My male irrubesco was in an attacking mood today and decided to madly attack my female, resulting in a bleeding tail. She already had abit of a nipped tail, but after that he didn't really attack her that much for the past few weeks, and the tank had plenty of hiding space, so I figured they were ok. WRONG.
Was told by my mom that he bit her tail, and it was bleeding badly. He shamefully hid in his log home after that. When I came home, the female was still swimming about, but her tail looked bad. The centre part of the tail was hanging, and there was still a patch of blood. She was still swimming around fairly normally, but to play safe, I've since separated her out into a 1-ft quarantine tank.
Quarantine tank is empty except for a cycled filter. Any suggestions on any other preventive measures I should take? Should I add any medicine to the water? Right now I'm just going to add a small dose of vitamins into the water.
Thanks!
Bitten tail
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Bitten tail
I'd rather be a puffer than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would...
Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer
RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer
RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Thanks fellas. Actually, I didn't even add melafix cos I couldn't get my hands on it. And I didn't want to pour some unknown medicine down the tank. So I just did water changes, and tried to keep the water as clean as I can.
Till now she's doing very well. Swimming around as usual. Has as big an appetite as usual. Her tail looks as if its recovering, no signs of infection whatsoever.
Next question is, how long should I keep her in the quarantine tank? And is it ever safe to lump the female back with the male again? Or should I separate out the male first so that the female can re-establish her territory in the tank?
Till now she's doing very well. Swimming around as usual. Has as big an appetite as usual. Her tail looks as if its recovering, no signs of infection whatsoever.
Next question is, how long should I keep her in the quarantine tank? And is it ever safe to lump the female back with the male again? Or should I separate out the male first so that the female can re-establish her territory in the tank?
I'd rather be a puffer than a snail. Yes I would, if I could, I surely would...
Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer
RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer
Proud owner of: Beetroot: Fahaka, Hammie: Hairy Puffer, Fishball: Congo Puffer
RIP: Wasabi: Male irrubesco, Hamachi: Female irrubesco, Popcorn: SA puffer