eek! Sore tail Whiptail!

[L number Banana]

Hi, just took some pics to help me ID and noticed a bare spot on his tail. Can I do anything to help him heal? Should I add anything to the water? He's eating and seems okay, cruising around. He may have had a bite off his tail too, because I haven't been able to see it open yet.
Any nursing advice would be wonderful.
Poor little guy
Here's his bare spot.

[Richard B]

Ooo- that looks a bit nasty - there hardly seems any tail at all

There doesn't look to be any infection at this point but a dose of melafix would be beneficial. Also the sand looks a little rough for a fish that likes to sift through it.

[L number Banana]

Thanks Richard,
His tail is still intact, just saw him lift it so move around. Will buy the melafix asap. It's not the big whip kind of tail, looks like all the rays (?) are there and even. Still small though.

As for the sand, that's kind of bad news! I specifically made sure that I was buying sand that would be 'not too sharp' for a catfish tank!! The whole back of the tank is black flourite, I suppose I could vacuum out the front sand and replace it. Messy but if it you think it looks too sharp, c'est la vie.

I think I want to write a catfish for dummies book...getting lots of experience

[hotsauce48]

Remove the sand asap!It is reef sand not feshh water sand.You should sift through it an dremove any sharp/hard pieces.They sometimes dig.

[L number Banana]

Thanks Hotsauce48,
Sand's gone but the sand in the picture above said it's for both FW and Reef because it has no coral bits. And the shop people told me that it was safe for catfish
I vacuumed it all out and replaced it with 100% silica sand, smooth round, no shells, coral etc. Feels very slippery compared to regular sand, cool. Still have to clean up any bits where the Flourite edge is but I moved all the stones etc so I'll wait until tomorrow to finish that up.
Got the melafix to help heal the skin on his tail. Very weird to put a strong smelling chemical into the water! Kind of counter-intuitive.

Here Whiptail in his new sand:


P.maccus comes out to check out the changes:


Thanks for the tip RichardB, I looked up what sand to use on PFK. Do you think it looks okay? The vacuuming was a breeze so if there's something better to try, feel free to suggest it. Your input is always helpful
Cheers