• You are viewing the forum as a Guest, please login (you can use your Facebook, Twitter, Google or Microsoft account to login) or register using this link: Log in or Sign Up

Sparkling gourami tail issue.

Neocaridina

Seedling
Joined
6 Mar 2019
Messages
21
Location
Australia
Anybody seen this problem? Just received five Trichopsis pumila through the post yesterday. All looking perky but noticed that one of the bigger ones had lost most of the top part of the tail, right down to the peduncle. Not sure if it was bitten off or something more sinister? The fish itself looks fine and alert and swims as well as the others. Should I be worried about fin rot? Any suggestions what to do?
 
Anybody seen this problem? Just received five Trichopsis pumila through the post yesterday. All looking perky but noticed that one of the bigger ones had lost most of the top part of the tail, right down to the peduncle. Not sure if it was bitten off or something more sinister? The fish itself looks fine and alert and swims as well as the others. Should I be worried about fin rot? Any suggestions what to do?

It could be a number of things from nechanical damage, fungus or bacterial infection. If it is yet only mechanical damage, for example from other fish biting, than most important is a clean well balanced and stress free invironment with a healthy diet. Than fin damage will be repaired by the fish itself. But it can take a long time.

For the rest it depends on the overall condition of the fish and that is hard to determine by the looks and behaivor.. Every aqaurium contains pathogenes like infectious bacteria and funges spores if a fish is wounded and to weak to fight it off, it simply will be to late. A sterile healthy fish tank does not excist. That is for any fish in general.. . What to expect and what to do? Quarantaine? A broad spectrum antiseptic and anti fungal treatment for a few weeks and hope for the best. Or do nothing and give it a good clean invironment with healthy food and see if it repairs the damage itself. Especialy very small fish my personal experience if it shows malaise and weakness it is to late for treatment anyway. If it shows only damage but you have no other indication to choose a treatment, than role some dice and pick one if you insist.

T. pumila are pretty hard to read fish, little pit bulls that don't easily show malaise.. I'm keeping them for a few years now.. Since what i can get is always wild caught thus its hard to determine age. They live a few years, since i don't know the age and buying new ones, some perish within 1 year. And i often notice the most sprankling with a striking red tail looking at their best very close to the end of its life. As if it is the last chance to make to best out of it. Than without obvious reason i find the most sprankling one of the group one morning dead on the bottom of the tank lifeless but still sprankling and tail stil striking red. And that is wierd, you would expect a fish getting rather pale, it obviously is a stressless death. I donnu.. They do get pale when startled and in stress when dragging them around in plastic bags.. But once they feel at home and color up, do not stress that easily in an aqaurium.
 
You could add a less strong, basically natural product Melafix, it can be used when adding new fish and its useful to prevent mechanical damage(assuming) turning into finrot
 
Thank you for your observations and advice. All five including the one with the missing part of tail are looking sparkling blue. The other four have beautiful red tails. All look very happy in the tank which is soft water and clean.
Maybe I should be worried now @zozo ? They are all less than 2.5cm.
I think
I will just wait and see how it progresses. Keeping them fed with mosquito larvae, bloodworm and blackworm.
 
Maybe I should be worried now @zozo ? They are all less than 2.5cm.

Don't, they simply do not have a very long life expectancy, i don't know what others experience, but mine is maybe 3 years at the most for the strong ones. 1 to 2 years is average. Size doesn't say much about age. Often with old age comes weakness, with weakness malaise and infection can be diagnosed. Than you can have one showing it while the others stay in prestine health. It doesn't mean all are sick or do get sick because one of them is.

If you have no quarantine option than treating the complete fish tank is the only option you have. Personaly i rather don't.. If the fish is not born in your aqaurium you know little about its age. If its already a year old when you got iit, yu can expect it to die within a few months. That doesn't mean your tank is suffering a strange infection. IMHO, if one shows weakness and getting sick and the rest is ok, take it out and euthanize it with clove oil. Treating in is a noble and very friendly gesture, but there is no treatment against weakness and old age. Other than a healthy diet and clean invironment and if that aint enough it's over.
 
I would give them live food only. We never use frozen foods unless we the fish is health because out fish usually die from gram-negative bacteria within a few days of feeding. When they are well, give them what you want.
If the edge of the fin is black or red-brown then you have fin rot. Add some Indian almond leaves, keep the temperature warm, water clean, and use diet of live food. I'm not a fan of the treatments because they tend to include things that make no sense to me. If the edge of the fin is white, then the fin is regrowing and you need to take no further action. If the edge of the fin looks like cotton wool, then you have a fungal infection. Use a treatment of your choice. If it looks clean, then you either have a fresh and clean tear, or a congenital deformity, then you don't need to take any further action. I hope that helps. I know that a lot of people get confused about what fin rot looks like.

Zozo - as usual, I strongly agree with you. Clean water and excellent food (something aquatic and alive that will linger around - daphnia would be great).
 
Thank you, @Simon Cole, @zozo. Have just kept up with good water, quality flake food, mosquito wrigglers and daphnia. The fish remains happy and active. No redness or discolouration. No fuzziness. Not regrowing. So I conclude it is a congenital deformity. It swims as well as all the others even with most of the tail missing.
 
I have had fish with identical issues. It makes no difference to their lifespan, character, or quality of life. In fact, we often choose fish with this kind of deformity (split tails) out of a mixture of sympathy and novelty. I currently have a blind and entirely vegetarian Ram who needs a lot of special attention, and we literally dote on it. If you need any specific live cultures then send me a message, and I'm glad it sounds like a good outcome for you.
 
Back
Top