Betta shredded tail & plant?

It looks exactly like betta tail biting to me. Some bettas do it and some never do it.

twentypoundtabby said:

It looks exactly like betta tail biting to me. Some bettas do it and some never do it.

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Why would they do that, he can see his reflection on the back of the tank when the room light is on, but the desk lamp is off and will flare at his reflection. Does he think he's attacking another betta?

I don't know exactly why some do it, but I've seen it. I have one betta that sees himself in the reflection of the aquarium glass. He gets himself in a corner where he can see two bettas, then turns circles and bites his tail. We've changed his environment from busy 2.5 gallon to bare 2.5 gallon to planted 20 gallon to unlighted back to lighted to see if it was environmental, all with the same result. We've had some success with putting strips of aquarium background in all the corners to cut down on the reflection.
Another betta shredded his tail when we went on vacation for five days and he didn't get fed. He's been fine since.
All my other bettas don't do it at all!

They do get better with age - I think the hormones taper off as they get older and they don't get quite as worked up.

If he is flaring at his reflection all the time, he can move his tail around so much that it just shreds from the resistance of the water. My betta did this all the time when he was younger. When he got older and less active, his tail shredded less often.