Rope Fish with Bloody scars?

[Iron Buddha]

Got two rope fish for my 55 gallon tank. They both looked fine for a few days. Then i noticed one had scars near it's gills, and some skin hanging off, In thought to myself "parasites?" ...because i bought one other rope fish from this place and it died and when went back to the place, i had found that the others had died...obviously it was parasites then. So a week goes by and the scared one is still living and doing well..and the other rope fish has not shown signs of contracting a parasite. So i then suspect my yellow lab cichild or my hoongii cichild. I tried out these two cichilds because they are the less agressive of all cichilds except for Kribs. But i see no aggression from them..infact my african brown knife and Congo Leaf fish (Ctenopoma acutirostre) will chase them for fun once in a blue moon. So i really like my two ropes, so i decide to get two more. I do a weekly water change and notice that one of the ropes is gone, but i can find him no where on the floor and the top is covered, except for the filter, low and behold the little scared one is in the filter, been there for a day..and live and well..i let him back in...all four are doing great, the scared one is use to the food and tank and is the most active....yet i can't get over these scars. i was wondering would pimafix help (sp?).

Also..solve this mystery...could the scars come from cuts from trying to get out, the back of the tank is covered with styrofoam plates that may be sharp on the edges..i am going to home depot today to get some plastic wire gauge for the back and the filter.


Also..what is a good thing for them to eat.????..what do they love...blood worms they like..but don't seem to be use to...they don't seem to like frozen shrip like mysis,,sure they would like brine than...

 

[SnaKeheAdSrAwSomE]

try feeding them cut-up silversides, squid, or shrimp

 

[MonsterMinis]

my Senegels go bonkers for earthworms/nightcrawlers. I cut them up into small peices to feed them and my tire track eel with. But my guys will eat cichlid pellets, floating turtle sticks, shrimp pellets ( all of which I pre-soak to avoid bloating), frozen beefheart, frozen bloodworms. But they go bonkers for earthworms. and earthworms are a very healthy live food to feed. frozen silversides I'm told are also a very healthy food to feed if you don't wish to feed live foods.

as for the heath concerns, they may simply be healing from improper care prior to you getting them. I've treated the tank w/ my senegels in it w/ pimafix/melafix at 1/2 dose for my tiretrack in the past and the sens did not show an signs of distress w/ this medication. yes I treated w/ both meds at the same time. Pimafix is more an anti-fungal, and Melafix an anti-bacterial.

If you have good water quality, and keep up w/ reg water changes I woudln't treat the tank unless you see signs of infimation/redness/swelling ect. It may take some time to completely heal. But unless the initial wound was severe the scars should fade over time. a picture also speaks a million words. It is very possible he got cut up on the foam. my 2 guys seem to fight if they get caught up in the java moss in their tank. Some fish will just sorta stop and lay there, my polys deffinately do not.

Oh and depening on how much you care how it looks... I've found duct tape is awesome! lol.. I simply cut 2 strips.. tape side up along the inside edge of the tank and hood.. then layer the other peice tape side down and sandwich them together. I use this method on 3 tanks to keep my various FW eels from accidentally commiting carpet suicide. So far it's held my 3 almost 2' fire eels in w/ no problem. It's a cheap and easy way to block the opening and can be replaced or removed fairly easy. I've had to replace the tape on one of the tanks in the past year. and I've seen no effects from the tape in reguards to my water chemistry ect.