# Cutting Betta fins



## Setsuna (Sep 5, 2012)

Okay so i read somewhere that people cut their betta's fins to improve with finnage and breeding. have any of you guys heard of this before? i personally think this is stupid as crap Leave your creative and interesting comment below i want to know wat are your thoughts

http://phbetta.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=100d&action=display&thread=1348


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## LittleBettaFish (Oct 2, 2010)

I know the woman who imports bettas from AB and Thailand breeders into Australia trims the fins back of fish that have damaged them in shipping. I think it's to help them grow back more evenly as these are usually quite high quality fish. 

Also seen people trim the fins of fish with very bad fin rot. 

I don't like when people trim to help the fish during spawning. That to me sounds like a fish that shouldn't be spawned. We should not be breeding for such weak bodied fish or heavy finnage that it impairs the fish's ability to move about freely. 

Then again I think bettas are their most beautiful in their true natural form so I am probably slightly biased.

The fish in my display picture is IMO one of the most stunning examples of a betta that exists today.


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## Viva (Oct 18, 2012)

I've never seen a Betta's fins being trimmed but I have seen a few videos on youtube of people trimming their Arowana's tails. Like this one.


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## homegrown terror (Aug 6, 2012)

i've heard of people doing cosmetic cuttings on betta fins to achieve different shapes, and the concept never ceases to piss me off.


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## majesticstorm (Dec 8, 2012)

I think that it's horrendous. I mean, wouldn't it hurt? Even it it doesn't hurt the fish, could the places that were cut get infected?


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Actually they do not feel it in their fins up to a point. I have had to do this, with a bad case of a strong strain of columnar is striking at only the fins (at least I think it was columnaris, it disintegrated fins and was a darker colored clump than their finnage). If you use clove oil to get them to sleep, they don't move, and you can do the procedure keeping well clear of the body. It's like a horse's tail... The bone is not the entire tail. You avoid the bone, you avoid pain.

I kept the water immaculately clean for the females undergoing this, and their fins healed within days and the infection was killed off.

I have also tried it with the disease striking the blue males (all from the same store here), with the last fella, though it was too close to the body to get it all.


For show, I think it is silly. Try breeding, and aim for perfection. Don't mutate.

All in all: cosmetic = no. To save a fish: YES. In case of fin rot, no, clean water is the key. In some rescue cases I have come across (mystery orange that spread to another female that was a mystery blue infection on fins, as mentioned above) I will do it, but for the sake of the fish.


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## Myates (Aug 2, 2011)

I agree with Sena - under certain circumstances where treatment isn't working then trimming is something I wouldn't mind being done. But as far as cosmetics for show, to me that is pretty much cheating.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

Cheating is for losers ;-)


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## Kim (Apr 30, 2008)

The ONLY reason I would ever trim would be to save a fish from some illness. I also find it hard to believe that they have no pain receptors in their fins - if you think about it, the reason people and animals feel pain is that because from an evolutionary standpoint, it is an advantage. An animal with a decreased or absent pain response would be much more likely to engage in behavior that could cause injury, and if injured, would be much more likely to die of wounds (pain tells animals that they need to rest and recuperate). Thus, as a fish's fins are its sole manner of locomotion, it seems that having no pain receptors within them would be a major disadvantage.


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## Sena Hansler (Aug 24, 2011)

> It's like a horse's tail... The bone is *not the entire tail*. You avoid the bone, you avoid pain.





> Actually they do not feel it in their fins *up to a point*.



Again, like I mentioned it would be probably close to a horse's tail - doesn't mean it is absolute. I will say though you cannot cut a good centimetre or so close to the body as it does cause bleeding (last blue fella with the disease, I couldn't get it all because he did bleed slightly from cutting too close which then I stopped). Hence the idea of using clove oil - like putting a human under for surgery. Plus they would wiggle way too much outside of water (or half in water as is my method)


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