Injured pectoral fin

[Karen B.]

Greetings!

Gandalf has an injury in the front of his head but it’s finally healing.

I wanted to do a WC but was afraid the gunk raised in the water could infect his woundso I put him in a small jar.

When it was time to put him back in the aquarium, I tried to gently scoop him up (my hand was wet) and release him in the water but he started wiggling so much I think I or he injured one of his pectoral fins. He swims around with the fins stuck to its body. However he can move it, when he swims in place he does but he just seems to avoid using it.

He is in a 10 gallons, I had already added prime and stability but added 5 ml of API stress coat. 
 

I am looking at him and he seems to be using it more and more. Can they break their pectoral fin? What do you think happened? I feel so bad, I just wanted to spare him the stress of a net…

[Guppysnail]

I can’t remember what type of fish Gandalf is or if you ever mentioned it. I do hope he is ok. I have a month old juvenile pleco lose the entire pectoral fin in a dumpster sponge diving episode. Fish very are resilient with. If you use a gravel vac gently in only up and down movements in the substrate to do water changes it does not kick up much gunk in the water column for me. This may save you both the stress of moving him. Wishes for a speedy recovery. 

[Karen B.]

On 1/29/2022 at 11:59 AM, Guppysnail said:

I can’t remember what type of fish Gandalf is or if you ever mentioned it. I do hope he is ok. I have a month old juvenile pleco lose the entire pectoral fin in a dumpster sponge diving episode. Fish very are resilient with. If you use a gravel vac gently in only up and down movements in the substrate to do water changes it does not kick up much gunk in the water column for me. This may save you both the stress of moving him. Wishes for a speedy recovery. 

Oops, you are right, I was in such shock I didn’t even mention that he is a betta.  He is fine now. 
I usually never move my fish when I clean, it’s just that he has an open wound, and I needed to service part of his filter. I had a very bad experience before with a filter and it spewed all its gunk and 2 days after, my green neon tetra were sick. So as I am clumsy, just for this time, I removed him. 
 

Sorry for tour pleco! That do sound like quite the adventure.

Btw, thank you for always taking the time to reply to me. You and @Fish Folk particularly really help me and it’s really appreciated.

[Torrey]

On 1/29/2022 at 4:58 PM, Karen B. said:

just for this time, I removed him. 

Have you tried using food to train Gandalf to swim into a 'spa jar'?

I taught my bettas to swim into a glass vase that was dedicated to the bettas, to make plant maintenance safer. It also made it less stressful when I would need to take photographs, or move one to quarantine for fin nipping treatment, or into a bag when I sold them. 

Due to curvature of the glass, Kismet is magnified. The rounded base of the vase is actually much larger than Kismet, but the magnification made it infinitely easier to check for injuries, egg binding, and parasites. 

I would put the vase in the tank, drop a blackworm in the vase, and betta would swim in to get the blackworm.

I would leave the betta in the vase while I cleaned (float in another tank, or wrap vase in a towel to keep warm) and the betta would eat the worm and then poop.

When I was done cleaning the tank *and* 💩 happened, I would return the vase to the tank, and let the betta swim out.

This also make treatment for worms, identifying internal parasites, and good overall husbandry, easier. 

(To help put the vase size in perspective, that's a large Indian Almond Leaf floating in the vase. Top is narrower than the base, making jumping out much harder)

 

[Karen B.]

On 1/29/2022 at 11:37 PM, Torrey said:

Have you tried using food to train Gandalf to swim into a 'spa jar'?

I taught my bettas to swim into a glass vase that was dedicated to the bettas, to make plant maintenance safer. It also made it less stressful when I would need to take photographs, or move one to quarantine for fin nipping treatment, or into a bag when I sold them. 

Due to curvature of the glass, Kismet is magnified. The rounded base of the vase is actually much larger than Kismet, but the magnification made it infinitely easier to check for injuries, egg binding, and parasites. 

I would put the vase in the tank, drop a blackworm in the vase, and betta would swim in to get the blackworm.

I would leave the betta in the vase while I cleaned (float in another tank, or wrap vase in a towel to keep warm) and the betta would eat the worm and then poop.

When I was done cleaning the tank *and* 💩 happened, I would return the vase to the tank, and let the betta swim out.

This also make treatment for worms, identifying internal parasites, and good overall husbandry, easier. 

(To help put the vase size in perspective, that's a large Indian Almond Leaf floating in the vase. Top is narrower than the base, making jumping out much harder)

 

Oh, that’s a good idea! Especially since Gandalf is already trained to follow a paint brush (I feed them with the little paint brush)

[Torrey]

On 1/29/2022 at 11:04 PM, Karen B. said:

Oh, that’s a good idea! Especially since Gandalf is already trained to follow a paint brush (I feed them with the little paint brush)

My vet got a kick out of it, because I would bring in fecal samples when I was breeding bettas, to confirm no parasites. Vet was used to cat and dog samples, said he had never gotten fish samples before. 😅