# now he has no tail



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Alright so this is an extension of my previous thread about the two guppies which were clamping their tail fins. Well now the one that seemed thin is missing his WHOLE tail fin, its just gone. He also appears to have an injury on his side but i couldnt tell if its just pigment or an actualy injury (my guppies are orange/red so it makes things like that difficult). 

Anyone have any idea what could have caused this? all my other guppies except that one fat one seem perfectly ok, they eat well, are active and spread their fins beautifully.

I did once see my biggest ghost shrimp grab onto a guppy and try to eat its dorsal fin, but that was more of a feeding time related mishap than an act of agression. Is it possible that the ghost shrimp could have grabbed onto this guppie because he was thiner and weaker? Or is it just a disease or something.

I would like to add that this happened prety much over night.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

I think you have 2 strong possibilities. One is that something bit or cut off a chunk, the other is some variety of fin-rot (disease). Really the only way to know is to isolate the affected fish and see if it gets worse. But even that isn't a complete answer as fin-rot often starts on fins that were wounded by other things.

And yes, "scavengers" don't always wait for death before attacking less than healthy fish. So it could be fin rot, or some other disease + predation and/or fin-rot. 

I'm sorry, I know that's not really helpful. 

I would QT the affected fish, keep the water clean, and medicate if things get even a little worse. But I'm not sure which med to try.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

The reason why I asked was because within a day the fish went from having a full (but clamped) tail to having no tail at all. It's 100% gone


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

If was laying on the bottom, something could have eaten the tail overnight. But fast fin and tail rots work that quick, too.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

hmm ill have to keep a very close eye on the tank and watch for it... I do have a quarentine tank but i dont have a filter for it atm, which ill probably pick up tomorow if i have enough


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

On a side note wouldnt there be more than one fish excibiting fin rot if it was in the tank?


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

It can start in one or two that got injured, but yes, pretty soon it would spread to other fish.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

-_- damnit... guess i will definitely be picking up a filter tomorow


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

it doesn't need to be much, a sponge filter will do if you can pull an airline. 

Healthy fish often fight off mild fin-rot with just clean water.

A fish with a tail missing and no other disease will probably heal completely if isolated but will likely starve if left with other fish. 

If the issue is an aggressive fin-rot, you will likely lose the fish, but possibly learn what to treat the next patient with.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

well when i came upstairs last night he had been reduced to a very well cleaned off skeleton (at least i know my snails and shrimp are doing their jobs -_-)

I suppose the only thing left to do is keep a close eye out for any more fish who may be exhibiting signs of illness.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

sounds right. Hope it was an isolated problem.

Above change "starve" to be eaten for any crippled fish in your tank.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

Im hoping it was an isolated issue as well, ill deffinitely be keeping a close eye on them for the next bit, incase this does turn out to be a disease. My personal opinion says it was likely just an overexcited ghost shrimp that took the tail off in the first place though.


----------



## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Are you sure of your shrimp ID? I know there are more than one "ghost shrimp' in the hobby. I thought they were fish food, but I think yours are fish-eaters.


----------



## Corwin (May 23, 2010)

All I know is that they are glass shrimp, and that they have lived with the guppies for almost a year without incident. It's just that they go to the top for flake food, and if they get buffeted by the guppies enough they can retaliate.


----------



## sbetsy (Apr 6, 2010)

Check out melafix. In the future, if you have an injured fish, I would add some of that to protect the fish from fin rot. And make sure your water is very clean!


----------

