What Does It Mean....

[MattM1124]

Ok, well I posted this a while back and most posters said that they have had a fish do that and still live for years. I was looking at this fish today and it looks like his under belly is more blue/ maybe bruised. The other glow light tetras do have a blueish tint belly but this one looks a little darker. So here's the video again of what he's doing (Click the watch in high quality under the bottom right of the video to see better) and here's the best pic I could get of his belly. Any recommendations on what this could be or medications I could try? Also do you think I should quarantine this fish?

VIDEO:
http/www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBOrurZRfI4

Pic:

thanks,
Matt

 

[waterdrop]

Hi Matt!

As you know I don't have any bright suggestions for that fish from a medical point of view or I would have suggested them earlier when you posted.

The comment I have is that many of these trops are small fish that live in schools of thousands and their selected evolutionary characteristics are more tailored to furthering the large school as a whole than perhaps ours is as large mammals. Not saying their life is worth less than ours as we are both creatures of the earth but there are characteristics of larger populations and less "species enery" spent on the individual animal that pertain to insects, small fish, etc. that mean in population genetics that one will observe a greater loss of individuals in short periods of time in these species.

I know this won't change your decision of how much to help your "cripple" who's limping around the tank but, I don't know, sometimes it helps with the thinking about it...

~~waterdrop~~
(go Steelers!)