ate up betta

Question

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Followup To

Question -
I recently added a ropefish to a tank that included a betta. I did'nt think the ropefish would bother with someone that was larger than his mouth. Today I noticed that my betta's fins were way ate up. I moved him to another tank but my question is will his fins grow back. They are about 50% gone. Should I treat him with anything? I thought about some melafix. I just want him to feel better. I feel like a bad, bad fish mommy. Thank you for your time, Sandy.

Answer -
Hello Sandy-

A dosage of aquarium salt and Melafix should fix your little guy up in a month or two. I had the same thing happen with one of my bettas and a dinosaur bichir, and he's still alive today and all his fins have grown back fully.

Good luck with treating your little one!
-Amber Worman

Hi Amber,
Thank you for your response. It seems that I have another problem though. I don't think these two things can possibly be related but I came home from work today to find my black moore nothing more than a swimming body. All his fins and one eye were completely eaten away. It was horrible. He was perfectly fine this morning. He has lived peacefully in my 85 gal goldfish tank with two small koi, one large comet, two orandas and one fantail for almost a year now. This is a
completely different tank from the betta incident. The only thing that has changed in this tank is that I brought home two small fantails yesterday and put them in the goldfish tank. They are about half the size that my moore was and are acting like normal little goldfish. I can't imagine any of the fish in this tank doing this to this moore. As I said, they have been living peacefully together for many months. This was a big moore. The only fish bigger than him was the black koi and the comet. Everyone else was his size or smaller. Any insight you might have would be very much appreciated. I never want to come home to anything like this again. I think I'm in a little shock. I was very, very fond of my moore.
         Thank you very much, Sandy.

Answer
Hello Sandy-

Most people don't know this, but comets and koi are notorious for killing moores. :(
Fish with V shaped tails (i.e. comets, koi, shubunkin) are very different from fantails (I call them Y-tails.) Fantails are calm and non-violent, whereas V tailed fish will kill and de-fin anything that strikes their fancy, especially if it's swimming slowly or resting at the top.
I can almost say with 100% certainty that the fantails did nothing to your moore. In fact, fantails and moores are usually the best two fish to put together.

If possible, put up a net/screen/mesh divider for your tank, or the V-tails may further attack the Y-tails.

I am very sorry for your loss. :( Moores are great fish.
Hope this is useful for you,
Amber Worman