Injured Ornate Alert

[wyldKard]

Saw my big ornate early this morning and he had a 1/2 inch gash near the side of his head just above the gills. Must've hit himself against some driftwood.

I have applied some general aid from ocean fresh and am hoping for the best. Are there any infection concerns in the long run? I just changed my water yesteday.

From experience I know bichirs heal up pretty good (my old albino sen lost half of it's caudal fin and it grew back a couple of weeks) but this wound looked a bit deep and scary. The big ornate seems to be ok (though I'm not letting off the scare just yet) still very active and swimming around and eating so that's a positive sign for now.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

Add some salt and turn up the temperature would help.

Im more of a proactive guy than a reactive one. So i suggusting removing the driftwood from the tank or use tools to cut/smoothen the sharp edges

 

[GarNiac]

it should be OK, just keep the water clean, got any pic? any sharp objects should be removed from the tank.

 

[wyldKard]

thanks for the support guys.

the ornate has been in the tank with the driftwood for almost 4 1/2 years now and with no problems so that has kept me wondering.

plans are underway to rescape the tank anyway so i'm crossing my fingers that no more incidents will occur.

will do a partial water change again in the weekend when it rains.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

when it rains? Don't u use tap water for water changes?

As for the driftwood, i noticed my ornate has lost a lot of slime coats rubbing against it. I just took a scissors (pliers for larger pieces) and cut off all the sharp bits or bury them

 

[wyldKard]

@spiritofthesoul using tap water over hear would be sentencing my fish to death. it's being treated with the chemical chlorine and that doesn't go well with the fish at all. either i let the chlorine sit and have it evaporate for about a week, or use rain water.

 

[Spiritofthesoul]

You can always use a dechlorinator like API stress coat or Seachem Prime.

 

[wyldKard]

that could be a solution, but rain water's free

 

[wyldKard]

some follow up pics that i also posted on the fish health forum:

 

[lix.ma14]

doesn't look that bad to me. It'll heal in a matter of weeks.