Trimming angelfish dorsal fins. Does it hurt them?

[philipraposo198]

I was reading about bent dorsal fin and how some hobbyist trim the fins with surgical scissors or alike. The fin regrows and most time its straight.

Apparently they can bend for many reasons.

I want to know if this process is painful, like cutting skin. Or is it like cutting hair or nails?

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[Mebbid]

There's nobody that is going to be able to give you a clear cut (pun intended) answer to this. The scientific community is still debating whether fish even feel pain or not.

However, even if they did grow back straight then the poor genetics are still there and will be passed on.

 

[philipraposo198]

My understanding is that cutting them will not result in straight fins if there is poor genetics.

Only if the fin damage was mechanical or due to poor conditions could a cut restore straightness.

I could be wrong though.

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[Brookster123]

I don't see anything wrong here. Pretty sure you can gauge where "this is going to hurt" ends. If anything.. document the procedure and follow up with results. Science baby

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[philipraposo198]

Since this procedure woukd simply be for my benefit I have decided to leave it as is. Not worth putting my pets through stress of any kind (netting, cutting, healing) for pure cosmetic reasons.



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[Brookster123]

I have jacked up angel finnage as well. How large are yours?

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[philipraposo198]

I have two young ones I recently got with perfect finnage. Both a loonie body size. One is a Philippine blue and the other is a blushing, all white/clear. No picks of these guys yet, they are still not as bold as my larger ones.

The worse are my smokey and my leopard, the koi is pretty straight, my silver is somewhere in between. Marble veil is not great either. He is missed part of his Gill plant on the other side. He was a deliberate rescue from a pet shop and was near death imo.

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[dcutl002]

Beautiful Angel Fish.


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[Fishobsessed7]

Nice fish! I really love the one in the first pic!


Fishobsessed7

Money Can't Buy Happiness, But It Can Buy Fish Which Is Pretty Much The Same Thing

 

[Andy Sager]

I was reading about bent dorsal fin and how some hobbyist trim the fins with surgical scissors or alike. The fin regrows and most time its straight.

Apparently they can bend for many reasons.

I want to know if this process is painful, like cutting skin. Or is it like cutting hair or nails?

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As previously stated, there is a lot of debate as to whether the fish feel pain but in the case of trimming fins, unless it's because there is disease on the fin and the only way to get that under control is to amputate some of the fin, then I would hesitate to do that. Based on your pics, most of those conditions are generally genetic and so the fin will not grow back straight but just develop that bend again at a later time. As for the veiltails with the "swaying" Dorsal fins, this is one of the defects that is accepted in veils as the fins tend to be longer, heavier and more thinly boned so the fish cannot handle the extra pressure on it. That said, show guidelines do permit some bend in the Dorsal and Anal fins but not much. For breeding purposes, the fish in these pics ( sans maybe the Koi) would not ( in my opinion) be suitable breeders due to the extent of the bend in their fins. But you mentioned another issue that needs an explanation: the short gill plate. Short Gill Plates are a common sign of poor water quality when growing than from genetics ( although genetics can be a cause) so when you couple bent fins and a short gill plate, there may be extenuating circumstances with that one fish. But the rest of them appear to be genetic flaws to me. These types of fish are exactly what I am culling out of my spawns to try and bring back fish that carry the shapes of their wild ancestors. Those fish do not have any bends in their fins and neither should today's fish. (Just so you know, in some of my pairs, I'm culling 70%-80% of their spawns because the fish's genetics are that far gone. Those pairs are broken up and tried with different mates for different results. No better results leads to no more breeding. ) In my case, only F1s with straight fins are being kept as next generation breeders. Those without them become feeder fish. ( My friend's Oscars and big catfish are getting fat from me. )

So I'm glad to hear you've decided against the "surgery" and hopefully I've explained why it wouldn't have mattered/ helped anyway.