The Tail Issue

      Things have been pretty steady in Auberon's aquarium these past few months, save for an incident that occurred mid-October-- Auberon tore his tail on a piece of driftwood.

Offending driftwood removed and tank rearranged, time moved along and the tear began to heal.

     Everything seemed fine on the fin front until this past weekend when I noticed what appeared to be some red ulceration on Auberon's fins. Due to their proximity to the tear, and thanks to some online sleuthing, I deduced that the redness was likely a bacteria infection introduced by the tear. 

      After noticing the red spots, I immediately performed a water change (complete with detailed vacuuming) and added some Stress Guard. On Sunday night, seeing as there had been no change, I decided I would drive to the fish store the next morning and pick up some Kanaplex to start treatment, however, when I woke up on Monday morning, the redness was gone!

      Now, closing in on a week later, the redness has not returned and things appear to be just as they were before.

      I'm glad to have not medicated Auberon unnecessarily but I'm concerned that there is still some underlying, less visible, infection lingering. Auberon and his tail have done so much growing since I brought him home, it's hard to tell if the ragged edged I'm seeing are fin rot or fin growth.

      Moving forward, I'll continue to try and maintain pristine water conditions for continued tail healing and to, hopefully, deter any more redness.