Guppy fry had his tail eaten.

[TinyDancingHoofer]

Bowie, my biggest guppy fry/young adult had his tail eaten. Not just had the fin shredded but the whole thing eaten, and some flesh too. He accidentally got taken from the fry tank and put into the baby loach tank this morning

He is back in the fry tank, with melafix and salt in the water, he sat under a statue for a while and i was quite sure he was going to die from stress.

Surprisingly he perked up and is swimming around with his friends, eating and still pushing other fish around. He can swim alright, though maybe a bit slower than normal, but he looks awful.

Is there anything anyone would suggest to improve healing and try to lower the chance of infection?

Eek Poor little Bowie (awesome name!).

He sounds like he's OK despite what sounds like a pretty bad injury. Have you got piranhas in with your loaches?!

The danger is infection so the salt and melafix is a good plan. You'll also probably need to do extra water changes to make sure the water is in really, really good condition.

There are other things you can get if the melafix doesn't work. I've had luck with Esha 2000 before but if it's really bad then he might need antibiotics. You'd have to talk to a vet about that or buy them illegally on ebay.

Ha, no piranhas just little dwarf chains and a couple of sumo IIs. The guppy must have been 2.5cm and the chains are only 3.5cm but one had him pinned down and was munching away. Really surprised as they used to have some very tiny tetras in with them and they got on fine.

I half expected to find him dead this morning but he is perky as ever. I have some esha 2000 but there is no sign of infection yet. Do you think i should throw some in anyway?

Extra water changes, so obvious but i completely didn't think of that. Will do one tonight. It's a pretty small tank so i should be able to whip out a couple of buckets of water a day until he's healed up.

What naughty drugs should i be trying to get hold of? I did get a friend to send some levamisole from the states once

I am totally law-abiding so have no idea metronidazole is a popular one sometimes known as fishzole. There are details on dosage here.

It would probably be pretty easy to get a prescription from a vet though.

Ta very much will of course go online shopping to vet if things take a downwards turn.