So I went into Dallas today to a small tropical fish store that has a great selection of food but very poor quality fish (usually a few unhappy-looking fantails in warm tropical water).  Anyway I saw a beautiful medium sized Oranda in a very small tank with a few small plecos. He has some sort of injury on his tail, it is split near the top into two pieces and there is an angry-looking wound that is black and red and looks to be rotting. You can see the red veins in his tail... He was priced at $50, this is about double what a healthy specimen would cost at a chain store. I talked the owner into half price but no returns. He sat on the bottom of his bag all the way home. The only available space for him was my ten gallon iso so he is a bit cramped but has perked up in the clean cool water. I intend to use the hydrogen peroxide treatment on his tail and I added Melafix to the water. He has some white spots on his wen, they don't look like fungus or ich but I've never seen anything like that on my other orandas. Anyway I just wanted to show him off. His name is Palo Verde but I call him "Palo" (palo verde is a desert tree). I may start a thread in Health and Illness if he doesn't improve in the next few days.

I have placed a heater in the tank since he also appears to be suffering from Swim Bladder Disease. As mentioned I will be treating the injury with hydrogen peroxide and salt for the time being. I also added Melafix which is a very mild/natural antibiotic but I would rather not destroy my beneficial bacteria with anything stronger just yet. Thank you for the reply, I am really hoping he improves but if not at least I got him out of there.

So beautiful!
I really hope he'll get all better, I'd go for the same course of treatment as you do, so just keep doing what you're doing

WOW!!!!!

Awww what a beauty!!
Good job on the rescue and bartering skills!

Please post more pictures as he recovers!
The two orandas I bought also had constipation, I think it's because the pet shops don't usually vary their food much and they're stuck with flakes daily :/ Orandas have a little more sensitive digestive tract because of their round bodies than other fancies.

Well he is roughly the same size as my 20mo oranda, Rowan but he is probably older. The culls at pet stores usually don't grow as big as those from breeders. I worry about him being stunted, it wouldn't surprise me.

Thanks Ron!
The split in his tail has healed about 1/3 of the way!! I'm hoping to have all the Orandas (there are 5 now- welcome Juniper and Elder II) together in February.

Thanks Goldie.
Hopefully you can see in this pic how the split has started to heal, I am a bit concerned that the join is that black color. None of my books mention black wounds or scars. He has become much more feisty and really fights me during his peroxide treatments, I guess that could be a good sign...Anyway, here's a pic of him eating his gel food. Since last week none of the fish have had any pellets, flakes or wafers. I'm going to try "farming" some live food for them as well. It's kind of my new year's resolution that they start eating better- lol!

Yup, Noss is right  Lucky had some black on part of her dorsal fin for a while Cheri and I figured it must be healing from something.
Since coming back from Christmas, I noticed it's practically almost gone now! 

So glad the Oranda's doing well ^_^

Just as you said Nossie, the black faded away like a bruise. The split is now about halfway healed. No more peroxide treatments though as he refuses to submit to them anymore.

Here he is! All better in his new tank! He looks very red- I blame my homemade gel food. 

love that last pic, what a face. Cheers