Curled redtail catfish' fin

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

Hello everyone,

I have a 15cm Red tail catfish and it has a curled fin, is there a possible way of correcting it through surgery or should i leave it as it is? Really concerned as his barb seems to be really close to his own body and looks like it will poke itself in the future as it grows.

Any help would be highly appreciated thanks

 

[Colin_T]

Any chance of a picture of the fish?
How long have you had the fish?
How long has the fish had the curled fin?

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

 

[Essjay]

I hope you have a huge tank.......

Phractocephalus hemioliopterus (Red-tail Catfish) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

 

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

Any chance of a picture of the fish?
How long have you had the fish?
How long has the fish had the curled fin?

Check the water quality for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week or until we work out what is going on.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

I do frequent water changes, every week so there should not be any issues regarding water parameter but i will still check on it. I bought it about 5 months ago and it has had that curled fin a month ago. Do you have any suggestions to what could be done please?

 

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

I hope you have a huge tank.......

Phractocephalus hemioliopterus (Red-tail Catfish) — Seriously Fish

www.seriouslyfish.com

It is currently in a 150 tank for grow-out, will move in a 250 gallon after, then finally in my 2000 gallon pond

 

[Colin_T]

can you get a picture showing the fish from the front so we can see both pectoral fins, and maybe one from above?

 

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

There you go

 

[Colin_T]

That's just weird and cool at the same time

I have never seen a fin do that before and it doesn't look like a disease.

All I can think of is a genetic issue, but that should have shown up when the fish was younger and not just started recently, unless it's hormonal related (the fish has reached puberty). The other option is something in the water that is causing the fin ray to change shape. But there isn't really anything that I know of that does that.

Does the fish get a varied diet?
If you feed a lot of dry food, perhaps changing the diet to fish, prawn and squid might help.

Are you using well water or mains water?
There might be something in the water supply that is affecting the fish.

 

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

Yeah it might be up to its genetic. He does get a varied diet, I usually feed some dry food like sinking carnivorous pellets mainly but he also gets some shrimps occasionally. I do not have well water, i used tap water that is dechlorinated.

 

[Colin_T]

Check the tap water for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. See if there is anything in it.

Other than that, monitor the fish and keep us updated on how it goes. If the other fin starts to curl then I would be thinking chemicals in the water or disease. But I really can't think of any diseases that cause fins to curl like that. This could be something new to science or just a genetic freak. Either way it's really quite interesting (at least to me it is).

 

[Jean_nöel fishguru]

Will check it. But do you think this will require surgery in the future or should it be left as is?

 

[Colin_T]

I doubt there is anything a vet could do regarding fixing this with surgery.

I would leave it and monitor it. If the other pectoral fin starts to curl, then maybe contact a fish vet but I wouldn't cut anything unless you absolutely have to. If they cut the pectoral fin rays, they won't grow back.

Because the fish is in an aquarium, deformed fins are less of an issue, and the fish won't starve because of the deformity. The fish should be able to live a long and happy life like that.