# Scales and Fins, Will they grow back?



## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Hopefully I'm posting this in the right place.
Anyway, I have a male Half Moon Betta. When I bought him a couple of weeks ago he had some missing scales on the top of his head and throughout his body in random spots. He also has a few slices/rips in his Caudal and Anal fins.  I'm not sure how he got these and I don't care, I just want them to heal. So my question is, How long will his scales and fins take to grow back, if at all? He eats great, about 4-5 pellets a day, and has room to swim [5 gallon]. He doesn't seem stressed, and is active [mostly at night], so it doesn't seem to be getting him down too much. I was just curious because I'd like to see him fully healed. :hmm:​ 
This is the best photo I could get of him. Of course you can't see his fins, but you can see the severity of the missing scales on his head/body.
Thanks!​


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## LouiMon (Feb 21, 2013)

My Betta lost a pretty big chunk of his fin and within about 2 months you can't even tell it happened... I don't know if scales grow back, though.


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

That's good to know that the fins do grow back, especially within a short amount of time. I was thinking it'd take idk, maybe a year? haha. Hopefully scales do too. Thanks =]


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## Kiara1125 (Feb 1, 2011)

Scales grow back. Two of my males jumped over a divider and got into a fight. Chunks of flesh and fin were missing and after treating them with double the dose of API Stress Coat and API Aquarium Salt they healed within a week. The scales grew back and there's no scar tissue. Your male will heal slower, but he should be ok. You can get both products that I mentioned at Walmart for about $6 in total. Pretty cheap. Also, can you possibly repost the picture? It's not showing up for me.


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Ohh good. That's mostly what I was worried about, was his scales. His poor head looks terrible. =/ It almost looks like he was put in with another male, and he lost the fight. I'm not too sure what happened, maybe Petsmart takes really poor care of their Bettas. Anyway, I'll look for those at Walmart next time. Thanks! I really didn't know they sold anything like that, but I've never had to look before this. Glad to know!
Oh, and let me try and repost the picture. I'm having a little difficulty getting the hang of the website.


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Hopefully you can see it. If not, I can try again, or you can see his pictures in my profile.


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## Kiara1125 (Feb 1, 2011)

Are you talking about how his other scales are white and his head is tan? Because, if you are, his scales aren't missing. He's a dragonscale. That means that some scales will be thicker than others. He's not a full dragonscale, so not all of his scales are thick. Look at my female blue dragonscale. See what I mean? She's a broken dragonscale, just like yours.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Yep, he's a Dragon boy for sure. Kiara gave a great example, some people breed Dragon Scaled betta's to regular betta's and it gives the broken DS look. He may fill in later in his life but I predict he'll look like that for most of his life. I did have a boy that had the "skunk" stripe of a DS, that's what it's called on the top of their head where there aren't thick scales. And over the course of two months he actually filled in his scales, so yes they can grow in but it depends on their genetics.

And yes, as far as those fins go, just use some sort of Stress Coat and keep up with water changes! For a 5 gallon while he's healing I suggest doing two changes a week just so that he won't get any fin rot or anything. Clean water also helps promote new growth! So that's always good! Also a healthy diet will promote new growth as well. If you don't already have them I really suggest Omega One and/or New Life Spectrum. Both are high quality foods and if you get a small container of them, it's going to last you what seems like forever haha.

The thing you look for in foods in the first three ingredients, that's what is in the food most. So the first three and you want to watch out for fillers. Fillers are things like wheat, corn and soybean products, those are things that your Betta can't really digest well and so thus is bad for them. You can also feed him a variety of things! He'll love that :-D I mean, you wouldn't want to eat broccoli at every single meal, right? haha, so you see variety is really good as well :-D

He's a very beautiful boy! And as always, ask any questions you've got and we'll happily answer them ;-) you can never know too much!


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Ohhh!! I see now. And here I am thinking there's something wrong with him, poor guy. Well, it's good to know that he's a healthy Betta, excluding the ripped fins =/. You have a very beautiful Betty Kiara! Love her colors. What does a full Dragonscale Betta look like? Do they just have thicker fins than the average fish or how exactly do they earn the name? I do like the look though. I figured something was wrong with him because it kind of does look as though they're missing, but now that I see one as comparison, it makes sense. I feel kind of dumb for not knowing haha.

