Injured Fish Question
Posted: Tue Jun 05, 2018 10:04 pmI'm not sure this is the right place to post this, but I'm hoping for some advice.
I have a 4 year old Turtle, along with 3 gold fish. I've had these fish for 2 years now, and they've always all gotten along fine. Honestly the fish pick on each other more than Mr Turtle even looks their way. And obviously I know that at any time they could start disappearing, but I hope and try for the best! Anyway, 2 days ago one of my fish was beaten up very badly. I have no idea who started it, but by the time I saw him, the fish and the turtle were nipping at and chasing him. (The other 2 fish were chasing him the most, so I am thinking they started it and weakened him, and then Mr. Turtle started in on him as well.)
So I took the fish out and put him in an isolation tank. His tail is half gone, one of his fins is completely gone, and he's red all over his body. He was very still, could barely stay upright, and I honestly didn't think he was going to make the night. I treated the water with Melafix and hoped for the best. Well, thankfully he did survive the night. It's now been 2 days and he is looking so much better. He's swimming around and getting used to only having one fin, his body is a little less red... My question is, how long do I need to keep him out of the tank? Do I need to wait until his fins are grown back? Or can I do it sooner? Obviously I don't want to put him back in too soon and have them go right back to beating up on him, but I also don't want to wait too long and have the "dynamic" be messed up to the point where they pick on him for that... *sigh* I'm just not quite sure what to do. Any advice?
I have a 4 year old Turtle, along with 3 gold fish. I've had these fish for 2 years now, and they've always all gotten along fine. Honestly the fish pick on each other more than Mr Turtle even looks their way. And obviously I know that at any time they could start disappearing, but I hope and try for the best! Anyway, 2 days ago one of my fish was beaten up very badly. I have no idea who started it, but by the time I saw him, the fish and the turtle were nipping at and chasing him. (The other 2 fish were chasing him the most, so I am thinking they started it and weakened him, and then Mr. Turtle started in on him as well.)
So I took the fish out and put him in an isolation tank. His tail is half gone, one of his fins is completely gone, and he's red all over his body. He was very still, could barely stay upright, and I honestly didn't think he was going to make the night. I treated the water with Melafix and hoped for the best. Well, thankfully he did survive the night. It's now been 2 days and he is looking so much better. He's swimming around and getting used to only having one fin, his body is a little less red... My question is, how long do I need to keep him out of the tank? Do I need to wait until his fins are grown back? Or can I do it sooner? Obviously I don't want to put him back in too soon and have them go right back to beating up on him, but I also don't want to wait too long and have the "dynamic" be messed up to the point where they pick on him for that... *sigh* I'm just not quite sure what to do. Any advice?