Help! My Black Ghost Knife Fish Has Serrated Anal Fin..

[youdirtyfox]

Hi,
My 8month old BGKFishes long anal fin looks like it has started splitting creating more of a frayed edge than smooth edge
like normal.

Water parameters are fine, im not sure if it's :

Fin rot?
cutting himself on some of our plastic plants?( although he has lived in one plant fine for 8months so far)
or him having a tussle with the new addition, a featherfin catfish?

He still seems fine swimming around and eating, but im a little concerned.

Thanks
sam.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

That has happened to mine and it's a result of stress. What other fish are in the tank? Water parameters exactly? Tank size? It probably isn't cutting himself on the plant unless you notice cut marks on its body.

 

[youdirtyfox]

will do another test tonight and post up stats, i do 25% water change every 2 weeks
but tank size is 89g
tankmates: 1 x 7" Oscar , 3x 7" redtailed tinfoil barbs, 1 x 4" featherfin cat (new addition) and 2 x 2" golden gourami.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Are there visible bite marks on it? Or just the shredding fin? It could be the oscar pushing it around or maybe the featherfin. I've never kept one though so I can't comment too much on this. I've heard that they sometimes attack slow moving fish and I think they are mostly nocturnal which your bgk is too. But I've never kept any so I don't really know for sure.

EDIT: Is that US gallons or UK?

 

[youdirtyfox]

sorry it 86 UK gallons. not 89
No visible bite marks just shredded fins really.

amonia 0
nitrite 0.50 < .25 up from a test a few days back!
nitrate 80



BGKF and oscar have got on really so far, so fingers do point towards the cat?!

Thanks for the help so far.

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Your nitrite really needs to be 0. The nitrates should be lower too with sensitive fish like a bgk. I keep my nitrates below 20 or so in my 80g with a bgk. My guess is it's the water quality. Fix this and see if the bgk gets better. Maybe try and do 50% a week. That's what I do. If that doesn't fix it, I would try and watch at night for aggression toward the bgk from the featherfin if you are sure the bgk is fine with the oscar.

 

[Jeff Lange]

a while back mine had a cut through one of its pectoral fins, I was real worried and I think it was when I had a albino shark in with it. The albino shark always chased it around. Got rid of the Albino shark and a week or 2 later it was fine and rehealed. I'm not saying you have a bully in your tank but I would also look at that being a possible cause if your water parameters are fine.

 

[youdirtyfox]

yeah I witnessed a few tussles between knifey and the cat last night, although knifey was holding his
own it's not really fair seeing as he is blind
Im going to ring lfs today and see if they will take the cat back!

Thanks everyone

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Ok sounds good. Be sure to fix the water quality too.

 

[Jeff Lange]

yeah I witnessed a few tussles between knifey and the cat last night, although knifey was holding his
own it's not really fair seeing as he is blind
Im going to ring lfs today and see if they will take the cat back!

Thanks everyone

I'm not sure if they are blind as I really think mine can see. He seems to notice me through the glass when i peer into his stump although his sight may be very limited he definatly can see me

 

[Mr._Fishy]

I'm fairly sure they're completely blind although I'm not 100%. Just looking at its eye I would be very surprised if it could see. I know they can "see" through electromagnetic fields, however I believe that is only effective within a short distance of the fish.

nmonks would be able to answer this for sure I bet.

 

[youdirtyfox]

Looking right into his eyes they are completely black, almost ghostly and haunted..quite freaky man
other senses as you say make up for it i guess.

Welll cats gone back to pets at home , the manager was shocked at how big he'd grown within 3 months! (must of been 3/4"
when we got him and he was 4 1/2")

Im working on the water quality tonight, so will do a test in minute.

one question though, will his fins recover ever do you think?

 

[youdirtyfox]

0 ammonia
0 nitrite
80 nitrate > my tap water tests high, im going to have to have a look at removing nitrates
me thinks!

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Yep, fix the problems and his fins should fix themselves within a week or so ime. 80 nitrate is pretty high, definitely get that down. What does your tap test at?

 

[Jeff Lange]

Like I said , quite a while back now I had an albino shark and my BGK in together. I'm sure the Albino was the problem but he/she had gotten a split pectoral fin. Boy I was worried and got rid of the Albino.
Within a week or two the Pectoral fin was fine, never would have know it was torn. Im agree, fix the problem and it should heal just fine.
Your Nitrate seems very high at 80 ppm. Youi should try to get it down to like 10-20. Do you have a overstock problem or could you be feeding too much?