Heckel Hair Cut!!!!

[FishyMatty]

To be honest I'm not overly surprised at the growth rate of the newly trimmed fins. IME when a discus gets a fin split or a scratch they usually heal with in 3-4 days in clean water. So my question is was the damage to the heckles fins permanent before your trim?
I really have to say I'm very impressed with your ability to trim the fins so well and in such a manner to not have the fish out of water long enough to kill him.
I kind of skipped most of the tread so forgive me if this question was asked.
Was the fin trim done to get the fish back to a state fit for sale or was it detrimental to the fishes health? Or was it merely just an experiment to see what can be done in a case where this is necessary?

[brewmaster15]

Matt,
When you have a chance read back thru it... we had some good discussions there...


When a fish has bad fin rot there can be permanent scar tissue that prevents the normal regrown.. It depends on the extent..The fish in this question would not have healed on its own and had been in the possession of its former owner francisco for many months with no sign of improvement.

This fishes condition posed no risk to its health as the scarring was from a long healed infection.

To recap why I did this...

I have many reasons for why I did this.


Some of them are as follows.

1) aesthetic beauty. How many would cull a fish with imperfect finnage? How many would avoid buying one because of this kind of damage? How many would avoid showing a picture of one that they had because they would get criticized by many for it? How many board posts have been heated over the topics of how a fish appeared? Aesthetic beauty Drives this hobby.

How many times have we seen ""sell the best...cull the rest"?

2) Knowledge... The knowledge of how Discus finnage regenerates has the potential to help many people that do want Discus specimens with really nice fins that may have been badly damaged by multiple causes. Pursuit of Knowledge about this fish is one of the reasons I got involved with this board.

3)I'm a scientist.. understanding the hows and whys of things is what drives me, and in turn allows me to help others.

4) Technical evaluation... The fish in question was not one of the most severely affected fish.... Its actually a control for other fish that have far more extensive damage.

5) to attempt to undue the damage a careless owner did to a member of a species of fish that I admire more so than any other.


Though I realize that superficially the trimming of the fins may be stressful to the fish, and could be construed as cruel. I think it was probably far more stressful an act to catch these fish in the wild, transport them for days in buckets to airports, then to intermediates, then to wholesalers, and sellers. Finally to an owners tank, where they ,may be mistreated. The procedure used here took literally 1-2 minutes and the fish acted as if nothing had happened moments after returned to the tank.

This will hopefully allow a beautiful fish to become what it would have been had it not been treated poorly at the hands of people in the first place.

hth,
al

[FishyMatty]

Well al I think you did an amazing job and I'm glad he's doing well.

[Sanke]

Good

[Miss_Fish]

I used to do this with betta's all the time. When males got beat up by females, or they just got a huge tear in their fin. Cutting the fins allows for the new growth to come in healthy and with the right structure to the fins/rays.

[jmf3460]

al you are indeed the fish whisperer

[pitdogg2]

Amazing job Brewmaster. I for one would of done this several years ago on one of my Red Terrors that had been busted up in breeding. I always thought that IF the Dept. of Conservation in Illinois did this to fish they released into lake to be able to tell which year the fish were put into the lake during their yearly fish counts. They would trim different fins on different years and then use that to differentiate which year and how much growth since introduction. Several years later we still see fish that have trimmed fins. So that was my reason to never attempt this on my own.

Next time I just may.
Ivan

[brewmaster15]

al you are indeed the fish whisperer

Lol!

[brewmaster15]

Amazing job Brewmaster. I for one would of done this several years ago on one of my Red Terrors that had been busted up in breeding. I always thought that IF the Dept. of Conservation in Illinois did this to fish they released into lake to be able to tell which year the fish were put into the lake during their yearly fish counts. They would trim different fins on different years and then use that to differentiate which year and how much growth since introduction. Several years later we still see fish that have trimmed fins. So that was my reason to never attempt this on my own.

Next time I just may.
Ivan

Tanks Ivan! Just becareful to not damage the hard rays.

-al

[israelillo81]

Hello Al,

Very interesting thread. I have a discus with nearly complete shredded pectoral fins. I decided to give it a try on one side to remove the damaged parts. Motivated by seeing the nice recovery progress on that beautiful heckel.
I comment my results once i see progress .

Regards,
Israel

[rickztahone]

I love seeing this thread resurrected . Good luck with your discus Israel. Take before and after pics

[israelillo81]

215.jpg220.jpg First picture you can see the trimmed side. Second picture you can see how the other untreated fin looks. I will post update after a week to see progress on trimmed pectoral fin

[brewmaster15]

That should grow back fine...just keep the water clean and you will literally see it start growing back in a few days.
al

[israelillo81]

After 12 days of experiment, I have observed the fin is growing back with thew same shredded aspect. Talking to a local breeder here in Singapore he told me this is one genetic defect he has encountered before.

[brewmaster15]

Coming in a little late on this one but Israel, can you tell me your water parameters?

al