the Bettas

have not got much mention here lately. Pinkie seems well- one of the notches in his tail looks bigger than I remember- but it has the same color edge as the rest of his tail so I think this is ok and not damage.

Flash on the other hand looks miserable. Something keeps happening to him! The missing scale near his tail has begun to heal, he still has two other missing on the body. But yesterday was clamping tail fin and when I looked close at him today- he has long scratches all on the length of his body, both sides! Something is definitely injuring him in there. And there is a vertical crease on both sides of his caudal peduncle. It looks like he got himself stuck under the base of the bridge, and bent his tail trying to get free? I can't think what else it might have been. I'm going to alternately pull the plastic plant and bridge decor out, try to find the sharp/rough edge or whatever else could be hurting him.

Gave him another dose of aquarium salt. Looks like he's feeling a little better today:

Not a bad thing here, but Pinkie's Java Moss has grown so much he actually gets tangled in the strands when darting after sinking food.

I trimmed it today, and put a few little rocks on top of one clump- the thread holding to the decor surface had loosened. Tied the trimmed pieces onto a small bit of driftwood, put that in the main tank.

Don't really intend to keep it there long term, but do have plans for a second tank with Java Moss as a feature, for Flash hopefully soon. In meantime, want to grow as much of the moss as I can...
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Edited to add: changed that. Felt guilty that left the bridge in Flash's bowl so long when I'm pretty sure it's causing all the damage. I took it out. Have nothing else to give him a cave, so I tried to slope the gravel bed and put the little driftwood piece with all Flash's moss tied on it, across the lower part. The high edge of the gravel faces out, the depression inward so he can hide there.

I haven't seen him actually go under the arch of the wood piece yet, but he does shelter behind the bank of gravel, and swims up to see me when I look over edge of the fridge.