ok so first off i have some tropical fish. a few days ago one of my tetras (small fish about 2cm long) was involved in a very unfortunate accident involving the water filter. where by he/she was sleeping under it when it came lose from its mounts and fell onto its tail. so at first I thought my poor fish was a gonner, but i put it in a little isolation tank anyway. to my suprise the next day it was still alive, unfortunatly its tail was gone. it had fallen off overnite. at this point I was thinking, one more nite and that will be it. well it seems not so its now 4 days later and no more tail / scales seem to be falling off the fish and the stump where the tail once was seems to be healing. now as far as i know fish are not like some reptiales in being able to lose a major appendage then regrow them. so what do I do? as far as i can see i have the following options- Leave it like it is - but it can hardly swim and will have a pritty crappy life. Put it out of its misiry- but i liked the fish its one of the oldest ones i have and i would like to give it a sporting chance. mod it-construct a new tail for it out of some very thin plastic and try to attach it and see what happens, but realy dont know how it will work out. anyway I would like peoples input on this very weird situation
Build a light (it has to be pretty light) tail and reattach it with some waterproof glue. I don't see why not. The tricky bit is putting it on whilst the fish is in the water. It's not called a tail, it's a fin or flipper or something along these lines.
Stick it in the other tank, let nature take it's course and give the other fish a dinner. Worked for our tank.
yes thats correct its the caudal fin, however i thougth calling it the tail would make it easyer for people to quickly know what part of the fish im talking about
please visit our fish prosthetics seccion. LOL But i will ask a friend of mine, he is a marine biologist and see what he thinks of this. But it is a very nice ideia to "mod the fish" he does not want to die because normaly "damaged" fish dont eat and die, but please dont put a neon stick on it . post a pic of it for us to see. i love fish, on a plate and in a tank of water alive. PS: this reminded me of "PIMP MY FISH". PS2: found this in the web
It is like this: If the fish cant swim he cant eat so he will die. You cant glue things to the fish because of the scales and stuff If it is healing there is a possibility that the fin will regenerate (non reptilian powers, fish powers). If the fish is "vivid" and strong he will recover in part. You just have to wait or go to a vet to see if he can give you something to acelerate the healing process. My friend loves fish and said "nunca desistir de um peixe .. se o amas" translating to never give up on a fish .. if you love him. And again post a photo of the fish for us to examine the severety of the damage. Best of luck Mattt and fast recovery Mattt's fish .
I say just put it out of it's misery, it's pretty inevitable that it's going to die soon. LOL at the idea of taking half a tetra to a vet though!
What kind of tetra? Oh and by the way, if you thought gluing a fin on would reconnect all its muscle tissue, your an idiot.
have fun gluing a tail fin onto that fish and then realizing that the glue poisoned your whole fishtank veterinarian or just let the fish learn to swim without a tail.
I say leave it alone (see story below). My little brother has some pet goldfish and the tank they are in is just a cheesy little plastic one (about 3 Gallons I belive). Anyways over the course of a couple years the pump grate had been damaged and was very loose. Somewhere during the course of the day the grate fell off completely and when my little brother went to feed his fish he noticed that there wasn't any water flowing and that there were only 2 fish (he had 3). He quickly shut off the pump and shook it out. Out came an injured fish that was missing most of its tail. He just let it live in the tank hoping it would make it, it did live and eventually regrew its tail. Now he has named it Lucky and it has fully regrown its tail and then some. The other 2 fish look normal, Lucky on the otherhand looks fine except for Lucky now has a MASSIVE tail. The fish's tail is just about as big as the rest of the fish.
Any insecure guys feel like trying this with their own 'tail'? LMAO.. sorry, couldnt help it, temptation was too great
Yeah one of my fish had a tail that was as long as its body. I had the fish from when it was one of those tiny "feeder" fish that I won at a carnival when I was in 3rd grade (Im in 11th right now) Since then all but 2 had died and in September while I was on vacation the one with the super long tail somehow managed to jump out by where the pump goes in the tank and died Now the only one thats left is lonley and sad.
you need to mod it a tail im sure it will either be a great success or failer, and an attempt is better than nothing...
few questions awnsered- Im not going to take my fish to the vet, for a few reasons - first is that im sure the vet will say there is nothing he can do, second he will charge me £20 to say that, third how many vets are out there that actuly deal with fish? most as far as im aware most deal only land/air based animals. as for the glue being toxic and killing all the fish, there are pleantly of non toxic water proof glues out there. there are some which are even labled "aquarium safe". the problem glue wise would more likly to be will it stick to the fish and the plastic? and will it dry underwater? or will it dry in a short time out of water? someone said about not being able to reattach the muscle fibers making a modded fin useless, well currently the fish propels its self by moving its stump alot, but the stump doesnt provide enouth surface area to give it thrust so a plastic fin fixed on should work. anyways iv deceded to leave the fish longer and see what happens, if the tail grows back then excellent. if not then i think it will be time to get my dremel out
