My poor female Geophagus altifrons have yet again managed to injure herself. She has a sad history that includes getting beat up by her partner to a bloody pulp with no tail to getting stuck behind the heater, got burnt and lost an eye because of it.. She has since recovered to a one eyed beauty that swims a bit crooked but a beauty all the same.

Just came home from work and found her looking very strange. Like she has a massive bump on her "forehead" and inside the whole front mouth region a mass of blood is visible (sort of inside the head, hard to describe) on top of that her good eye is swollen around the top.

My guess is that she got spooked and swam as hard as she could into an immovable object. A human analogy would be a broken nose and a black eye I guess.

Not sure what to do about it at this stage beside waiting and see if she gets better.. there are no visible skin or tissue damage that could get infected.

Any suggestion? :dunno:

Rooting for this girl :tears:

Will see if I can get a picture of her

I want to say something useful but I don't have the experience really, all my fish have died of odd illnesses. :-?

I do know that very high quality water will aid healing in a natural way but it sounds like she will be a bit bruised for a while. Salt in the water may help fight infection but am not sure if those fish and her tankmates will enjoy that.

I wonder if she needs glasses :smln:

...a broken nose and a black eye I guess.

...see if she gets better.. Any suggestion?

Sound like you already told her once, you shouldn't have to tell her again. :slfg:

Sounds like your best bet is to just let her heal on her own. Not realistically much that you can do. Maybe dim the lights and cover the tank to try and keep her calm so she doesn't startle and aggravate it more?

Managed to get a picture of her that shows: Bump on the head, swelling on top of her good eye, a dark red patch "inside" her head possibly blood and constanly open mouth with heavy breathing.

Oh and of course the other fish wanted to be in the picture.

No change this morning.. at least I didn't find her dead.

Hoping that means she is recovering.

now she looks like a John Dory :facepalm:

poor fish

I like the photobomber :gigl:

Dead... &c:ry

Bugger.

oh no &c:ry

:tears: sorry to hear that mate