I've had him since the 12th of May. he's been in the hospital tank for awhile, since the 7th of July. when his tail grew back the first time, it had these ruffles at the end like a half moon's, that just wouldn't go away. I hoped if I changed the water every day it would be able to heal up, so I left in the HT, but no luck.... the day before I left I got up really early so I could give him a good water change before I had to go. he yawned REALLY big then, but only once and I figured maybe because I'd just woken him up. I only notice it when I'm feeding him, not a regular basis, though I can try to watch him for awhile and see if I'm just missing it...
weirdness-wise...
well he was having issues with his fin ofcourse... I'd gotten it healed up except a tiny triangle ( not bitten, where the tear had been, and it had healed back together except for that part ). I'd given it a week or so but seen no improvement, so I thought maybe it was just permanent, and I added in some new plants. I rinsed them really thoroughly, but either they had bacteria on them still somehow, or they had started to die and released a ton of ammonia, because overnight a day later, his fins just went way down-hill. several tears and pinholes. that's when I added him to the hospital tank.
he did that thing some where they look at you super pitiful and wounded-like >.< so I guess you could say he seemed a tad dejected. but for the most part he seemed okay. and kept acting fine, and the looks kinda died down and the fins healed up except for the ruffles. I kept him in the HT hoping they'd completely heal, and started adding in warm water when I did water changes. he really seemed to love that, got all perked up and started flaring and swimming around like mad and parading everywhere. his fins unclamped for the first time since the petshop, and I was starting to see luster in his color, and more blue color. for awhile it was great. then I dunno what happened... for a week or several he was grand, then slowly he started to get less active at water changes, not as excited.. I thought it was laterish at night so maybe he was just sleepy.. he still seemed pretty okay. my parents made me leave on vacation for a week, left him in the care of a neighbor.. less food, no water changes, no interaction... she didn't even bother to remove his waste. all I could do was fix the water and not trust her with him again though. he was a little moody with me, hid from me a lot and gave me looks and wouldn't flare or swim around me, but he was just being moody. with my family or if I left he was fine. so I went back to regular changes and all. he was less excited about them, even more so now, but I thought maybe he was just mad at me still. his appearance also had lost color again, and looked a little pale, but the paleness went away and returned to the dull color, and it didn't really get the luster back, but I figured it'd take time. over that week he seemed to warm back up well enough all things considered, not completely back, but mostly. he still stayed in the cup more than he used to, and occasionally I'd notice him just laying on his leaf for thirty minutes to an hour... if you got his attention he'd check you out, then go back to just laying there.... and he didn't seem as fond of the water changes, again. I also noticed at one point he seemed to start to flare during a water change, and then abruptly stop, or only half-way do it. the tossing of the head and the mildly puffing up during eating also began somewhere in this point. then my parents told me we'd have to leave three days to take my brother to college. definitely not happy, but no choice, so I just kept trying to fix the water.. a few days before we left, I noticed his caudal fin had some "rays" on it. I also noted that the fin had very hard-to-see rusty brown edges. but I know regrowth can be dark sometimes, so I figured I'd just have to watch it.
I did a water change, added in less than half a teaspoon of AQ salt, ( it's not filled to the top because there's no lid )
and had to hope for the best.
then the hurricane came, and we couldn't get home, so our trip ended up being maybe five days instead... my dad flew home right before it came in, so I asked him to feed him and remove waste... I don't know if the person who kept him for three days removed it or not, but if he didn't, my dad did remove it. when I came home I could see his tail was much shorter... and looked as described above.. I haven't added anymore salt, but have done several water changes. I don't know how he acted in the care of the neighbors or my dad, but I noticed he was very indifferent to everything, just kindof drifted and floated around. he'd been doing this occasionally before we left, but not enough to worry me. now he does it most of the time, or hides/sleeps. occasionally I'll glance over and seem him swimming like he used to, but it's far less often and more times he's doing the other now..
I was hoping that maybe with so little going on he'd become a hermit, but now this eating has me worried. it started with the head jerks, not sure if he's always done that and I just never saw, or if it's new... then the mild puffing, then the mild puffing and yawning, then the ignoring and spitting out, and now the forcing it out with the clear puffing/shoving motion.. the last time he grabbed it, spat it out, tried to eat it again, held it down for half a minute or so, then did the shoving thing. I think he swallowed it, but he didn't keep it down for some reason. my mom claims she saw him eat both pellets this morning with vigor.... I tried soaking one in case it was too hard, but he hardly even looked at it.
he also swims with his nose pointing to the ground more lately, kindof like he's glass surfing, but doing so on the bottom 0-o
he used to do this in his large tank, but he'd just find a spot where the rocks were gone, look at his reflection for a second, play with it, and then swim off. he seems to swim fine when he's not doing that, so I don't think it's swimbladder.
he also swam sideways the other day along the bottom rapidly, but he was scooting through the coffee mug handle and couldn't get through any other way. ( he likes to play with small spaces, he LOVES squeezing and weaving through them. )
I think that covers it ;-;"""