Great Gaping Holes!

[Bill T]

Mine is indeed a sad story. Due to a very nasty bout of salmonella poisoning which put me in hospital with acute renal failure (for real!!!) I couldn't do any aquarium maintenance for over a month - I was sooooo sick, believe it or not, I temporarily stopped caring about my fish! :cry:

Anyway, apart form some sky high nitrates, my water condition wasn't too bad when I did get back to it. I've recommenced regular water changes, but some damage has been done to one of my fish in the form of huge holes developing in his fins. (Pics. attached). He appears otherwise OK & the only one to be affected.

What is the likely cause? What if anything should I do? How fatal is this? Will he regrow his fins?

[ILLUSN]

thats a big hole!

small fish can recover from fin damage quite well, larger older fish on the other hand....

keep up the water quality, feed a good diet, if you can get some extra vitamins inot him to help him heal. I'd have your tank at 30c maybe even 31C just to keep any bugs at bay.

[Merrilyn]

Ohhhhhhh Bill. So sorry to hear you've been so ill.

Do hope you're on the road to recovery now. You should have yelled out mate. I would have been happy to come do a water change for you while you were sick.

As you know, the damage to the fins is probably due to the water conditions, so at this stage Bill, I'd just keep the water changes up. Add a bit of salt to the water if you like, but no meds at this stage.

I thing good water and good nutrition will go along way to repairing the damage to the anal fin, but the hole in the dorsal fin may never heal. Something about holes that doesn't encourage complete closure. They actually heal better if you trim the fin back to the hole, then the tissue seems to be encouraged to regrow.

I probably wouldn't do anything about trimming just yet. Get them back to full health, then if you feel like living dangerously, get to work with a pair of sterile scissors.

[Bill T]

Thanks Merrilyn - you are a gem.
I was contemplating a bit of corrective surgery actually, but then I thought perhaps my brain had been affected by my illness to even contemplate such a thing!
I will keep an eye on the fish & attend to water quality.
As for calling anybody about anything - I was soooo knocked off my perch there for a while - if you know what I mean!!!!!