# Geryi Really Beat Up



## primetime3wise

this guy has been the most targeted by my other 4 geryi in my 125g tank. yesterday i had planned to separate the most dominant one from the rest, but i woke up this morning to this! overnight he went from kind of bad, to REALLY REALLY bad. so, i was forced to set up a hospital tank, but, i am doubtful that he will recover. what do people think? does his tail fin have much of a chance of coming back? i know the body bites and other fins should be fine. i treated the tank with salt and melafix. part of the problem was i took out all decor, so the tank went from heavily planted to bare, and they had to reestablish territories.























also should mention he can't swim right now, as you see from the pic he is upright.


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## JoeDizzleMPLS

Hard to say for certain about the tail... it looks like there's still a bit of tail fin at the top, so some if not all may grow back.


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## BRUNER247

Poor dude. I doubt tail fin will grow back. I've never had a tail fin grow back if its down to the meat. GL though.


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## Grosse Gurke

You need to set up a hospital tank. It is so much easier to medicate and monitor a fish in a 10 gallon...then a 125. Cheaper on the meds also. He looks like he has given up to me....so you really need to get him separated. His tail might grow back...or it might grow back a little odd shaped. First thing though...get him away from the other fish so he can settle down.


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## FEEFA

Ahhh that sucks prime, really sorry to hear / see this.

This is why I always say to keep serras solo, this doesnt always happen but when it does it sucks.

Seems to be in pretty ruff shape, hope that he pulls through for you


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## primetime3wise

Grosse Gurke said:


> You need to set up a hospital tank. It is so much easier to medicate and monitor a fish in a 10 gallon...then a 125. Cheaper on the meds also. He looks like he has given up to me....so you really need to get him separated. His tail might grow back...or it might grow back a little odd shaped. First thing though...get him away from the other fish so he can settle down.


must have not been clear, i already have him separated in a 40g breeder i just purchased. treated w/ salt and melafix.


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## BRUNER247

He stated he set up a recovery tank. Looked pretty clear to me.lol


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## Tensa

ive had a P with a similar tail injury before. it wasnt upright like yours is in the tank which is the main cause of concern but in my case it grew back completely even though it was injured to the meat. it was a much smaller P though at the time. so as long as he makes it fingers crossed he heals fully. def will have some scaring though.


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## Trigga

damn man thats a shame right there...

is he moving at all or just flowing with the current? if he makes it the next couple of days i think he will make it although i dont see that tail growing back


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## Grosse Gurke

My bad...maybe I shouldnt respond to threads at work.


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## Trigga

if that red with half its back gone can survive a geryi with a few scratches and a chunk of tail fin gone should be able to recover.. i dont know about putting him back in the shoal but he should be fine as a solo fish


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## primetime3wise

i guess we'll see over the next 2 weeks or so. he is doing ok, not struggling like he was earlier in the 125g. he found a nice dead spot in the hospital tank and is just staying there. still upright though, which is a cause for concern, but, it's good to see he's still kickin'. hopefully at least some of the tail fin grows back, even if it is just half i'll be glad for him.

i had a silver dollar that was missing most it's tail fin and that never grew back, but he is like 2" and still able to swim.

the remaining 4 are doing fine now. like GG said in a pm, with serras if it is working don't change it...probably should have left all that decor in as reestablishing territory was the largest factor as why he got so beat up.

not sure what i am gonna do. first i will see how well he heals. a cause of concern is the dominant one taking 1/2+ of the tank, but, they aren't fighting much. he goes after the now, weakest, sometimes, but not too much. i'll have to decide if i want to leave the strongest one in.


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## CLUSTER ONE

Damn I didn't think you ment that bad of a tail fin bite. It's hard to see how much damage there is as it is abit mangled. The side wounds would heal fine but the tail may not. Being a geryi I would give it as much of a chance as you can and at least give it a week or so to see if it shows any improvements or if it will even last that long.

I would get some eggcrate to make a divider so you have one ready if nessisary and possibly remove the dominant one.


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## primetime3wise

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Damn I didn't think you ment that bad of a tail fin bite. It's hard to see how much damage there is as it is abit mangled. The side wounds would heal fine but the tail may not. Being a geryi I would give it as much of a chance as you can and at least give it a week or so to see if it shows any improvements or if it will even last that long.
> 
> I would get some eggcrate to make a divider so you have one ready if nessisary and possibly remove the dominant one.


it was just over this past night that it went from mild to moderate wounds, to REALLY bad


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## Smoke

Hope he makes it


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## Guest

Prime, sry to see one of your Geryi's beat to hell. We all know this is a part of P keeping but it never makes it easy. I hope he pulls through for you.


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## primetime3wise

he died overnight









i think it was more traumatic/stressful than anything else, as i didn't think his wounds were severe enough to cause death. also, being moved to a (new) hospital tank was probably stressful enough on top of what happened.

well, glad i have the spare 40g now, as i am moving the most dominant one into it, temporarily. right now the s.o.b. has over 3/4 of the tank to himself and has cornered the other 3 into the left end of my 125g. I'm thinking he might be a great solo fish for the rest of his life.


