Injured fin? :(

[pedzola]

So I was just looking at my red tail shark... and noticed he wasn't moving his left fin, but using his tail and the right fin to move around.

Upon closer inspection I noted the area around the base of the fin to be pinkish, whereas the other fin has a black base, like the rest of the shark.

He chases around my tinfoil barb and giant danios all the time (40g community tank). I'm thinking he could have hit his fin on a plant or decoration in the tank and injured it. Is this the likely cause, or is it an indication of some kind of disease or something? :(

For the time being, I've put him in my hospital/quarantine tank. It is a 7g-long tank, and he hates it, but at least he can't chase other fish in here, or even get going very fast.

If it is an injured fin, should I keep him into the small tank until he is using it again? Or should I just put him back in the big tank and hope he doesn't injure it worse or etc?

I've attached a couple of pictures of the shark... what do you think?

http://webpages.charter.net/pedzola/images/shark_inj1.jpg
http://webpages.charter.net/pedzola/images/shark_inj2.jpg

[OrionGirl]

Looks like he might have gotten it caught on something, or hit something hard. As long as the doesn't get worse (bright red, losing scales, ulcering), it will probably clear up on it's own in a week or so.

[pedzola]

Maybe I reacted too fast on this one.... either that or my shark is magic.

The pink area turned black again and he's using the fin regularly now. It's only been about 45 minutes since I took those pictures!

I'm gonna keep him in the small tank for observation for the rest of the day anyway, just in case.


:shark:

[OrionGirl]

Could be that you caught him right after the tweak. I'd observe for a day or two, as well, just to be sure.

[pedzola]

Thanks :) I <3 my shark. ^__^