sweet, betta with really bad looking fins. I couldn't just leave him there! No one else would buy him looking like that and then what would they do with him???

Well, he stole my heart already! Right now I have him in a 1 gallon with some Betta Fix.

He is soooo tiny. Hubby thinks maybe he is a just a little baby, maybe too young to even be shipped. His body is only an inch long, his poor little tail is barely even half an inch. His dorsal fin is just a little stub, almost like someone cut it completely off, or like it was never even there. And his eyes are really shiny, its weird, is this something I should worry about?

This is the best pic we got, shows how ragged and short his fins are:


This is the album with 8 pretty good pictures in it: Album

I think I am going to call him Red. Not very creative, but when I looked at him in his little cup and said "Hi Red" he perked up a little and gave me that sweet little betta look.

He seems very happy in his 1 gallon, been exploring it in great detail. He's so sweet... I love him already.

awww Red is just to cute

I hope he gets to be okay but I am sure with your sweet heart Red will

Can't look at the pics though, asked for a password.

Isn't he the sweetest?

OK, I will just post links to all the pics....

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00107.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00104.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00103.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00080.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00079.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00073.jpg

http://i22.photobucket.com/albums/b314/lit...ed/DSC00072.jpg

Does anyone know how to link to an album in Photobucket??

Oh he looks like Orchard!!!! !

Good luck with the little guy! He looks like he's in pretty bad shape, and his fin rot might be bacterial, so make sure you have some meds like the maracyns or sulfa on hand. Poor little Red

The little guy has stolen my heart too!

wow, what a huge heart you have!! i hope he pulls through ok!

Aww...poor guy Kudos to you for giving him a chance to live a good life Hope all goes well with the treatment

Good idea Kissy... I do have some Maracyn on hand.... how will I know if I need to use it?

Thanks guys, I hope I did the right thing. I'm attached to him already. Hubby said "you can't get him if you are just going to get yourself all upset" I said "Upset? Who's gonna get upset? Me? Not me?" LOL....

Congrats on the new beta. Too bad every ragged looking Beta can't find someone like you.

awwww good for you hun, if anyone can pull this little buddy through and perk him up it will be you keep us posted how he does.

Did you get the pump?

LOL! Yep, got the pump! I blame this whole thing on you Jayde - you're the reason I went to the pet store in the first place!

Now I absolutely can NOT even GLANCE at any more fish.... I'm still trying to figure out a good location for the poor guy... He just looks so little in that 1 gallon tank!!

LOL sure sure blame the cute canadian chick, I see how it is

It's ok I will take the blame, he is a beauty.

You will find somewhere for him and nurse him to his full potential.

Aw, poor, sweet wee little thing. I sure hope he heals up. I would try the good water for a few days and if you don't see the fins disintegrating anymore, I would just keep up the good water and see if they will heal without medication. Sometimes adding medication can aggravate the problem.

How does he look this morning?

I just bought a lionhead on Wednesday evening that was a sick little fish, too. He is now recuperating at my house and is doing well, thank goodness

Fingers and fins crossed for a good recovery for both of our patients.

arrrh what a sweety, do there be a name yet?
fins crossed for him getting better soooon

awww......what a sweetheart!

Good for you - I'm glad you took him home.

so you saying i'm not creative? i've got a betta named red your red is a cutie, i hope he recovers. i have one i bought in bad shape too and he still doesn't get better, but i hope yours does.

Actually, looks like a bit of new growth on the tail already. It should come back a bit transparent and then colour up later.

When you say his eyes are shiny, do you mean reflective? Sometimes a metallic sheen carries on to the eyes, and perhaps it will come back to the body when he's feeling better. Also... he may not be a veiltail... he could be a crowntail or a delta or anything. It will be a surprise to see what grows back.

Good for you! He'll look gorgoues in a few months. Good luck.

One of his eyes has a metallic sort of bit to it - almost like a tiny sequin. I haven't seen it on the other eye though.

He is really moving around and perking up. He seems to get tired very quickly though - he'll swim to the bottom of the tank then zip up and try to go back down and get "stuck" somewhere half way then just drift back up.

Hubby is so cute with him - he comes shouting at me "I think he's trying to make a nest! He likes us! He's making a nest!" I go over, no hun, he is just BREATHING. LOL... Silly man.... and he says *I* am over-emotional.....

Well, our first partial water change didn't go well... Red is really pi**ed at me right now.... he hasn't moved in a while.... *sigh* I hope he gets over it.... we are going to have to change water again tomorrow.

