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Loach fin

2K views 18 replies 4 participants last post by  Chesh 
#1 ·
Now this little one is my favourite because of his fin, and the fact we always go for th abandoned or unwanted animals/anything really. BUT just thought I'd check it and see if he was just a victim of nipping/this is a birth defect/disease etc. He(?) suffers no ill effects with swimming etc etc and isn't singled out, so really this is just for my piece of mind.
 

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#3 ·
He is getting along fine etc. I've read somewhere about adding something in to hello it grow back.

I'm a little against it as 1/ it's adding chemicals I dont Yet understand, I would before I did, and 2/ he swims so cutely. Haha. Honestly I'll add a vid at some point of him with the others, he has to work a little harder I can see that but he has more of a 'wiggle'. Honestly, I get a massive smile everytime I see it.

However if it's best for th fish, this rules all....
 
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#4 ·
I wouldn't do anything at this point. Just keep up healthy practices for the entire tank. One thing that I wonder about is why such a relatively minor difference in fin shape would effect his swimming technique. Do you notice anything else different about him ? Again, if he's getting along well, he'll probably live a long and healthy life. I think it's great that you brought him home. He's one lucky fish.
 
#5 · (Edited)
See I'm not so sure I'd class it as a minor change. He's effectively missing half of his tail fin, which is like us missing one leg surely? His swimming isn't that much different though, just seems to have to work harder to compensate for the thrust missing in his fin is what I assume. I'll have to get a video later!

And of course we did, if I ever go down for 5 fish and there's an injured one too, he'll always be an extra one going home with us at least.

I regularly find it necessary to inform my gf of the 'in need of rescuing' dwarf roborovski hamsters at our local 'pets at home' as its been 14 months since the last one died and I think it's about time now. She actually ended uo in tears last time when I told her how sad the last one looked- we went straight after work the next day, but he'd gone. I was a bit mean, throwing out 'no one else wants him', manipulation at its best. HAHA. God I'm rambling on today!
 
#7 ·
Lol fishmonger! How did you miss that whopping piece of missing fin. And tbh i had missed the little one in his dorsal because of the bigger one!

So, all is still well then. Ok works for me :) And theres been no contradictions which is always a good thing :) He shall live on then as my favourite :)
 
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#8 ·
Sigh, my poor poorly paul (as sophie has named him). so i get home today and go for a looksie, cant find him. thats ok assume hes behind the log. get home an hour later, and still nothing. anyway, iv finally found him 45 mins agho chilling under the big roots log, and hasnt moved for a good hour, all the rest went over and hes suddenly exactly same position yet i can now see his face rather than just his broekn tail fin- they leave and hes back to showing only fin. was great timing as id just stripped off my shirt to move the log an inch to see if he'd got stuck but obv not. So i'll have to keep an eye, hopefully nothing serious a ive never not seen any of them not move for more than a matter of minutes, and he chills more than the others but still only short term. its an hour time to feeding time though, so fingers crossed....
 
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#9 ·
Ok, so feeding time, and out he popped. It was peas for the first time tonight too, wanted to try and and they have gone down a treat :)

Now, his colour is looking much duller, he looks more ''yellowy''. should i be concerned about this?
 
#12 ·
Thanks FM. I have tried to keep an eye as much as possible and from what I've seen so far he's not being bullied. And he wasnt during or the short after feeding that i could see him. Feeding later is about an hour before lights out so im going to try and reposition my blue LED spotlight from the 'moonbeam' kind of thing that still leaves most of the tank in darkness after to try and let the beam light much more of the tank so i can keep an eye on him after he's eaten, to check his behaviour then.

it's just he's my favourite and i couldnt bare to lose him :-(
 
#13 ·
I understand how you feel. Just keep up the good care and let him chill. Animals have intuition as to how to heal themselves and the best you can do is keep his home healthy and happy. The fin doesn't appear to be diseased, so he can put all his energy into growing it back rather than dealing with infection also. I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you, pally.
 
#14 ·
Thank you

I know. I've been checking the parameters daily to ensure that the waters tip top and watching all other fish for anything obvious, disease or behavioral wise but no change. It could just be that he is doing as you said, or hell, even that this is what he wants to do during the day and theres nothing wrong, he's only been in the tank 6 days, so i could be making a meal of nothing. I only worry as he was so active during the first 4, along with the others, and because he's the only only to have receded.
 
#15 ·
haha well ive had just about my best hour in fish keeping :) First off he popped out around 9, feedings normally at 9.30 and he had a good swim around, and even a play with the others. Come feeding time he was ravenous and has had a right good munch.....

culminating in: i dropped in some floating cichlid food, just a few pellets, as tonight was brine shrimp and a few flakes, always drop a few flakes as the gourami prefer to eat from the surface, so i thought id try something new on them, they are a lil big for them but they tore them up.....however clearly poorly paul (#facepalm#) was having none of it....he proceeded to go up to the surface after having a good munch of the brine, and start robbing the gouramis flakes! not satisfied he then proceeded to push the gourami off the cichlid pellet he was nibling and sink it...... so holding it he 360'd down, pushing it down and planting it in a corner.......looking up he spots the gourami has another pellet- OH NO, he's having NONE of that and proceed to literallly take it out the gouramis mouth and 360 sink it again. My mrs was giggling no end!

happy times :)
 
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#19 ·
Awww! Paul is a sweetie! I'm certain he'll recover fully under your care. I don't really know much about loaches that aren't squirmy, but I agree with what's been said here already. For ANY fish, the very best 'medicine' is clean water and a stress-free environment. It sounds like you've been really conscientious about keeping parameters spot-on, and that is truly the best thing that you can do. There are medications, such as Pimafix and Melafix, that can help to speed healing and be used as a preventative to keep nasty things like fungus from setting into a wound, these ARE safe for loaches, but I don't think it's necessary here. From what I can tell in the image, the 'wound' is clean - it looks like it will heal up very well with no intervention. As you said, dumping chemicals into the water without very good reason isn't usually a good idea, especially when you're dealing with scaleless fish like loaches. ANY med, even 'safe' ones, will add to a fish's stress, and poor Paul has surely had his fair share of stress between shipping to the shop, being in the shop, getting from the shop to your house, as well as from who or whatever caused the injury in the first place. The only thing that *I* would do in this situation that hasn't been mentioned (that I saw) is to limit the amount of time that your tank gets light for a week or so. Loaches, being nocturnal, do prefer lower light, and your plants can do well short-term with a minimum of 4-hours a day. Even if you don't go that route, it looks as if you've put in enough places for him to hide from the light, should he want to, and he's EATING - which is a really good sign that he isn't so stressed. I have found the behavior that you noted earlier to be very common with the loaches I keep - when put into a new environment, they go batty, and are very active for the first few days as they adjust to their new surroundings and water parameters, etc. After that, they tend to settle down a bit. I'm not familiar enough with this breed to be able to say what 'normal' is to them, but loaches in general are notorious little hiders, so I suspect he's just doing his thing. Coloration is one of those odd things, too - just keep an eye on it, as you already are, and you'll know if something is amiss.

It always makes me so happy to see people taking such good care of their wet pets :-D Your tank looks stunning, by the way! Do you have a thread up somewhere where I can see more??!

Congratulations again on the new baby! He's really a beauty. Hope that fin heals up double-quick!

ETA, just realized how oldish this thread is. . . so disregard all of THAT, now I need an update! Is Paul on the mend yet?!!
 
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