Guest NeptuneMom Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Hi, I have a 5" (not including tail) male common who has a 4 1/2" (not including tail) female vailtail girlfriend. They have been buddies for a long time and he always pursues her for courtship purposes. The other day he decided to force his affections on my 2" ryukin and chased her mercilessly all over the tank, followed in hot pursuit by his jilted girlfriend. My poor ryukin was being chased by these 2 big fish and ended up with most of her rear fins torn and some scales missing. When they were done chasing her she was completely exhausted. I didn't remove her to a smaller tank because I was afraid she was too stressed out. It has been 2 days since the incident and she seems back to normal. I was wondering if I should give her Melafin for her torn fins. I did a 1/3 water change yesterday and she seems fine. Please give me your thoughts. Thanks, NeptuneMom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member d_golem Posted March 3, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted March 3, 2007 Torn fins & scale loss will heal quite quickly with pristine water conditions. No need to add any medications. May I know the volume of the tank please? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeptuneMom Posted March 5, 2007 Share Posted March 5, 2007 Hi d golem: Thanks ever so much for your prompt reply. I have a 55 gallon tank. It seemed odd to me that my big common male (Rudy) was in league with his lady friend Bubbles (fantail) in pursuit of the smaller female ryukin. Is there such a thing as jealousy - or is it just territorial that the large female was involved in the chase? Best regards, NeptuneMom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Regular Member Tosakin in Oz Posted March 6, 2007 Regular Member Share Posted March 6, 2007 D-golem is right, but to be safe, if you've got it, it is advisable to add melafix/melafin, it' just a mild antibiotic, like putting disinfectant on a graze or cut in humans, it reduces the chance of getting an infection in the tears. If you don't have mela, you could also give your fish a salt treatment bath (1 teaspoon of aquarium salt, or if you don't have it, you can use non-iodised cooking salt or sea salt per litre) for no more than 20 minutes. Also, if you can separate out your fish from the aggressors, it'll give her a chance to heal, being constantly chased will really put stress on her and can lead to her developping an infection in the cut. I had a girl who was in a similar position as yours, I was giving her salt baths and she was getting worse (started to develop finrot) as soon as I was putting her back straight back in with the love hungry males. It's only since I seperated her out from the males and put her in an outdoor pond (still treating with melafix) has the finrot started to recede and the tail start to re-fuse/heal. Stress free environment is really important for the fish to give them a chance to heal. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest NeptuneMom Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 Hello Tosakin in Oz, Thanks so much for your guidance. At the moment all seems to be calm and everyone is at peace. I did notice my big goldie chasing his original girlfriend around, however, it was short lived. If the mating harrassment continues with the smaller fish I guess I'll have to get another tank for my comet and his girlfriend. YIKES! Best regards, Neptune Mom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Archived
This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.