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## cduuuub

sorry for the loss.

what are you going to do with the other 3 should you keep the dominate one separate?


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## FEEFA

Ah that sucks Prime, in all honesty he really looked in bad shape but i was trying to stay posotive.
Once they loose their balance like that they usually dont last much longer but you never know.

RIP


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## CLUSTER ONE

Damn that sucks. Interesting the difference in pygo and serra sattacks as if that was a pygo it would be in half. Sucks even more since you pretty much lost 2 from your shoal. Hopefully the last 3 will live peacefully and mayby even spawn.


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## primetime3wise

cduuuub said:


> Damn that sucks. Interesting the difference in pygo and serra sattacks as if that was a pygo it would be in half. Sucks even more since you pretty much lost 2 from your shoal. Hopefully the last 3 will live peacefully and mayby even spawn.


yeah i'm hoping for that...we'll see what happens. this might be a good size tank, 125g, for just 3 of them.


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## Smoke

Sucks to hear. Good luck with the remainder.


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## TheCableGuy

That really sucks


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## primetime3wise

thanks guys. the mistake i made was taking all that decor out. then, they had to reestablish territories which always leads to more aggression, and hence the weakest being picked on.

the remaining 3 are doing well so far, more room to roam and establish territories of their own withe the really dominant one gone...we'll see what happens over the next few weeks and months.

the one by himself now is one beautiful fish. flawless. it will be interesting to see if he becomes more aggressive towards me and how his behavior differs from the others.

the other 3 are nice too. one is like a smaller version of the one by himself. another is very nice except part of his lower lip is gone, but seems to be coming back really slowly. the 3rd is the smallest and now weakest, a little beat up, but not too bad. the other 2 seem to really be distracted now by the powerhead and enjoy it.


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## Grosse Gurke

CLUSTER ONE said:


> Damn that sucks. Interesting the difference in pygo and serra sattacks as if that was a pygo it would be in half. Sucks even more since you pretty much lost 2 from your shoal. Hopefully the last 3 will live peacefully and mayby even spawn.


Geryi teeth are the most adept at stripping scales of any Serrasamus I have ever had. They have fangs...unlike most that have even teeth.


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## primetime3wise

Grosse Gurke said:


> Damn that sucks. Interesting the difference in pygo and serra sattacks as if that was a pygo it would be in half. Sucks even more since you pretty much lost 2 from your shoal. Hopefully the last 3 will live peacefully and mayby even spawn.


Geryi teeth are the most adept at stripping scales of any Serrasamus I have ever had. They have fangs...unlike most that have even teeth.
[/quote]

most of the injuries to the body happened overnight. looking at the pics i took confirm the scale stripping.


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## Grosse Gurke

Really sorry to year you lost him....these fish are not as hardy as most of the other species. As I told you over pm....I never had one body bite in my geryi groups....it was always fin and scale attacks. Even when I lost a fish in the tank....there was never any cannibalism.


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## primetime3wise

thanks. i'm really hoping things improve now that the crazy aggressive one is separated. i know it's been hardly any time, but the 3 left in the 125g seem to already be doing much better.


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## Piranha-Freak101

Again sorry fo your loss prime, RIP


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## bricklr

Sorry for your loss


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## cduuuub

How hard would it be to add another one to that shoal? I'm going to assume a lot harder then it would be for a pygo shoal?


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## primetime3wise

generally, i would think it would be harder just because they are a serrasalmus species. it's a good chance i could get another with the same attitude as the one i separated. though, i really think an even larger tank would help with that...GG seemed to have more success when he went really really big...180g. if i do end up upgrading i may toss the one back in, or pick up another one or two.


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## Inflade

I think you are on the right track with keep that agressive one solo.


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## Grosse Gurke

Adding fish really depends on the fish added. If you have a group that works....as long as you add a fish that isnt overly dominant then I never had any problems. My tank always had 3 or 4 dominant fish...so they would keep the tank in order. By dominant I mean they had the best spots in the tank...leaving spots that were less then ideal to the smaller guys. Overstocking is better then understocking with these guys....it keeps aggression down.


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## theblackduck8907

Sorry for your loss man


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## primetime3wise

Grosse Gurke said:


> Adding fish really depends on the fish added. If you have a group that works....as long as you add a fish that isnt overly dominant then I never had any problems. My tank always had 3 or 4 dominant fish...so they would keep the tank in order. By dominant I mean they had the best spots in the tank...leaving spots that were less then ideal to the smaller guys. Overstocking is better then understocking with these guys....it keeps aggression down.


i was thinking about trying that, overstocking, but that's a lot of cheddar $$$.

the three left are doing really well, there seems to be little fighting now, with the dominant one gone separated and the tank understocked.


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