PlanetCatfish.com

Hi all, I ended up purchasing an injured syno without realizing it. Its my fault, I know, I should have checked before leaving the LFS. I had my two year old with me and she was going crazy and apparently the fish guy took advantage of that deal.....anyhow, he has been badly scraped from the looks of it - all across the face and down the sides. he appears to be missing both of his side fins and the little barbels that hang off his nose. He only has the two large ones left. he is also missing his dorsal fin. Is there anything I can do to treat him? Will these scrapes heal?? do fins grow back??

Grrr. Don't you just hate it when the shop takes advantage like that.

To answer your question, I'd say Melafix or Pimafix would be a good start. Clean water is essential for the wellbeing of the fish, so extra water changes will help it.

Fins will usually grow out, but if too much is missing they may not grow out to the full extent. I'm pretty sure that the barbels will grow out if you manage to salvage the fish.

I'd recommend finding a different shop tho'. [And maybe leave the daughter with someone when you go shopping for fish, perhaps? ]

--
Mats

thanks.. yeah, I wont be going back to that store again. They have screwed me more than once. and yes, you are right, baby girl will be at home next time! LMAO

Hi!

Synos are pretty good healers in my experience. So with good food and clean water it should be possible to get him back on track. We dont have the above said meds here but Id trust Mats on this one.
*Warning Cruel Injury pics* (sorry I forgot that)
Look at this and 6 days later and I think its this one now...
Gives you a good idea how well they can heal!

Good luck with you eupterus!

wow, thanks for posting that. Hopefully he will heal fine. You can see his injuries in the Identity forum - I wasnt sure of the exact species and post a pic of him in there.

Wow this is a coincidence, but i bought a Syno Eupterus also today, and its dorsal fin was nipped. The fish shop kept it with cichlids so i fink they were the problem. I fink ur syno is a bit worse off than mine but i asked the fish shop whether the fins will heal and they said yep, and everyone else here said yep lol.

So much for gettin a trade discount!! Lol. Mine is happily exploring the tank atm!

Must be something with eupterus....I picked up one a few months ago from a great lfs who does local trade-ins frequently, and unfortunately for this syno, it was housed with some very large and rough cichlids who devoured all the food and generally beat up on him. He wasn't missing any fins, but he was very thin when I got him.

He's now the master syno of a 125 Lake Tang tank. Very fat and sassy.