Chocolate has deep wound

[TahoeFish]

My chocolate cichlid has a pretty deep wound on his side caused by hitting, probably wood in the tank. No aggression in this tank. It is red where it penetrates the body and then the skin around it is getting white and flaking off. I don't see fuzz as much as I see white skin. The area affected is increasing in size. And he stopped eating.

I added a bit of salt in the tank and now I'm giving him and antibiotic bath in a bucket. My plan is to do antibiotic baths twice daily as I hate to medicate the whole 120 gallon tank. I am doing tetracycline bath right now but I also bought furan-2. I'll leave him in the bucket for an hour or so. I do not have a hospital tank.

Any other recommendations? Should I switch off the antibiotics or stick to one? Hate to lose this guy.

 

[ryansmith83]

My big psittacus just did this a month or so ago. I came in one morning to a huge gash running vertically down the back of his eye and gill. It was very deep. He also stopped eating and produced a ton of slime coat while his body was trying to heal itself.

All I did was step up my water changes to keep things very clean. I did about 75% daily for a week. The wound was completely white with some flaking skin the first day or two, but then it started to turn pink and swollen (never fuzzy) over a couple of days. I didn't treat with any kind of medication, just very clean water. Within a week it had mostly closed up except for a small pinhole-sized mark behind his eye, and by two weeks later the scales had grown back and the color was normal.

He probably didn't eat for two or three days, and the appetite came back slowly. He started out mouthing a few pellets here and there but after the first week he was right back to being first in line at feeding time.

 

[Snowflake311]

Hi it's me.

With fish that are still eating and active but have a problem I just make sure to keep the water extra clean. Do not slack on water changes do more wc then normal. If the water is clean they will heal on there own as long as no one is picking on them.

I just got 5 silver dollars for my 100gal. One stupid fish got his face bitten. His eye was all bloody for a few days. I just made sure the water was clean and he has healed. His eye will never be normal but he is ok.

Clean water can do wonders. My big healthy uaur has a boo boo on his said that is healing up well. My other uaur is in the hospital tank but that is another story. Good luck.

 

[TahoeFish]

Hi Snowflake!

Well normally I'm a proponent of water changes and I'm doing them daily. But this wound has gotten so ugly and the tissue around the wound keeps dying back. The area affected is 10 times the size of the original slicing wound. The edges are black with lots of white tissue and this AM I see some fuzz on the wound. I'm hoping that I see some closure of the original wound not sure if I'm wishing that though. I think I will keep up with water changes and antibiotic baths until I leave Saturday AM. Then a big water change and hope for the best.

Of course this always happens when you are about to go on vacation. My dog sitter can't handle the fish thing. So I'm gone for six days and thinking of just no food to keep the tank cleaner.

Any other ideas welcome. Oh I did at salt too... never have used salt before but I'm willing to try new things.

 

[Snowflake311]

Hummm now is the Time for a hospital tank. I have an empty 20gal you could borrow. I have one of my Uarus in a 10 gal hospital tank. I let him get abused for too long and now she is in bad shape. Weakened immune system due to being over stressed.

I like medicated food my self. You can get powered metro and soak blood worms in it and that helps. The new LFS here has powder meds of different kinds. Medicated food if the way to go with large tanks.

Good luck hope he gets better.