Will this guy grow his fins back?

[Ollie76]

Got this guy from petsmart couple of weeks ago and it looks like he had fin rot but I don’t really know. I mostly want to know if his fins will grow back bc all the other catfish are always scavenging for food and this guy is just sitting there. Just kinda worried that’s all

 

[Perfect]

As long as it isn't into the tissue, it grows back ok.

 

[TClare]

Injured fins can definitely grow back, but if it is fin rot rather than injury I’m not sure, the fact that he is not moving around or feeding is not encouraging.

 

[Ollie76]

Injured fins can definitely grow back, but if it is fin rot rather than injury I’m not sure, the fact that he is not moving around or feeding is not encouraging.

Well he is eating when I put food in but most of the time he just sits under a plant or in a cave. Also I’m not sure if it was fin rot.

 

[Fishfur]

I have to say that it looks to me as though quite a bit of the fin is gone all the way to the caudal stump and if so, is not so likely to grow back In that area though it should where some fin tissue remains. I think he may have suffered an injury.

 

[TClare]

A while back I had an Apistogramma who lost his tail fin completely after being attacked by another while still in quarantine. I put him in a quarantine tank and his tail grew back perfectly. And more recently in my big cichlid tank I notice one of the bentosi tetras was swimming oddly, almost vertically, and it’s tail was completely missing, maybe one of the dwarf pike cichlids or the blue acara bit it, I don’t know. Honestly I thought it would die quickly and wondered if I should euthanise it. I didn’t though. That was over two weeks ago. Today I noticed that the tail is growing back and it is swimming more normally. In both cases I could not see any of the fin remaining. So there is hope, especially if he is feeding and if there is no infection involved.

 

[86 ssinit]

Me I’d remove and put in 5g and add a teaspoon of salt. Change water daily at 50% adding 1/2teaspoon of salt and see what happens. How bad his fins are it’s not likely it will survive in a community tank. Best to qt it.

 

[TClare]

Yes, that makes sense, I did that with the Apistogramma but not with the tetra as I thought it would be too stressful to try and catch it in the big tank, and I honestly thought it would die quickly. But it never got infected, has always been swimming with the group and eating, and now is swimming in a normal position with a very small tail!

 

[DoubleDutch]

Maybe it is an idea to change the substrate first.