Warning about natural rocks

[aquaalex]

I put a rather large rock I found around my yard in my tank the other day. It looked nice but I was worried about the texture, worried it might shred my betta's fins.

NEVER put anything with a rough surface in your tank. Period. My guy went chasing after some food into a small spot against the wall and the tank side and absolutely shredded himself. The top of his head has almost no scales and one of his forward fins is nothing but scraps. Also he had pretty aggressive fin rot previously; not sure how he's got any chance to recover now.

Again, Avoid anything hard and even slightly rough. I was on the fence, Maybe this could clip a fin or two... Should I leave it out? I thought. It destroyed his body. I just can't imagine what would have happened if I'd gotten anything rougher.

Let me know if you've got any cures for the scales missing. Not sure if those even grow back. I just ran him through two cycles of tetracycline for the fin rot though, so I'm not sure what else he can take. I did a 100% change and took out all the stuff from the tank obviously. Never never never put rough objects in the tank.

[Compass]

Just lots of water changes. You could do 20% daily changes.

[Taurus]

Smooth river rocks are about the safest thing as long as they are quartz based.

[Cliff]

Just lots of water changes. You could do 20% daily changes.

+1 to the above

If it were me, I would do daily 50% water changes for a week or so and lower the lighting level in the tank for about 3 or 4 days (less if you have plants)

[Boundava]

I am sorry for your guy. Yeah I dunno of anything-that would help him without stressing him too much. I was looking around and everywhere I look at say they should grow back fine just keep water clean and feed good foods. It may take a while for them to come back, many sites compared the scales to "fingernails".

[talldutchie]

Rocks that look pretty can also raise water hardness which you don't necessarily want.

[DougStanley]

I agree with compass and cliff, keep your water parameters top notch.