whetu Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Hi all, Is there anything else I can do to help this fish? Yesterday evening about 5:30pm I noticed that one of my female cherry barbs has suffered a serious injury. All the scales on the part of her body between her tummy and her tail have been stripped off (both sides), and there were bits of skin hanging off! Terrible to see! I immediately set up a hospital tank and netted her out of the community tank (easily because she can hardly swim!) I have only 20 litres of water in the hospital tank, an air stone and a heater. The water came straight from the community tank as my tap water is a drastically different pH to the community tank water. I added the following meds to the 20 litres of tank water: 5 ml stress coat 0.5 ml melafix 5 cc aquarium salt These are the recommended daily doses on the bottles for an injured fish. By mid-day today she had developed very visible clear/whitish fungus all over the injured area. I repeated the same dose of stress coat and melafix (I didn't add any extra salt). Now (less than 24 hours since the injury) the fungus has increased. What else can I do to get rid of the fungus? Malachite Green? Furan-2? Will I need to do a complete water change if I'm using different meds? Are any compatible/not compatible with each other? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 13, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 By the way, I don't know what caused the injury. Her tank-mates are cherry barbs, gold barbs, clown loaches and bristlenoses. I doubt any of them will have injured her because: a) I have never witnessed any aggressive behaviour from any of them b) The injury is all around her tail, not just on one side. I suspect maybe she got jammed in a tight space and got hurt when she struggled to get free? Or maybe a rock or something fell down and she got trapped under it? The tank has plants, driftwood and round river stones. I wouldn't think there was anything in there sharp enough to hurt her. Poor little fishie! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Sorry to hear, a dose of Melafix does wonders for wounds and meaty wounds at that... I had a half dead Oscar that we acquired due to wounds, wicked wounds, meat hanging off, eyes fuzzed over and he was on deaths door. Melafix saved him, the healing of tissue was amazing and cleared him up no end. They are compatible... a good water change and then gradual water changes will see to ridding of meds well enough Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 Oh I was meant to say, the meat hanging off the Oscar was fuzzed up, fungus... but the wounds were not.. just the meat, ie dead tissue, this fell off after a while and undeneath the wounds were clean and clear and healing.... Is it the wound fuzzed or just the dead tissue on the side of the fish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted July 13, 2008 Report Share Posted July 13, 2008 If it is all white and fuzzy then I would use meth blue directly on the fungus daily/twice/three (depends how much time you have and how easy they are to catch) daily and it should clear it up.. Hope all goes well! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 Thanks Afrikan & ryanjury. Unfortunately the little gal died overnight. Afrikan, the fungus was a ring of fuzz right around her body, so it was on the wound itself rather than just the damaged tissue. ryanjury thanks for that info about meth blue. I only read your post today, but last night I had decided drastic action was required so I put 1 ml of meth blue in a syringe and squirted it directly onto the injury site. It turned the fungus bright blue but unfortunately didn't save the fish. I will keep this in mind and next time will treat a serious wound directly with meth blue well before it begins to fungus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted July 14, 2008 Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 So sorry to hear you lost her Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whetu Posted July 14, 2008 Author Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 So sorry to hear you lost her Thanks Afrikan. It's silly really - she was just a common little fish. It would only cost a few dollars to buy another one from the lfs. But nobody likes to see a fish suffer. I think my flatmate's right that I'm a slightly obsessed fish geek :roll: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Afrikan Posted July 14, 2008 Report Share Posted July 14, 2008 The way I look at it is... a life is a life regardless of how replaceable fish are 8) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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