I hope red gets better with waterchanges Make sure the temp between the two waters is the same. Try aging the new water overnight if you haven't already, maybe he'll deal with it better.

I agree with the above poster. I find that if I age the water at least 24 hours, my bettas deal much better with the water changes .

Yeah, it was aged water.... and temp matched, I think I may have added it in too quickly. I think he was also a little tired of the tank light being on. Seems like he can only deal with the light for 2 hours or so.

Red is a dollbaby! I hope he pulls out of the finrot alright. About the water changes and the light and stuff. It sounds like to me he's just in shock from being in such bad conditions to being in such good conditions. I'd just give him a while to mentally and phsyically adjust. I don't know why but bettas seem to be the moodiest little fish. My betta pouts after I vaccum his gravel ! Keep us posted on the little guy!

You haven't seen Kaiba yet. O_oWhen I pick up his tank, he practically panics and swims everywhere. One time, when he was in the net, he tricked me into thinking he had jumped out of the net, so I was like, 'Where's Kaiba?!?!?! NOOOO!!' but he was actually lying very still in the net. :|

He gets pi**y at me after I clean his tank out unless I feed him, so I always give him a tiny reward... not a bribe, honest! Give him a treat after cleaning him out.

at the "bubble nest".

Yes the metallic pattern can be different in each eye. You've got to keep him alive so that we can see his metallic sheen come thru, he could become a very interesting colour.

This is my red betta with freaky metallic eyes, altho you can't really see it in this photo, but my camera was stolen so it's the best I have. His metallic sheen is lavender but I've another red with white metallic between the rays and a red female with green metallic... I have a few bettas... they're addictive.

Your betta will be tired because his muscles will have wasted away in a betta jar, but now he can move around he'll get stronger. Eventually you can get him flaring to a mirror or another fish and his fins will become much fuller with all the stretching.

If the water changes upset him, consider getting some airline tubing and syphoning half the water out every two days. You can syphon clean water back in, but you'll have to put another heater in the bucket to get it up to a similar temperature, and don't forget your chlorine/chloramine remover. Chloramine won't break down over 24 hours like chlorine does. You have to break the bond between the Chlorine and Ammonia to allow it to dissipate and that requires adding the water treater.

Wow, yabbie... yours has the same speckled looking face as Red! He's gorgeous, I hope Red grows up to look like that!

He spends a lot of time nosing around in the gravel, which is odd for a betta, no? I think its b/c the pet store had a small amount of gravel in his cup.

I've been noticing that the edges of his gill covers look a little ragged, I'm hoping the betta fix will stop that. I'm really hoping that I can avoid treating him with antibiotics, I don't know if he's strong enough for that...

Sapphire loves nosing in the gravel. I think it's because of the air bubbles, because he loves watching them float to the surface. He sneaks up on them like he's a predator.

Or it might be because they're (Sapphire and Red) not used to the gravel. Sapphire had gravel in his tiny tank (I swear it's 1/10 of a gallon. O_o) but not enough room to nose it or something, and it's a different colour. He had pink gravel, now it's red.

Orchard noses around the bottom sometimes..I don't even have gravel! :rolleyes I hope Red pulls thru, he seems pretty fragile.

Congrats on your new Betta.He's very pretty.How's he doing today?

Thanks Devs! Yeah, I think he's really fragile. I've been watching him like a hawk. I think he'll pull through though, I just have to remember to be extra gentle with him. He's learned that when I open the top of the tank that means I am putting food in. He so gently swims up and pulls the little food into his mouth, its so cute. My other monster races up, jumps around and inhales the food and then begs for more!

When I left this morning he was doing fine. I didn't put his light on though, I don't think he can handle it for the whole time that I am gone, so I will turn it on for a couple of hours when I get home tonight. He's so sweet.

Hubby is all excited that he might be a crowntail - he thinks its really likely b/c they had about 10 of them there that night. Are crown tails usually smaller than veil tails?

EDIT: wow, I wrote a lot... so much to say about such a tiny little fish!

Well, we've mastered water changes.... But, I noticed something else that kinda bothers me - I saw him yawn once yesterday and then once today right after I put him back in his tank. Is this something to worry about?

No, an occasional yawn is nothing to worry about

congrats on the new betta. hope he get better soon

He yawned twice last night.... Hubby said the water change must have knocked him for a loop. Ugh, I worry too much about that little guy....

Thanks tinkerbell! I hope so too! I'm too attached already and I've only had him for a week!!