Injured fish! What to do???

[jweintraub]

My male Lombardoi has a huge open wound on his side! You can see the flesh in there and I'm afraid of infection. He is still eating and chasing his 2 female companions around like normal so I know he's not stressing too bad. I added some stress coat last night when I saw this and don't have anywhere to put him for quarantine. My only other tank is my community and you know that a Kenyi will destroy everything in that tank. Any other suggestions? products I can use to try to treat the wound? Thank you!

Oh and sorry for the blurry pic, it's the best I could get today.

[Abbeys_Mom]

From what I have read, Kenyi are little monsters. He probably was being an a** to the other fish in your tank. If it's not bleeding, I wouldn't worry about it. Aggressive fish usually have better healing abilities, then non aggressive fish. He should heal on his own, but stress coat will certainly speed things up. Do you have any idea who bit him? The only time I would have concerns is if the other fish are picking at the wound or he seems to be acting funny as well.

[jweintraub]

I'm not sure if he was bitten at all. It's possible he could have been dashing through the holey rock and cut himself also? I really don't know? It's good to hear that he should heal on his own. I'm keeping a close eye on him anyway just to see if there's any signs of stress or out of kenyi behaviors.

[Abbeys_Mom]

I hope he gets better :)

[Lady Hobbs]

Oh My Gawd! I can't believe this same issue has come up again. I went to FL for 9 days and put my one angel in a tank with some small tetra's and had someone come to feed them every other day. I returned home to find a huge gash on my angles side.....not the lateral line. No way did the tetra's do this to him and the only thing I could figure out is that he got a burn from the heater that split open.

I tried everything. I got worried about infection and put him in fungal meds. I worried about parasites and tried that med. I added Metafix to the water. I used Stress Coat. I actually put the angel on my kitchen counter and washed the wound (many times) in diluted Medafix with a q-tip.

I do think you should be concerned with infection and watch for that and add some Metafix to the water for faster healing but I'm here to tell it, it was a bit over 2 months before that wound healed up. Making sure your fish has clean water will help there but be prepared to have a long healing wait if he's anything as bad as mine was.

I call him now my Million Dollar Man as I thought for sure I had spent that much on meds for him.

[jweintraub]

Wow, what a story, you're a true lover of that Angel I see! The downside about being in Germany is that everything closes early on Saturday and EVERYTHING is closed sunday, so I guess I'll have to go on Monday and try to figure out what to buy on the economy here. It can be difficult since 90% of the stuff at my LFS is in German(obviosly). Hopefully I can find something!

[Lady Hobbs]

Clean water will reduce chances of infection alone so that will at least help. I did hear about an ointment that can be put right on the wound and is water resistant but if it would help or not remains to be seen. Or can even be found.

I moved my heaters from the corners of my tanks after that. Not sure if a burn caused it but it was a good 2 inches long (up and down) and gapped wide open. He acted fine, too, so it makes you wonder how much they can feel. Had it been me, I'd have been bawling my butt off. But then, I would have healed in a week, too.

[jweintraub]

I changed out 30% of the water last night and am planning at least a 20% tomorrow. I'm also trying to reduce the tannins being put off by my drift wood that's been in there since Christmas. I'm gonna go to the LFS and see if I can find anything that makes sense to me, if not I guess I'll keep up with the constant water changes and keep a close eye out. Thank's for the help!

[AuroraAustralis]

The tannins in the water might not be such a bad thing at the moment. I have read they can help with disease resistance and have antibiotic properties. Don't know how much truth to it there is but they certainly can't do any harm as long as your water is kept clean and they may well do a bit of good. The stress coat is a good idea. Sure looks like a nasty wound. I hope your fish has a quick recovery :o)

[jweintraub]

I had never heard anything about tanins except that they brown the water. I'm definately going to look more into this, thanks AuroraAustralis!

[kimmers318]

The tannins released from wood will not harm your fish, and alot of fish do like the way it diffuses the light for them.
The stresscoat will help him feel better and aid in the healing, if you have the pump bottle try to coax him to the top and squirt the stresscoat directly on him. Melafix will also help, it won't hurt your biological bacteria and won't hurt the other fish so that is probably the best route since you can't quarantine. Other than that you are doing everything you can right now by keeping the water clean and by keeping an eye on him. Good luck. And keep your eyes open for a small used tank/filter that someone may be getting rid of for a possible Q tank in the future. Once word got out that we were getting into fish I had several setups "donated" to me by people that were just wanting to get rid of them. They hated to throw them away so they were just sitting in their garage. Now they sit in my shed sealed in plastic garbage bags so if they are needed it doesn't take me but a few minutes to clean and setup a Q tank to separate and treat a fish.

[cocoa_pleco]

clean water, melafix and pimafix'l do it

[jweintraub]

If I can find something from the LFS tomorrow then I will get it, there's one guy that works there that speaks fairly good english, hopefully he can help me out!

[cocoa_pleco]

jweintraub, quick random question. I was thinking about joining the German army, since my dad is German and I have a German citizenship and well as Canadian one, and I was wondering what specifications you need to join the army?? I heard that apparently you need to have lived there at least 2 years. is that true??? I have uncles that I can live with for a bit out there.

[jweintraub]

I really can't help you out man, I'm in the United States Army. Sorry bro!

[cocoa_pleco]

dang... gotta wait for someone else to ask:ezpi_wink1: