Tailfin Gone??

[Zalman]

So I have had a diamond goby in QT for about 2 1/2 weeks now. He seemed healthy and eating fine. I went away for part of this weekend (suprise b-day trip). When I came back I noticed the goby had lost almost all of his tail fin. I checked the ammonia at it came in at around .5 ppm detectable nitrites too.

I flushed almost all the water out of the QT and replaced it. nitrite and nitrate is 0 the ammonia is coming up less than .25 but still not zero.

Just curious what would cause him to look a chunk of his tail fin? Elevated levels in the tank? I know he gets spooked easy and thrashes around the tank but with a HOB filter, heater and some pvc nothing in there seems to be able to cause this to happen. Or is this the begining of some disease?

 

[b0bab0ey]

First off, keep doing WCs until you get that ammonia down to 0. You can also use a dechlorinator (such as Amquel) or run carbon to help with the ammonia, but only when you're not medicating.

Unless he's in with another fish that bite his tail off, it's probably due to a bacterial infection. The elevated ammonia most likely aggravated the situation by weakening his immune system and made conditions favorable for the infection to spread. I would start doing daily WCs, keep the ammonia at 0 and see if his natural immune system can fight off the infection. If not, and he gets worse, you'll probably have to treat with an antibiotic such as Furan-2.

 

[Zalman]

No other fish in this tank so it must be some sort of infection. I will keep up with the water changes.

Is this something that could spread to other fish? I was gonna put him in my DT at about the 4 1/2 to 5 week point, this was prior to the fin loss. Should I wait until his tail is 100%? or if he shows improvement would he be fine in 2 weeks or so?

 

[b0bab0ey]

No other fish in this tank so it must be some sort of infection. I will keep up with the water changes.

Is this something that could spread to other fish? I was gonna put him in my DT at about the 4 1/2 to 5 week point, this was prior to the fin loss. Should I wait until his tail is 100%? or if he shows improvement would he be fine in 2 weeks or so?

I would wait until he shows 100% improvement and then wait another month after that - or 9 weeks total, whichever comes last. I know this is being ultra-conservative, but if this is just a secondary infection and some other disease has yet to show itself, you don't wanna take any chances.