Do apistogramma fins heal

[Stephen Zawacki]

Hey y’all so I got a new pair of apistogramma cacatoides triple red, and from shipping their fins are a little banged up the femal her tail is beat up and the male, his bottom fins the one has a tear they are lively and everything, and eating, I just want to make sure I’m treating the tank with supratect, but also want to ask so their fins heal naturally.

If you look at the male his bottom fin you can see where the spiky thing is which I think is the front of his fin. Then the female her bottom of her tail is missing a little bit.

thx Stephen 

[Mmiller2001]

They will. Just keep a close eye out for secondary infections.

[PineSong]

Poor little guys!  I've had fish regrow their entire fin before, so as long as they don't get an infection, it's likely you'll not even be able to tell this happened, a few weeks from now. I did have one betta whose fins regrew a little wavy looking, but they did regrow to normal size and swimming was not impaired. 

 

[Stephen Zawacki]

Thx yall for your input, should I still treat with supratect just to make sure for the next couple of weeks

[PineSong]

I'm not familiar with that product and others are more qualified than I am to make recommendations. Perhaps @Odd Duck or @Colu?

I've used aquarium salt in the past, and antibiotics like Maracyn.

[Colu]

What I would do is increase water changes and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallons that will help speed up the healing process salt at that level shouldn't harm your plants

[Odd Duck]

I can’t find out what the ingredients are in Supratect other than 100% plant based and natural, but so is cyanide so . . . . . . . I couldn’t give any advice on the use of a product where the company won’t release ingredients.

I would suggest keeping the water pristine and adding low dose aquarium salt to the tank water at 1 tablespoon per gallon.  This dose is safe for nearly everything except a few, very sensitive plants. Just make certain when you do water changes you dose only for the amount of replacement water, not the entire tank volume again or salt will accumulate.

Most fish will heal fins just fine as long as we minimize stress and maximize water quality.  Make certain they are at their optimal water temperature and perfect parameters.  Watch for any sign of fuzz or redness on the affected fins.  If you see that, then they may need further treatment.

Edit to add that I wouldn’t personally use a product that I didn’t know the ingredients.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Stephen Zawacki]

Hey y’all so I did find out what the ingredients were I called 1 fish two fish the store that sells the product and the king of diy praises the product they aren’t aloud to use any meds in Canada and he uses it for everything he uses it to Quentin his fish, treat ich heal fins, the main components are garlic, and black Tea. That is why I was going to give this a try, because I’ve always heard all natural works better,  I always get nervous with salt, because I’ve overdosed in the past on accident with other tanks. But I can always try salt again I guess 

Edited December 11, 2021 by Stephen Zawacki

[anewbie]

They will heal; i would not add anything just keep the water clean. Do not be concern if a small dab of fungus forms; just leave it be and it will dissolve after a month or so; also patience is very important. It can take fins a while to regrow. 

[Odd Duck]

On 12/10/2021 at 11:55 PM, Stephen Zawacki said:

Hey y’all so I did find out what the ingredients were I called 1 fish two fish the store that sells the product and the king of diy praises the product they aren’t aloud to use any meds in Canada and he uses it for everything he uses it to Quentin his fish, treat ich heal fins, the main components are garlic, and black Tea. That is why I was going to give this a try, because I’ve always heard all natural works better,  I always get nervous with salt, because I’ve overdosed in the past on accident with other tanks. But I can always try salt again I guess 

Garlic can potentially cause liver failure in fish. There are contradictory studies out there about dosing.  There are studies that show it can increase the appetite, increase weight gain, and increase growth rate when put in food, but there are also studies that show liver disease and liver failure from dosing.  The dose is not pinned down as to what is safe and what is too much.  The problem likely being that there are so many different species to consider.  Not all species are going to react the same.

There are also studies that show garlic can be somewhat antimicrobial in certain circumstances.  But again, we are back to the question of what is a safe dose and do we know what dose is going to be safe for any particular fish species.

Until we know what a consistently safe dose is, I don’t recommend garlic since excess amounts are known to have toxic effects in so many different species (not just in fish).  We don’t have enough information to know what dose is too much.

Clean water and good food is your best bet for fin damage unless your fish is showing evidence of infection.  Most fish will heal just fine with that alone.

When I rescued my Jack Dempseys, the male had taken a large chunk out of the female’s tail, about a third of her tail was gone.  They were previously kept in absolutely horrid conditions so I assume they were not in the best of health at that point.  It took around 3 weeks for her tail to fully heal but after that you couldn’t even tell that she was injured.

Give them time.  Keep close watch.  We can always do meds later if it’s indicated and this is coming from someone who prescribes medications all shift long at work.

There is very little information on black tea but there is information that tannins can be helpful.  I would not be against adding some tannins to the water.  Indian almond leaves are most commonly recommended but rooibos tea can also be helpful and easy to get.  Tannins in the water would be entirely appropriate for this species, too.

Edited December 11, 2021 by Odd Duck

[Stephen Zawacki]

ok thank you very much yall for all your input 

 

[Odd Duck]

@Stephen Zawacki Hope it helps.  Keep us posted.  I hope it helps to know that typically fin splits like this can heal in just 1 to 2 weeks.

[Stephen Zawacki]

Ok thank you very much so the males bottom fin in the picture, the little spikey thing that will heal that is amazing hope it does 

[Odd Duck]

On 12/11/2021 at 10:38 AM, Stephen Zawacki said:

Ok thank you very much so the males bottom fin in the picture, the little spikey thing that will heal that is amazing hope it does 

Too soon to say for sure, but you’ll know in the next couple weeks.

[Stephen Zawacki]

Well is that fin something that is hard to heal ? 

[Odd Duck]

Shouldn’t be.  Should heal just like any other split fin.