my rosey red feeder fish

Question
Hi, my feeder fish witch I have kinda grown attached to went swimming into the filter about 4 days ago. Now it has no fin and scales on the lower half of it. But, it is swimming fine and eating fine. Yesterday it started showing signs of black on the back half of him/her where the fin was ripped off and it looks like its spreading. What is this and can it spread to my other fish we have 3 other healthy feeders in there along with a eastern painted turtle. Its a 75 gallon tank with a filter on the outside we do 50 percent water changes twice a week too. Now I have another question my turtle witch is full grown is getting little black dots on his lower half of his shell witch I noticed today. I also can't get him to eat anything else but chicken. Is there anything I can do to get him to eat other foods?

Answer
Hi Lyndsey;

The black is just damaged tissue that's trying to heal. Sort of like scabbing. It most commonly appears after an ammonia spike (ammonia burns) but can occur from injuries too. It may continue to develop a little more but usually will eventually fade away as the area heals. Since he's acting okay I wouldn't worry about it too much. Continue to keep the tank very clean to help avoid infection in the damaged areas.

I'm not a turtle expert so I really can't help you with that. Here is a link to our reptile experts. Look at the volunteer expert profiles to see who can help you with water turtles;

http://www.allexperts.com/el/Reptiles/

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins