I'm going to post this here, and in the general GF discussion forum, in case anyone might miss it here and have some good ideas, I hope that's okay......


Tonite my partner and I went to our LFS to get our weekly brine shrimp fix , and ended up coming home with 2 rescue's that were going to be 'put down'. One was simply a GF fry that they were going to "toss" since it was so small (not even good for feeder fish is what I was told), and the other, because it was deformed.

This really is the strangest thing I've ever seen, instead of a dorsal fin, there's just ......... well, look at the pictures I'm posting. It looks like just a "hook" of skin. Also, there seems to be an upper and lower vestigial limb.......errrrrrr.....fin. Its a pretty good size, and tho the LFS said it would probably die, we decided to give it a fighting chance.......now we just have to hope we dont need a quarantine tank anytime soon, 'cause they're both in our 5 gal quarantine eclipse. I just COULDNT let them just kill these two .........

No name for the fry yet, but we're calling the other Hermie the Hermaphrodite, since we cant tell if its a girl or a boy.

Any thoughts on keeping Hermie in particular comfortable? Has anyone come across anything like this before??

In the first two, you can really see what Hermie's "dorsal fin" looks like, and if you look carefully, just over and under the back fins, you can see the two smallish vestigial fins....





Here is Hermie with the fry:



We're hoping, using the logic that Hermie has managed to live this long, that maybe he can survive this. Any thoughts on special treatments or anything we should do are GREATLY appreciated .

OH! And any thoughts on what Hermie might BE would be helpful too!

Good for you, of course you may be in for heart ache if the fish doesn't seem to manage. They seem to be hardy fish and can live with many disabilities, so he should do fine.
I would watch as the fry grows though, if he is "healthy" and not deformed they might need to be seperated, but that is down the line.

The best thing you can do is keep their water quality perfect. I am assuming you are familar with it???
A 5 gal tank will need to be upgraded soon as gf need 10 gal each. Since the one is a fry you have a few weeks, but if you want him to have the best chance at being normal you must get a bigger tank soon.

Good luck with them both.

It is best to keep only one thread going, as it can confuse members. So I have merged both.
I think that this is a good spot for the topic, however if you are having health concerns with them then we can move it to the "diagnosis" area but since there is no problem right now this should be good.

Thanks Laurie, i wasnt sure about where to post this.

We wont be able to get a new tank for a bit, but I have a 35 gallon that I can move the healthy fry to if it comes to that. We're getting a 55 gallon in November or so, and everybody is getting new homes as we upgrade, but unfortunately, we cant do it til then.

Yes, we'll do daily water checks and changes as necessary, fortunately in a 5 gallon, that's not difficult. I'd just never seen anything like this before and they're both REALLY pretty small right now, so we're hoping we can get away with this for a month or two at least, til finances pick up.

Cool fish. your fish kindda reminds me of that cartoon, snorks

wow hermie's cool! he's definitely unique. and the fry looks like it's gonna grow into a beautiful looking comet, or common?

Awww good on you tinker - that's a wonderful thing to do

You never know, he may outlive us all I can't believe how lucky he is that you found him and I'm with d_g, he's definitely unique

Here's to a long and happy life for both of them

aww bless that baby so cute,

Thanks, we think he's (she's?) pretty darn cool looking!

Does anyone know if the lack of the dorsal fin will affect Hermie in any special way? Buoyancy or swim problems?

I was thinking about that also, how is he swimming now? If he is fine... I would guess that there wouldnt be a swimming prob. That was so cool of you to save those two and giving them a fighting chance.

hmmm, you think that would be a problem? Lionheads and ranchus and lots of goldies dont have dorsal fins. My lionheads are such good swimmers!

Its odd, sometimes he really looks like he's struggling, those two vestigial fins seem to have him swimming sort of in circles because they're only on the one side..... LOL but otherwize it seems fine so far

Since he is so small he may become use to it and learn to compromise. Give him some time I think he will adjust.