Catfish has ripped up tail?!?!?
Ok so i have an aquarium (if you call 3 fish and 2 plants in a 5.5 gallon tank an aquarium 
) in my bedroom, with 2 catfish (one channel cat and one yellow bullhead) and a bluegill, possibly a tiny pumpkin seed (we’re not sure yet, hes so small). I put them in the bathtub so i could clean their tank and noticed one of my catfish’s (not sure which one, its hard to tell when there back in the tank) tail was ripped up. it looked like someone had taken scissors and cut sections in his tail, like a sheet of paper. No, nobody in the house would’ve cut her. I’m not sure if both of the catfish are female, we just call them girls. Last night i noticed the tail was healing better, but i want to know what caused this to happen. My dad owns a bait shop and he said that perch’s fins get cut up when they reproduce, but im not sure about catfish. i don’t want to ask my dad cuz he wont tell me, just tell me that shes fine and there’s "nothing wrong with her". that’s why i turn to yahoo answers for these kind of things. PLEASE HELP!!!
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When it says "it looked like someone had tanken scissors and cut sections in HIS tail" i meant she 
lol little typo (if it is a girl )
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Filed under: Cat Furniture
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Ok, thats NOT fin rot if it doesn’t fit the following.
Symptoms:
* Fin edges turn white
* Fins fray
* Bases of fins enflamed
* Entire fin may rot away
I have had this happen to my Red Tail Cat, and it’s usually from being chased around the tank by our Giraffe cat. He could have hit it on some decor, or from transporting him to the bathtub, but in a tank that size he doesn’t have much swimming room and can easily bump around. BTW, you shouldn’t be having to move your fish to clean the tank. Especially not to the bathtub. You use chemicals to clean it, and it has soap residue in there. You shouldn’t be draining the whole tank (if you are) to clean in. On a side note you will need a much larger aquarium for those two cats, and other fish. My channel cat started growing very fast and ended up becoming aggressive and ate many other smaller and not so small fish. After it ate my baby frontosa, it was off to the store with him. Melafix will help with healing, though just doing daily water changes would suffice. Melafix lowers the oxygen in the water, so you will need to make sure you have extra water agitation, not a bubbler, they don’t do much.
It could be fin rot. I had that happen to my guppies, which got better, then the illness came back full force and killed them. To be on the safe side go to a walmart or something and buy Melafix. Treatment is on the back of the bottle. It is contagious so the sooner you treat it the better.
(If it is rot) Sometimes fish just get spooked and thrash into plants and decor. Which can cause the ripped fin. This means that if it isn’t rot it could get infected and turn into it.
BUY THE MELAFIX!!
Hope I Could Help!!