I've been taking care of betta fish for 5 years. I've been noticing that when I first buy my fish, their tail fins are curved in a C when they fan their tails out. But after a while of owning them, about 5 months, I noticed their tail gets ragged. I don't think it is fin rot, because their tail coloring does not change. However, the color of the scales on their bodies do fade a bit. Out of the 7 fish I have/had, only 3 of them had this problem, but I haven't found a way to fix it. I change the water once a week. (I keep them in a large bowl.) I feed them regularly. I keep the betta fish apart from each other with a book, so they do not see each other. I keep a indoor bamboo plant with them in the same bowl, and there is also plastic sand, marbles, smooth pebbles, and some plastic shell ornaments in the bowl as well. I has a suspicion that the plastic shell ornaments were the problem, so I kept one of my ragged betta fish in a bowl with nothing in it, just water. After 2 weeks, I saw no improvements. The tail fins and the lower fins (near it's tummy) are raggged. It's almost as if the fish wore them down. The rips are not as big like the pictures of fin rot I have seen, but I may be wrong. It's not a split either. Only the ends of the tail seem to be in trouble. Can you offer advice, tips, or what is wrong with my betta fish? And cures as well? Cookie, Narcissus, Wan-Wan, Aikihiko, and Ese all thank you. I thank you too! (I hope I got all the details down.)