FishProfiles.com Message Forums

I have a Gold Barb that had it's tail chomped down to the bone by other tankmates. It is completely gone. I finally moved it to a new tank where it can be on it's own. It can still swim by wiggling it's rear end a little more but it just looks bad to see a tail-less fish. Will a new tail grow back? Does it take weeks/months? Is there anything else i can do?

If it's as bad as it sounds (down to the bone) it won't grow back. If you have a bit of tail left it should grow back with good diet and water quality. Some Melafix would help prevent an infection and promote healing. Good luck : )

The Amazon Nut...

A tail will grow back if there is a small amount of it left, but if it has all gone past the 'point of no return' it won't.
We had a large and very naughty Tropheus Dubosi (Evil Edna) and had to put her in a tank on her own because she kept attacking everything, her tank got damaged and she had to be moved overnight into a tank with my Amazonian Pufferfish and 2 Australian redclaw crayfish (Ronnie & Reggie) - next morning she had no tale, she'd attacked 1 of the Crays and learnt the hard way not to.
1 part of her 'nip' was down to the bone and it bled for several days, we treated her in a weak solution of Methelene Blue (spellings wrong) and even applied it directly via a cotton bud - her tale completely grew back but it took a few months.

I have a betta that had to share its tank with a keyhole who was getting beat up in its tank...one night and the betta was almost a completely fin-less fish Obviously the keyhole got moved, but I treated the betta's tank with Melafix and today he's almost a normal-looking fish. It took quite a while but it was worth the effort.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
There is water at the bottom of the ocean

Well now i don't have to worry about it growing back. Sadly, the Barb died yesterday.

I'm sorry to hear that Brian

The Amazon Nut...

I had a female swordtail who lost about 1/3 of her tail to an aggressive tankmate. I isolated her for about a week and applied antibiotics. Her tail returned to it's normal shape in a month or so and several months later it looks completely normal. Sorry to hear about your Barb...

A completely de-tailed fish will often die of exhaustion within a few days even if there is no secondary infection.

Sorry for your loss.