bicher rescued from lfs, or big mistake

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kcfan491

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jun 6, 2009
83
0
36
kansas
I went to a lfs two days ago hoping to find a nice looking bicher or possibly a rope fish.

I noticed a tank that said "bicher $10.99", but it was full of scats, archers, and 4 inch puffers. I'm thinking surely they don't have a bicher in a brackish tank with those puffers.

The guy in the fish area didn't know anything about the tank except to tell me it was brackish. He didn't know how much or what kind of salt was in it. He told me the only thing they feed them is plankton. He didn't even know if there was a bicher in the tank.

sure enough when he started moving the rocks around out popped a 6" inch bicher. he was filled out well, maybe even a little chubby, but when I looked closer I noticed that his tail fin was almost completely gone. as a matter of fact the only fins he still had were his front ones. I figure the puffers picked at him everytime he came out to eat.

So of course I bought him. not the prized specimen I was hoping for, but I couldn't leave him in that tank. lol

Anyway he is fairly active now for a bicher. he's been eating since the night I got him. Of course he has a hard time swimming, but other than that he just acts like a normal bicher.

Then suddenly it hit me that he could have fin rot or something similar that had been let go for a long time. I know bichers are disease resistent, and I dont think fin rot would eat at his spike like that, but I've never had a fin rot problem in one of my tanks, so now I'm worried about it.

What do you guys think?

I will try to post some pictures, but the only thing I have right now is the camera on my phone so they won't be the best.
 
good on you for saving the poor thing. If there were puffers in the tank, I wouldn't worry about fin rot, if anything, keep your water pristine and they will heal back. a lot of times they can get back to 100% which is pretty amazing considering how thick the spines of their fins are.


your water looks cloudy, did you just add the sand or is your tank newly setup?
 
Cohazard;3274629; said:
good on you for saving the poor thing. If there were puffers in the tank, I wouldn't worry about fin rot, if anything, keep your water pristine and they will heal back. a lot of times they can get back to 100% which is pretty amazing considering how thick the spines of their fins are.


your water looks cloudy, did you just add the sand or is your tank newly setup?


The tanks only been up about 3 months, so I'm doing two 15% water changes a week right now. I had just done a water change, and was trying to re-establish a plant that had been uprooted, so thats the reason it was cloudy, I had my water checked a few days ago, and all was good, and part of it is just the camera phone

I hope your right about his fins growing back. I'm probably going to get attached to him pretty quickly, because he was so roughed up when I got him.
 
oh since that's sand, then yeah it'll be okay. what do you plan on feeding it?

diet will also be important in the healing of it's wounds.
 
kcfan491;3274557; said:
I'm not seeing where I can post pictures.

when I click the manage attachments tab It says " you have uploaded the maximum of 0 files"
Attachment system is shut down until the server transfer of this site is completed.
 
Cohazard;3274654; said:
oh since that's sand, then yeah it'll be okay. what do you plan on feeding it?

diet will also be important in the healing of it's wounds.

beef heart and nightcrawlers

what would you recommend?

By the way I love your tanks. the bicher tank videos i saw in the media lounge would be my idea of a perfect tank
 
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