Emperor Tetra With Ragged Fin

[deni]

A few days ago I noticed my male Emperor Tetra looking a bit ragged. The large fin underneath has several tears in it. It's mystery why this has happened suddenly. I've had him for around two years and up till now he's always looked gorgeous. Could it be fin rot? I checked the water and all the readings are fine, same as usual but just to be on the safe side I did an extra water change. My tank has been up and running for four years all the other fish are well and happy and have been for ages. The only other thing I thought of was could one of my yo-yo loaches be nipping him? They're the newest fish but I've had them for a few months and only just noticed the Emperor's fin looking ragged. I've not seen any of the yo-yos chasing him either. Any suggestions? Should I add some Melafix or would extra water changes help?

 

[tetras4me]

dempends what other fish do you have? is there any cicleds in there? it shouldent fin rot because if it was it probly would have spread to the other fish. so your saying that just one day its fin were torn??


so many questions...

 

[deni]

Thanks for your reply tetras4me. I have 4 silver-tipped and 2 glowlight tetras, 2 SAEs, an albino bristlenose and three baby yo-yo loaches in my tank which is a 20 gallon high. All the tetras have co-existed with no problems for at least 2 years. The yo-yos are the most recent additions to the tank.

The emperor tetra's fin seems to be healing up now BTW. It seems Melafix and extra water changes did the trick. I was concerned because about a year ago he got ragged fins and pop-eye because of a bacterial infection in the tank when I lost quite a lot of fish. Luckily he recovered, but I was worried that he had got sick again. All our other fish seem fine though.