Anyway, Thanks for letting me know about the water changes lilnaugrim, because I was wondering about that as well. I knew that clean water helped reduce the chance of infection, but didn't know it promoted new growth. That's another good thing to know. And What is a Stress Coat? 
And as far as food goes, right now he's eating TetraBetta. I've been wanting to get something better but didn't know exactly what the best kind was, so thanks for filling me in on that as well. He doesn't like Blood Worms! I thought it was kind of odd at first, but then I realized that the bottle says they're freeze dried, and I'm sure that has a lot to do with it. He MIGHT eat maybe 1 or 2 at a time, but I can tell he's not happy with them. I also bought some Baby Shrimp or Gammarus but they're wayyyy too large for him, and even chopping them into smaller pieces doesn't help because he doesn't care for them either. Until I can get another food, I'm gonna have to stick to these pellets. =\ What are the first 3 ingredients to look for? This one says Gluten, Soybean and Potato Protein. That doesn't sound very good to me, so I know it can't be good for him. Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions, and again I'm glad to know that there's nothing wrong with his scales. And of course I have tons more questions but they'll have to wait! =]


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Oh feel free to ask all the questions you want :-D that's how we learn!

Oh my, gluten, soybean and potato protein! wow...yeah that's no good, half the time I wonder how they even come up with this stuff!! Well for reference here's Omega One's first three ingredients: Whole Salmon, Halibut, and Shrimp. So you see those are all fish and since our little ones are carinvores this is perfect! NLS has these first three ingredients: Whole Antartic Krill, Whole Herring, Whole Wheat Flour, so as you can see only one out of three is a filler which is still fine. 

And as far as Stress Coat, it's a water conditioner that contains Aloe Vera, aloe does the same thing to fish as it does us; heals wounds. So it helps patch up fins and boo-boo's on your fish ^_^ and you can use that instead of using your regular water conditioner since it is one in and of itself, you can use both but it's not needed.

And for scales, Dragon Scales just have thicker scales, not fins. So here's what a "normal" Betta would be (I'm just using Plakats for reference, they can have long tails as well. Plakat is just short tailed Betta's)

Notice the blue/purple scales on his body, look nice yeah? So then they move up towards the head and seem to "disappear", that's where the scales stop, or at least the ones that are purple colored. Then you get the red "under" layer of smaller scales.

Now here's a Full Mask Dragon:

You can see that the thick white scales cover all of his head but just under his eye and mouth you can see his "under" layer of color which is a reddish-peach color. Compare how thick his scales are to the first one.

Now here is the normal DS, he's got what's called a "Skunk" stripe as many dragons do.

They still have scales in that stripe but they just aren't the thick opaque scales that color and cover their body.

Scales can grow in as well, for exampe here's my boy Aero when I first got him, notice he's got a kind of broken skunk stripe but it's definitely a stripe:


And here he is today as it starts to fill in, one day he will have a full mask, no skunk stripe at all which is normal for young Full Mask DS Betta's


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## alwaysaBettaLover (Mar 28, 2013)

Yes, scales and fins grow back. I know this from personal experience *my bettas SO clumsy!!*, but not usually the same. My Sparkey has several dark spots where scales fell off, and regrew, and fins of course grow back, but like I said, not usually the same, and it may take a while for the fins to 're COLOR.


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## Kiara1125 (Feb 1, 2011)

+1 lilninja!

Aero is looking amazing!

And thanks for the compliment on Apocalyptica! She was my first dragon scale betta.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Hehe, thanks! He's so cute, I think *hope* he's going to marble since I see a few scales that are turning green, like legit green and then some whitish scales too. Idk! We'll see!


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Ahh I meant scales, not fins haha. Got a bit confused, but yes I do see what they look like now. I noticed the scales on his head are starting to turn red now. I can barely see them, but there's a few red ones in there. He's still young so we'll see what happens. I'm just glad he's alright though lol. I'm definitely going to be getting him a different food. Thanks for filling me in on that, and what a stress coat is as well. Learning a lot! =] His fins are starting to grow back together, so that's good. 
And, Your Betta has changed a lot since you first got him. He's a beautiful boy. It looks as though he's going to form a bit of a stripe on his head. They seem to change a lot within a small amount of time, it's hard to tell. 

Alwaysabettalover- That's good to know! If he does happen to lose any, I won't freak out next time haha. His fins are starting to grow back together now. It was this stupid plastic plant I had in the aquarium with him, which of course he loved. I did take it out though because I can't have him getting tangled in it, and slicing his fins to pieces. =/ He seemed upset at first but he's alright now. 

Thanks everyone for answering my question!! I appreciate it, and learned a lot about Dragon Scales. =] I figured since the ones on his head were flesh colored they were missing, good to know. BTW, all of you have very beautiful. healthy looking fish!!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

The scales on top turning red is most likely him coloring up. When Betta's are stressed or not comfortable or something they can lose color and then when they're more content they color up!

And thank you about Aero ^_^ he is adorable :-D and that's why you take as many pictures as you can! Then you can compare and contrast through the days, weeks and months!


