wounded harlequin rasbora

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libertybelle

Aquarium Advice Addict
Joined
May 6, 2011
Messages
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Location
VA
Hey guys looking for some advice on what to do with my harlequin. She's a full sized older adult with a wound on her tail that is pretty severe. There is no fuzziness or evidence of infection, but it's severe enough that her tail is at an angle and it looks pretty unpleasant. Oddly, she's eating great and doesn't seem to have any trouble swimming at all (even though she's had this wound for at least a couple weeks.)

I've increased water changes and am treating with melafix and seachem stress guard but I'm not sure if there is anything else I should do.

Back a few steps: I was out of town for about two weeks and so I suspect while the fish weren't being fed they got aggressive with each other. While I haven't had problems with leaving my tank for up to this long before, (usually the shrimp become vacation feeders :angel: ) this time I lost a dwarf gourami (literally lost, no where to be found. I would suspect it turned into a vacation feeder but there was no skeleton. Perhaps the nerites took care of it?)

Anyway, since it looks like physical damage rather than illness and I've not seen any further aggression from the other fish, I hesitate to separate her from the rest of her school. I feel like she'd probably be more stressed in a quarantine tank and it would do more harm than good.

Any advice?
 
It's looked pretty much the same for the past couple weeks, still looks like a wound but no fuzziness or anything to indicate that it's getting infected. I'm really amazed by how well this fish is moving/eating with it's tail practically hanging off. And it still has the energy to occasionally chase around a couple baby harlequins that got added to the school ( that were growing up in my shrimp tank.)

It's not getting worse, and the fish is acting normal ... so I guess it must be healing?
 
I will, thanks.

Do you think I should start using melafix or stress guard again as a prophylactic?
 
Imo you could use the stress coat. I seem to have terrible luck with the fix's and female fish dying so I'm wary on it (still use it though).
 
Well unfortunately I went away for a weekend and my wounded fish was gone when I got back. I'm not hugely surprised, but she was acting/eating so normally I really thought she might make it!

Is it normal for there to never be any remains when you lose a fish? I know fish will eat other dead fish if given the opportunity but can they really eat an entire adult harlequin over a weekend?

I guess when you have a tank full of tetras perhaps so, because I just did a gravel vac and still no sign of the lost fish...
 
Unfortunately I've had fish disappear like that. I think there was one member here who preferred to do that (excepting infection). Sad news on your fish :(
 
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