# H. Rasbora had caudal fin bit off (pics) HELP!



## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

Well I came home and found one of my rasboras lagging behind the usual 7 rasbora shoal. I think my angelfish finally managed to catch one on its occasional 'chase the prey fish' exercises. 

The rasbora is now staying with the shoal, but I can't help but feel the outcome of not putting him down when I get home = infection for the injured rasbora, infection for the tank, algae outbreak for the tank, or snack for angelfish...

Is there any hope for the little guy? Or is it time to euthanize him once I get back from class tonight?

Pictures:


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## HockiumGuru (May 2, 2008)

easy solution = bite off the tail of the angel! Bet he won't do any nipping then! 

teach em to mess with Harlequins. I love those rasboras.

seriously, i don't have an answer. Maybe move the angel to another tank?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

I have had their tails grow back. You have to watch out for 2ndry infections. I think the Angelfish needs to be in a different neighborhood!


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## ranchwest (Jul 17, 2005)

What size tank do you have?


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## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

I have a 29G, fairly heavily planted with vals and crypts, pressurized CO2, eheim canister T5 lighting...

While the Angelfish occasionally lunges at the rasboras, she always leaves the corys and my otos alone. The tank has been in the same basic configuration for more than 14 months. 

This is the first incident where the fish wasn't fast enough. 

I didn't put him down tonight, I thought I'd give the rasbora some more time, it seems to swim just fine. If I don't look at the tails, I can't tell which out of the shoal is the injured fish.


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## BruceWatts (Mar 1, 2008)

Since the damage does not go into the fishes body the caudal fin will probably grow back. Keep an eye out for infection though.

Angelfish are cichlids and they should really be named devilfish as far as I'm concerned. It may be time for a new tank for the angel or a new home.

Don't put your rasbora down it will most likely fully recover.

Bruce


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## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

Thanks for the advice everybody...

Assuming a secondary infection sets in, what's the method of treatment?


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## Tex Gal (Nov 1, 2007)

longhornxtreme said:


> Thanks for the advice everybody...
> 
> Assuming a secondary infection sets in, what's the method of treatment?


Mardel makes some excellent antibiotic products. I always rely on them.


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## BryceM (Nov 6, 2005)

Just a cautionary note. Fish medications are rumored to sometimes work, but IME they're almost always more trouble than it's worth. Sick fish should be treated in a hospital tank, which means adding the stress of a couple of moves. The medication will almost certainly cost more than the value of the fish and you probaly don't have more than a 20 or 30% chance of it actually helping.

I dunno, I've spent a lot of money on fish meds over the years and, except for certain ich treatments, it never seemed to make much difference.

On a positive note, I have seen some pretty amazing fin regrowth before. You'll just have to wait and see.


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## longhornxtreme (Feb 20, 2007)

I was wondering how effective antibiotics for a fish tank would work. If it's broad enough spectrum, wouldn't it just harm the bio filter? Seems like you'd want to feed the affected fish some sort of antibiotic infused flake food, meh... I have an empty 10G, heater, and filter I could turn into a hospital tank if needed. Still, my microbiology degree is screaming, "nope, won't work." 

Thanks for the perspective Guaiac (and I LOVE your 180G tank; I hopefully want to manage something similar to your plumbing masterpiece when I'm finished bleeding law school tuition). How do the infections usually present themselves? I know what to look for on a human, dog, or cat, but it's kind of hard to see inflammation or macules , papules etc. on a scaled red fish. The margins of the tail wound still have some brilliant red on them, I'm guessing it's hemo, but the little guy hardly holds still.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

I was going to say about the same thing as guaiac_boy about the meds.
They are usually more stressful to the fish than the actual problem, so if you keep the water clean and remove the culprit, I'm sure it will recover with no problems.

As stated, Angels can live up to their name for a long time :angel:, then they can suddenly turn into tank terrors, so if you have the means to either move it to another tank, or set up a new one for it, that would be the best.


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## thefishmanlives (Feb 15, 2008)

An angel will eventually out grow that tank as they get big. Maybe time to find a new tank for him or trade him in or something. I would move that fish to another tank/bowl for the time being.


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