Dented head or disease erosion? Use salt? Praecox tank

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Cardeater

Polypterus
MFK Member
Apr 14, 2018
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Have you tested your water?
No
If yes, what is your ammonia?
0
If yes, what is your nitrite?
0
If yes, what is your nitrate?
5-10
If I did not test my water...
  1. ...I recognize that I will likely be asked to do a test, and that water tests are critical for solving freshwater health problems.
Do you do water changes?
Yes
What percentage of water do you change?
81-90%
How frequently do you change your water?
Every week
If I do not change my water...
  1. ...I recognize that I will likely be recommended to do a water change, and water changes are critical for preventing future freshwater health problems.
This is a different tank. No wonder I've been stressed with these tanks. Seems like there are so many issues.

10g ta k with 6 dwarf rainbows (and one rainbow fry that grew out. I setup a clown loach QT tank two Decembers ago and an egg must have been on the sponge I moved over as a fry grew out. She's in this tank too).

I thought last week that one of these male praecox looked like they had a dent in their head. It seemed more noticeable today. I had a millennium earlier in the year in the main tank have a chunk missing out of his forehead. I assume that time that he ran into something and it eventually healed.

I'm not sure if this is something similar or if disease eroded his head.

I was gonna put salt but have an issue with swim bladder fish.

There is a fish that has swim bladder in this tank. I QTd that fish and gave kanaplex and Epson salt but nothing changed so eventually I just put her back. That was over a month ago. She's been back for over two weeks. She swims at an angle, but I read if my treatment didn't work there's nothing I can do. She seems to be able to move around and eat so I didn't want to euthanize.

I think I read salt can be bad for fish with a swim bladder issue so I'm not sure if I should add some for the other fish.

I also have a runt looking female that had what looked like a prolapse last year. I made this thread about it. She's looked like a runt since at least November when I moved her back from being alone in a QT tank alone.

prolapse: switching from salt treatment to Epson salt

I believe this is a prolapse problem. I started this thread yesterday because I thought I saw a white spot on a fish. Whatever it was, it showed up in pics but disappeared. I treated with salt and today I saw a Praecox Female developed a prolapse. I searched some threads and it seems the...
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She's still in here but looks undernourished. I was gonna post about this tank after I cleared the other issues Im having in the other tanks but now I have to include it.

These fish went through a round of hex shield last weekend. Was thinking there was a slight chance runt had internal parasites or something.

I was gonna put salt in for this dented head fish but I'm not sure if that will adversely affect the swim bladder fish.

Does this fish look like it smashed its head into day the lip of the Whisper hang on back or is this disease erosion?

No wonder I'm driving myself nuts... seems like there's something to worry about in every tank.

Screenshot_20200818-215631.png

Screenshot_20200818-220817.pngScreenshot_20200818-220608.png

Thanks for any input. I'm so frustrated that there seem to be all these issues. I thought I was doing things right with these tanks by changing water multiple times a week. I try not to.mix equipment either and do the tanks on different days or with hours and me taking a shower in between if on same day. These praecox have been here for almost 20+ months now. They were supposed to get moved to the display but haven't bc I was afraid my mysis would kill them like it did the rummynose unused to have (food was too big for them). Then I was worried about the runty looking prolapse one.
 
Now that I'm looking at it on my computer, it kinda does look like he bumped into the HOB filter lip. The dent looks symmetrical, like a flat surface dented his head.

Not sure if it got worse. As I think I said, I thought I noticed a dent in a male's head at least a week ago. I'm not sure why I noticed it yesterrday except that I had my contacts and/or maybe it got worse. I would have changed water more often had I seen for sure that he was injured... (Not that I neglect the tank but I would have changed every other day instead of doing 3-4 days).

Questions I guess, still are if people think my theory is right and if I should put salt in considering I Have that permanently swim bladder damaged fish in there. Thanks for any input.
 
If this appeared overnight, (maybe 2 days because you didn't notice it before), then it's an injury. Erosion of the head takes a bit longer to develop, especially how bad it looks on your fish.

If you wish to add salt, start slowly at 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons, working your way up each day to 1 teaspoon per gallon (Day 1, 1 teaspoon per 5g, Day 2, 1 teaspoon per 4g. etc.) This will allow you to see if it has any effect on the fish with swimming bladder issues.
 
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Thanks for the response. I'll be following the dosing advise on the salt.

It looks like the fish got lucky in that the injury appears to have just missed his eyes, and the eyes so far aren't infected. Now, he just has to be lucky and not have an infection set in.

I'll be doing my best with the salt and water changing every other day.

So far he's swimming around like nothing happened, just like the other two males.
 
The main thing is to avoid having a secondary infection set in, which is unfortunately very easy to occur. Salt and extra water changes. Bosemanni ainbows are incredibly tough though. It may make a remarkable recovery.
 
Yeah the male red millennium that had the dented hump last year also survived two years ago when he had ammonia burn. I overfed freeze dried bloodworms and had a 4.0 ppm ammonia reading. Luckily all the fish survived.

Salt was increased again today. No Popeye or cottony growths. Fish seems the same so that's good for now.

I rinsed all the sponges. Did an 80% water change. I'm debating daily water changes but every other day should be enough I'd think?
 
I just took this picture now. I guess he's okay as I don't see any white stuff growing and he looks the same. Been sitting in about 4 tablespoons of salt in the 10g.PXL_20200910_224404008.MP.jpg
 
Update:
This fish is still alive. I don't think the injury ever got infected. I think it happened possibly a week or two before the original post. I had salt up to 1 tablespoon per 2.5 gallons till about two weeks ago. I decided to just slowly water change the salt out as it didn't seem like there was disease to treat.

Do you all think I can put these guys in my display tank? I would have out them in probably a year ago if I didnt have to use up my frozen mysis shrimp (I discovered last year that it was too big for rummynose as a few died from eating it and one of those praecox almost choked from a big shrimp). I use up the food finally over the summer and Then this injury happened.

These 6 rainbows have been quarantining for two years now.

I guess the only danger is if the injury could get infected in the main tank. I think it may have healed as much as it's going to. This is a bad picture but he basically looks the same as the pic in the original post.

short version:
Would you feel comfortable moving these guys into display? Other rainbowfish that were quarantining with these praecox were moved in April 2019. Only concern is if injury is healed enough in 3+ month.

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I’d personally euthanize it. Not worth the risk. Not sure it’s ever truly cleared what’s going on. It could spread or contaminate the display tank.
 
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