Hippo Tang Torn Fin

[tdileo]

I rescued this blue tang from someone with a 30G around a year ago and she’s currently about 3” long and resides in my tank. Long term I know she will need to move out because a 4’ tank won’t cut it for a fish like this, but I couldn’t let it stay in the old tank seeing the fishes condition as well as the tank. That’s besides the point, but I just wanted to explain why I have it in an unsuitable long term home before anyone asks. My purpose for this post is her tail fin. When I got her, she was pretty beat up, and is doing so much better now, but still has these two tears on her tail fin and they have just never regrown.

Sorry for the poor photo, I took it with my phone and she’s very active so a good picture is hard, but you can see what I’m talking about here. Will those missing pieces ever grow back, or is she just going to be a little unique for life?

 

[WWIII]

How long have you had the fish? I would be surprised if the fin didn't grow back 100%. You can feed a little selcon with seaweed along with other high quality foods. Also just keeping the water quality really high will help to get the fin grown back.

 

[tdileo]

How long have you had the fish? I would be surprised if the fin didn't grow back 100%. You can feed a little selcon with seaweed along with other high quality foods. Also just keeping the water quality really high will help to get the fin grown back.

I’ve had the fish since last year, I forget if it was late Summer or early Fall but I do know it was somewhere around that time. My fish all get fed twice a day, usually my own frozen mix or LRS and I use selcon twice a week in flakes or Thera-A pellets since I’ve found dry food absorbs it best. I have nori in the tank every day and the tang and my foxface destroy it lol. This system has stable and very good water quality and is actually mostly SPS, but I do have euphyllia, anemones, acans, etc to fill in spaces with less light and flow. I have experience taking in other hurt fish and the fins usually grow back all the way in less than a month, but these little spots haven’t changed at all.

 

[Saltyanimals]

I have a almost 1 yr old blue tang that lost its tail due to fin rot just a couple months in. It was pretty bad with flesh exposed and all and a tiny nub left. I thought she was a goner, but recovered from the rot after about a few weeks in QT and back to DT. I estimate about 8-9 months since the fin rot and her tail is still missing. See pic. Notice the little sliver of yellow at the end. That's the piece that has regrown in those 8-9 months. At this rate I wonder if/when it'll ever grown back to 'normal'. Regardless she's happy, eating and no issues swimming and competing for food so fairly healthy for a fish missing a tail. lol. Maybe that's her new normal.