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Is it possible to heal a split sail on a pleco

Posted: 16 Oct 2008, 02:16
by doesdavid
I found what I beleive to be an LDA 38 Hypostomus plecostomoides (8 spines split at the ends) I spent 20 min watching this guy to make sure the sail was what I believed. It was sold as a common. However when I got it home I found that when the store caught it for me that its sail got split all the way down between the 2nd & 3rd spine. Any Ideas on how or if this can be healed. I isolated it added some salt and API to stop any infection. Any other Ideas??? Please help

DAve

Re: Is it possible to heal a split sail on a pl*co

Posted: 16 Oct 2008, 02:19
by Silurus
There is no need for you to do anything if you keep your water conditions optimal. The fin membrane will heal by itself.

Re: Is it possible to heal a split sail on a pl*co

Posted: 16 Oct 2008, 09:34
by MatsP
I moved this post to the appropriate forum.

I agree with silurus, this type of damage is fairly common and very minor - it will grow back in a week or two, and as long as it's not repeatedly injured in the same way (and there's no reason to believe that will be the case here, I'm just mentioning it because we have seen cases where fish are harassed by others and get scar tissue in places of repeated injuries), you'll never know.

--
Mats

Re: Is it possible to heal a split sail on a pl*co

Posted: 16 Oct 2008, 10:05
by andywoolloo
I agree too, on the healing. one of my synos injured his top fin on unknown what, possibly ripping thru the tank when they play or maybe on a piece of driftwood taking a corner sharp? I don't know how he did it. But the middle of it was split down and it is all better now. I added some melafix for a few days is all and it's been a few months since and I scoped them all out last night and all top fins perfect.

Re: Is it possible to heal a split sail on a pl*co

Posted: 16 Oct 2008, 14:05
by doesdavid
Looking at all the advice *thank you all*. I'm going to leave it in the treated tank for a week, then gently move it to my Juvy tank where I keep my fish that are not ready for mixing with the adults. Since most of these are smaller midddle of the tank type fish it should be okey there. Thanks again for all the advice( sorry for the wrong forum)
After thinking about it my best guess would be that the sail got hooked on the net, and the guy just ripped it free. When I go to this store again, I'm going to speak to the owner( he dosen't reall know his fish species, but he likes repeat customers)

DAve