Guppy Tail Emergency!!

[matthew12098]

I was mid way through a water change when my curious Male Fancy Guppy decided to see what was inside the tip of the siphon - he ended up getting sucked back in so I immediately stopped the siphon and he got out safely, but not unscaved. Sadly about half of his tail was ripped off . Will it heal/grow back over time? If so is there anything that I should do to help him and make sure that he is ok during the process? His only tank mates are 2 female guppies, the tank is heavily planted and big enough so he can hide from the females if they harrass him.

My water parameters are:

pH: 7
Ammonia: 0 ppm
Nitrite: 0 ppm
Nitrate: 10 ppm

He is currently hiding in the plants but I will attach a photo as soon as he comes out.
Please let me know of anything I can do.

 

[Barry Tetra]

Just keep the water clean, the tails will grow back in a couple of weeks.

 

[Colin_T]

Like Barry said keep the tank and water clean by doing a big daily water change and gravel cleaning the substrate every day for a week or two. And add some salt.

You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt to the aquarium at the dose rate of 2 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate will not affect plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.