Nasty split tail fins

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doviiman

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Apr 12, 2007
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Damn it:cry::cry:, came home yesteday to find both my baby armatus with very nasty split tail fins. One almost has no fins in the middle. Do they usually grow back with age, or is it split for life? I have seen some rather large fish with tail fins that never grew back. I also seen a video where a person cut his red arrowana's tail fin down to the lowest point to get it to grow back. Does anyone have any experience with this.
The bad thing is I am not sure who did this, as all the fish are the same size in the tank (4in dorado, 4in GATF, 4in Albino knife, 3 4in Indo DATs and a 4in arapima) what the hell man:irked::irked:
 
I would probably place the blame on the Dorado as the culprit but you have some potentially pretty nasty fish in there though.The fins should heal if they are given a chance to but it sounds like something is chasing the armatus around.
 
I would probably place the blame on the Dorado as the culprit but you have some potentially pretty nasty fish in there though.The fins should heal if they are given a chance to but it sounds like something is chasing the armatus around.

I am really hoping so, I have moved the two armatus to a 75 gallon by themselves. The dorado hey?, are they known for that? I didn't figurte them to be nippers, in fact mine seems kind of whimpy/skiddish, I have only seen him eat a minnow one time. I was thniking maybe the gatf, but at this point if those tail don't grow back, they are going to look awful. Is there any medicine that helps with this. If not I will have to trade them in on a new model...
 
Don't give up on them!Good move relocating them so that they can calm down from whatever stress that went along with their fins being ripped and now they can heal peacefully.Give them time and clean water and they should be fine.
 
They will heal, but its going to happen regardless over & over maybe even death with that combo. The dorado & dats will most likely pick on the atf & armatus, the Paima & knife will outgrow those fish and eat them if u don't move them in the future. Imo Atf are best kept alone when juvenile since they are so fragile, & with my experience dorados just mess everyone up in a community. Gl though i had a similiar stock a couple of times in the past.
 
They will heal, but its going to happen regardless over & over maybe even death with that combo. The dorado & dats will most likely pick on the atf & armatus, the Paima & knife will outgrow those fish and eat them if u don't move them in the future. Imo Atf are best kept alone when juvenile since they are so fragile, & with my experience dorados just mess everyone up in a community. Gl though i had a similiar stock a couple of times in the past.

So I guess the Dorado is the culprits, did not know they were that aggressive. I have never had a fish get nipped that bad nor have I owned a fish that nipped that bad, I mean its terrible. If the dorado is the problem, he is out of here. I don't want my fish looking as if they are not properly cared for.
As for he GATF, yeah I know they are slow gowers as they will be in a grow out 125gal for some time, I can already see where the other fish are leap froggin them in sizes, especially the Armatus. When I first got the armatus along with 4 PB, the GATF looked as if he could eat them all whole. Now three weeks later, though the PB are a little larger, but still look like a minnow to the GATF, the armatus is the size of the GAFT is not bigger.
They are all in grow out tanks until large enough to go into the 900gal.
 
A few years ago I the mistake of putting two Dorados in a tank to grow out together.One became more dominant and nearly harrassed the other to death as well as some of the other fish in the tank..
 
So why do so many peolple go crazy over this fish. I only bought him for the shear sise they get, in my quest to have a true monster tank with a few monster fish, but I don't know now. Plus he thing sems to never eat when I put food in the tank. I tried pellets, blood worms, live food, he never seems to have much of an apetite, but yet he is starting to out grow the GATF. Also I had a sturgeon that was his size in he tank that has come up mising with out a trace.. Weird
 
So why do so many peolple go crazy over this fish. I only bought him for the shear sise they get, in my quest to have a true monster tank with a few monster fish, but I don't know now. Plus he thing sems to never eat when I put food in the tank. I tried pellets, blood worms, live food, he never seems to have much of an apetite, but yet he is starting to out grow the GATF. Also I had a sturgeon that was his size in he tank that has come up mising with out a trace.. Weird

The armatus is an awesome fish but it,in my experience,does not become very aggressive untill it is almost a foot long.....at the size that yours is it is very vulnerable.Mine is just about twelve inches now and it is number two on the pecking order list in it's tank.I think though that a similar sized dorado will almost always have the upper hand no matter the size of the two fish due to it's hyper activity.I've had them snatch food from the mouths of other bigger fish....and then chase the bigger fish .The dorado is a tremendous fish in it's own right.
 
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