I juist bought a new fish and When I was inspectint him at the store he looked fine> There was a blend of colors at the head. I finally got it home to realize that that beautiful blend i saw was a HUGE patch of missing scales! I got it from wal mart and they have no return policy! What can I do for my poor new baby? Will what it has hurt my other fish?

welll first what kind of fish is it?And second walmart is not a place to i would buy fish...

I should have know that! . It is a Gold Fantail

well im not an expert srry

Well thanks for the help anyways . I found out that it is the way it is because of the darn store was treating it ! I am never shopping for MY fish there again!

He may just have scraped himself and scales probably will grow back in time. You should probably quarantine all new fish to prevent spreading disease. I how he turn out well

NEVER BUY THE FISHES AT WALMART THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD OR DOOMED TO BE DEAD IF WALMART HAS THEM...IT IS REALLY SAD!!!

Hi SW - i hope you haven't put him in with your other fish just yet. To protect all fish involved, it's best to quarantine each new addition (as shj mentions) and salt to 0.3% (1 teaspoon per gallon (= 0.1%) x 3 times - 12 hrs apart) but there's a bit of work involved which is why IMHO it's handy to have a quarantine tank ready cycled. This way, if any new fish is harbouring anything, they get the benefit of perfect water conditions to build up their immunity against bacteria (and other nasties) - plus it's much easier to treat

In very rare cases, fish may come from an outlet healthy - but the thought of taking that chance makes me shudder. One fish is much easier to cure then a few and you don't run the risk of losing any of your healthy little fellas

I had this problem with my fish last year when I fist got them. THey were perfectly fine untill I added a rock into their home.


But I soon saw that my orander was losing scales! It was due to the rock! IT was one of those pretty ones but had a rough surface on one side. So when the fish brushed against it they lost some scales....silly things.

so I removed the rock.

problem solved.

Perhaps this happend to your fishy. So it might be a physical environmental problem rather than a medical one. scales may take time to heal.

My fantail is in excellent shape now! I never will go to walmart, their fish ARE in such sad condition now.