Split fins are a common ailment, and often take the longest to heal up, if they ever do! they can be caused by netting and they can be caused by a split pot in the pond too, but but a friend of mine had one (a nice ochiba) split in a cat attack too which also got badley infect and he lost the fish, split fins can be a real problem, so keep an eye on it.

As for treatments, there are a few on the market, some people have even sown the fin back together and it has healed fine, but in most cases it will spoil the look of the fish.

thx ajc. i gave him a salt bath and gave the wound a clean with a cotton bud. he was very calm and is now swimming around the tank quite happily and feeding. will keep an eye on it and look into possible treatments. first priority is the wound at the mo then the split fin later i think. o/

sew the wound up????? thats horrid...you have no fear!

If you do ever need to carry out more intensive wound treatment on a fish, use the Kusuri Anesthetic. It's wonderful. You have a still fish to treat, no struggles or panic, just a calm sedated fish.I was amazed at how effective it is and how calm the fish is afterwards. It's got to be better than trying to treat a flapping panicked fish, better for you and the fish! Mind you make sure you have a bowl of fresh pond water to put fish in after treatment- 1st time I didn't and ended up putting her back into the water with the anesthetic in it. I panicked a bit when it seemed to take ages to wake the fish up, but of course she'd had another dose of anesthetic. Good job the fish couldn't sue!

good point about the fresh water after anesthetic. although it wasnt required this time. we have used an nt labs one to good effect. i was told as a general rule it should take about the same time to wake up as it took to go to sleep. so if it takes longer? panic lol personally think its more stressful to the owner than the fish d:(

Annabel, sowing them up is no different to us being sown up, and given the choice of sowing up a badley slpit fin or cutting it off completely, or an infection getting right upto and into the muscle and the fish dieing i would try sowing first, cosmetics are not so important as saving the fish, sowing the fins back together takes a lot longer than it does for humans to heal, but if it saves the fish and the fin its worth it i think.

so how are your sowing skills then annabel? :)