Who Gives A Fish Forums

I'm having some issues with both my tanks lately, and I could really use some advice on my betta, Lava. When I first brought him home, he had a bit of fin rot, but it cleared up on its own thanks to good water quality and a decent tank size. Then I noticed this small split in his fin - it seemed to be healing, so I just kept an eye on it. Fast forward, and the split is now bigger, about a third of the length of his fin. His fin edges have grown back, but they look a bit split and tattered, with a couple tiny bits missing.

I'm having a hard time getting good pics of him, since he's super active. I think he might be tearing his fins, though - the light reflections in the tank get him all excited, and he chases them around. He doesn't fully flare out, though (never pushes out his sprig), so I'm not sure what's going on. I'm also not sure if it's fin rot - I've got pics below.

He's in a 5-gallon cycled tank with a sponge filter and live plants. Water temp is at 78F. I feed him a mix of Hikari betta pellets and New Life Spectrum pellets - 3 in the morning, 3 at night, and once a week I only give him 3 a day.

My parameters are: 7 pH, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 10-20 ppm of nitrate (a bit high - I skipped a water change over the weekend, but I'm doing one now). He's tankmates with one little ramshorn snail.

Your betta looks great, and I'm not too concerned about fin rot at this point. The water quality seems excellent, which is a big plus. I'm wondering, though, if there's anything in the tank with sharp edges that could be causing the fin damage. Maybe check the plants or decorations to see if anything could be rubbing against him. I wouldn't stress too much about it yet, just keep a close eye on it and see if it gets worse.

Lovely setup you've got there, floriza - that betta's a real stunner, and the tank's looking great, too. I'm with burglar_4, though, he does seem pretty healthy overall. That temperature's spot on, 27 °C is perfect for a betta.