Elephant Nose Fish Hurt

[catfishpro_3]

I was feeding my fish and my elephant nose fish didnt seem to come out to eat as she usually does. When she finally did come out her whole nose was torn up and all the skin was peeling off as if she got attacked by another fish. Is there anything i can do to help. Oh and she wont eat neither.

 

[fidjet2]

What are the water parameters?
Keeping the water in perfect condition will help.
What other fish are in the tank?

 

[catfishpro_3]

the water is perfect and there is a 2 tiger barbs an angel fish and a catfish but they have all been fine for 6 months

 

[Reret]

What catfish?

 

[catfishpro_3]

he perfectly resembles an upside-down catfish just no the upside down part. He's six inches and ive had him for about 6 years now.

 

[england]

It may have scrapped it on a ornament, or poss burnt it on the heater, have you got a heater protector?

Clean water is your best bet for wounds, unless it gets fungus or others ailments, have you got a picture of it?

 

[catfishpro_3]

what is the best way to send the photo it keeps telling me its too large. I tryed putting it in a word document but that was too big also

 

[fidjet2]

Upload it on something like photo bucket. I use tinypic

 

[phishyphil]

2 Tiger barbs
With angels

What size is the tank? is there any sharp rocks/ornaments/?

Water conditions to be Top priority. No Meds as the E.Nose are not good with any meds due to them being a scaleless fish

 

[fluttermoth]

What substrate do you have, OP? Elephant noses need very soft sand, not gravel. Tbh, they're not at all suitable for community tanks.

 

[catfishpro_3]

well its a 100 gallon tank and the barbs and the angel stay mid level while the elephant nose stays mainly on the bottom. i have sand substrate. His skin appears to be growing back little by little now so thanks for the help
My LFS said to through some prime in the tank also should this help.

 

[N0body Of The Goat]

Sounds like you need to isolate the Elephant Nose ASAP and give it frequent water changes to minimise the chance of the wound getting infected. Gradually raising the temperature towards their higher extreme of ~28C may also help, by raising the fish's metabolism, which will in turn boost the immune system.

As already said, you have a poor community mixdespite the 100 gallon size, especially for an Elephant Nose that need carefully selected tankmates (other African "oddballs" such as birchirs; bushfish, Butterfly Fish i.e. calm and peaceful, but big enough not to be live lunch).

Prime is not going to directly help the wound heal, it is a dechlorinator that can temporarily neutralise dangerous ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels.

 

[fishmania06]

i need help urgently, my elephant nose has been doing realy well for the month that ive had her but recently she has become very thin, when she swims she seems ok but then she starts to swim vertically and just today she has been floating vertically on her tail she looks like she is dead but she is still alive i am extremely worried about her HELP PLEASE i dont know what to do

 

[zain611]

What sort of thing (i forgot the name) are you using? (Gravel/sand) because elephant nose fish need sand as they use their nose to pick out food from the floor so gravel can damage them like corydoras need a sand or pee size gravel to not damage there whiskers also nice to hear from someone that has an amazing species of fish

 

[fishmania06]

What sort of thing (i forgot the name) are you using? (Gravel/sand) because elephant nose fish need sand as they use their nose to pick out food from the floor so gravel can damage them like corydoras need a sand or pee size gravel to not damage there whiskers also nice to hear from someone that has an amazing species of fish

if this post is to fishmania ... im using sand