Please Help! My Flowerhorn got a cut on its tail

[EsoxAqua]

I’m not sure how this even happened because all I have in his tank is a filter and sand substrate. This is the first time this has happened so I’m not to sure what to do about it. Is it life threatening to my fish? It seems like he is doing fine at the moment. Swimming normally and acting the same. Also he is still eating.

 

[danotaylor]

Definitely looks traumatic to me. Show us a full tank shot.
In the meantime keep your nitrates <5 with regular water changes and add salt at 1tbsp/5gal to reduce the chance of infection.
There was a guy recently that got an Asian aro shipped and its whole tail right at the peduncle was sheared off. It grew back fortunately. It was much closer to the meaty part of the tail than yours so there’s a good chance it will regrow. How it will reconnect in with the rest of the tail I cannot say.

 

[thiswasgone]

Will it heal? Yes.

Is it life threatening? Not really unless your water quality is really ****.

The main issue you will have is that the tail will probably heal crooked unless you carefully stitch the wound or use a special adhesive to close the gap. Alternatively you can try trimming the tail via surgery but this may take multiple rounds. If you don't care about the appearance though it should be mostly cosmetic damage.