Q: I have a buenos aires tetra that I have been treating for about two weeks that I need advice about whether to continue treating it or if it is more humane to euthanize it. The story: this buenos aires lived in a shoal with 8 other buenos aires tetras in their own 30 gallon tank but was always the smallest. I came in one morning to feed them and the other tetras has completely eaten all of this one's fins and tail off (all of the bottom fins as well as the entire tail-just the flesh no bone involved). I immediately moved it to a hospital tank and have been treating it with Maracyn and Maracyn-2. It is not able to swim at all, it lays on its side (it can flip over) and recently has started having a bend to its body. I have been hand feeding it (it will eat a little brine shrimp or tubifex worms) and treating it everyday. Its tail is beginning to grow back and the bottom fins are more than 50% there but it has made no attempt to swim and the bend to the body is getting worse (at least to me). My question: Should I continue treating this poor fish or is it more humane to euthanize it (humanely of course using clove oil and grain alcohol). Thanks for any and all suggestions.
A: It sounds like it's suffering to me. I doubt that it will recover completely and even if it does, are you going to put it back into that tank with the other fish again? If not it will have to live in isolation forever. If it's getting a bend to the body, it sounds like it has more serious damage than just the fins. I would euthanize it. A fish doesn't usually come back from such extreme damage. Sorry. I hate it every time I have to euthanize a fish, too but sometimes its the best alternative.