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

That's a good idea, I should take a picture at least once a week to show progress. If I can manage to get one of him, I'll show everyone the new scales. That's another thing I didn't know, that they lose color when stressed, or uncomfortable. :| He was probably still adjusting to his new tank. 
I had started him in a 3 gallon, which was really horrible to begin with, along a pineapple house. Well, the pineapple house turned out to have METAL in it and started rusting almost immediately. It also clouded the water with paint loss. :shake:
So, I took the tank, and the Pineapple back, and got him a filtered 5 gallon. It's taken him a while to get used to it. His colors are starting to pop now, along with the new scales, so we'll see what he looks like later on down the road. 
And yes Aero is beautiful! Are his fins that real pretty blue as well? I love the colors of the Betta in your avatar! And Kiara's too! They look way healthy. I've been searching for a yellow male of any type. Hopefully I can find one this week sometime. =] I'm addicted!


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Haha, addiction only start's with one ;-)

3 gallons isn't bad! lol all my boy's have at least 3 gallons ^_^ I've got 5.5, two 3's and the 10 is split into three giving them each 3.3 gallons ;-) But yeah, sucks about that pineapple! That one has been in and out of good reviews, Penn-plax did make it without metal but obviously some stores still have the ones with metal.

And yes Aero's fins are really that pretty blue color ^_^ And the boy in my avvie is Rembrandt aka Remmy, the rest of my Betta's are in my Betta Album on here if you wanted to see them ;-)


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

It was an okay 3 gallon tank, but it had the bubble thing in the middle which took up a lot of swim room, and I paid I think $5.00 more for it, than the 5 gallon [which didn't have the bubble tube]. Gotta love Walmart! It was the Hawkeye something or other. But he just kinda sunk to the bottom in the 3 gal. =\. I'm not sure which company made my pineapple, but the little chimney had metal in it, and some outside and bottom parts of it started to turn brown, and the paint started to chip off right away. 
He is really pretty though! He's almost like a...gunmetal blue? haha. He's different! I'll go check out the rest of your Betta's now.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

It's actually a color called Aero Blue which is partly what I named him for and then his original "arrows" that he had on his skunk stripe which are now disappearing. It's funny then because if he marbles out to what looks like will be green/white/blue then he'll lost all that I named him for XD lol that's fine though!

Yeah the Hawkeye 5 gallon is nice, I'm not super fond of the rounded edges and all but it is a nice tank for it's buck! Oh and I got you about the 3 gallon, I have the 3 gallon Cube from wal-mart which was on sale for 19 dollars so I grabbed it! But yeah, I hate those bubble things >< Don't know why they thought it'd be a good idea, doesn't even look good at least not to me. But I'm super biased towards plants and natural looking things XD


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## Lynzee (Jun 21, 2013)

Ahh, Aero Blue I haven't heard of before, and I'm an artist in my free time haha.  That's too cool though. That would be crazy if he did marble out and changed color completely, which I'm sure has happened to some. lol. Their colors develop more until they're into adulthood right? 

Yeah I don't like the Hawkeye products at all. I had the 3 gallon though which is like a cylinder with a bubble tube in the middle that they advertise as an "underground filter'. So, he has a simple, rectangular 5 gallon now and it's way better because the filter is adjustable and I love it.:greenyay: He doesn't get caught in the current and I don't worry about him being sucked up into the filter. But yes, those bubble things definitely take up tons of room and aren't much to look at, even for the fish. Natural is the way to go. If I could plant my tank, I would but I'm pretty sure they'd all die in my care since I'm constantly changing the tank around but I think I've finally got it to where I'm keeping it now. Finally! I see all these beautiful setups with live plants, stones ect and it looks just like [as I picture] they're native habitat.


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## lilnaugrim (Mar 27, 2013)

Actually I'm an Art Major and I just happened to stumble on the color two days after I bought him. It's not a pigment or anything but just one of those colors thrown around on the internet, it's similar to a light cerulean or almost a sky blue 

And for colors, well if it's not a marble, then yes colors usually start to develop around 9-ish weeks and stablize through maturity although some don't get their full colors right up to 6 months. And then Marble genes can change at any given moment, so they could be a year and a half old and still be changing colors! Which I find to be absolutely fantastic and exciting! But then sometimes it's sad to see their original colors leave, you know? You bought them as one thing, really liking it and then they just completely change on ya.

Ah yes, I like the regular rectangle ones ^_^ I've got a Top Fin 5.5 myself and love it! It's housing my two baby Betta's at the moment :-D but yes, all my tanks are planted and I love it! I'm working on my lighting systems at the moment but so far so good! Low light plants would be just fine for you if you got them, I can coach you through plants and stuff if you ever wanted to, just shoot me a PM whenever if you do! ;-)


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