Shredded Fins

[stucolls]

Hey guys, some of you may have seen my post re my distressed Oscar.

His side fins are totally shredded, they dont look like paddles they look like a bone fan with just the bone!!

His other fins arent great either, ive removed the convict who I think did it and done a 50% water change, my question is this, if he gets better will his fins regrow??

 

[Squidward]

Hey guys, some of you may have seen my post re my distressed Oscar.

His side fins are totally shredded, they dont look like paddles they look like a bone fan with just the bone!!

His other fins arent great either, ive removed the convict who I think did it and done a 50% water change, my question is this, if he gets better will his fins regrow??

It depends on how severe the damage is.
If the fin has been destroyed all the way to the tissue, and part of that has gone too, then probably not.
If it's just up to the tissue, then there is a good chance it will.

 

[stucolls]

How will I know the difference between tissue and not??

 

[3fsh]

Put a bunch of stress coat in with him and hope for the best. My betta has chewed his tail off completely several times (silly fish) and it's always grown back. It's definitely not as pretty, but at least he has a tail.

 

[stucolls]

right then guys.....I did a few big water changes, moved the convict out, added a load of stress coat and changed the manky gravel for some play sand, the result is that the oscar appears to be on the mend.

He know swims freely, his tattered shredded fins have started to grow back and form full fins now just with ragged edges rather than fins that were just like a bunch of twigs, he is getting his red/orange back to. He still looks ill but looks a lot better.

Here are the water stats I have just taken:

Nitrite - 0.00
Nitrate - 20-30
PH - 7.6
Ammonia - 0.25

How does that look??

 

[mislisa]

ammonia should really be 0, so another water change would be good!

 

[stucolls]

cool, I'll crack on with that, I think in all honesty I need to add a second filter, ive got a stingray at mums that just needs new inserts so I may whack that in.

 

[Tizer]

it wont help until its filtered, keep doing regular water changes. keep it below 0.25

 

[stucolls]

it is filtered? I have one filter in there already, I meant I might stick a 2nd one in as well.

 

[Tizer]

When we say filtered, we generally mean cycled, in that there is a bacterial colony in the filter able to process the ammonia and nitrite.

You have ammonia in your tank, for some reason or another, which means the bacteria in your filter cannot cope at the moment. Regular water changes will help keep the ammonia levels down and slowly your filter will mature enough to cope. meaning you only have to worry about a weekly water change to lower the nitrate levels.

Just keep an eye on the level of ammonia and water change when needed, eventually it will sort itself out and its happy days.

 

[stucolls]

I would say the ammonia is there because the filtration isnt sufficient, the gu who had the tank first had an internal fluval and an undergravel filter, I binned the undergravel so I need to put my elite stingray in there to, that should sort it out.