Emergency - Wounded Cichlid - Please Help

[augustaranger]

Rescued a badly injured cichlid this afternoon. I know almost nothing about cichlids or injured fish. The fish's tail fin is gone and it has wound on its sides. It still swims OK, but was hiding among the filter intake and heater. I imagine it was terrorized by larger cichlids in the tank. I brought it home and have it in a 1.5g with an airstone. I put some Stress Coat in water. What do I do next?

 

[*Fishkies*]

Any way you could post pictures. Possible fin and tail rot if the tail is gone, or just that severly nipped it's gone to.

Try adding some bacterial medication, like melafix this should help heal it up.

Also can you describe the wound more?Like...what color is it? how big is it? is it deep, like a hole? Could it be from a bite or a sharp object in the tank.

 

[augustaranger]

It's tail fin is all but missing. Part of it's dorsal fin is gone and it seems to be missing some scales on it's sides. It's a yellow fish with darker markings on it. I'm not sure if it was injured or if it's a medical problem. It seems to be moving OK and appears to be happy in the 1.5g with the airstone. Can I feed it regular flakes? Do cichlids eat off the top or should I sink the some flakes. Thanks.

 

[augustaranger]

Update - I've been feeding it flakes and its eating very well. Even fed it a piece of a shrimp pellet. I'm moving it to a larger tank today. Should I add salt? Any info would be appreciated!

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Is there a white outline on the damaged fins? Are the fins healing? Is there any cotton wool on him?

 

[augustaranger]

I don't see any white on it's fins, but it has white "sores" on it's sides. My son thinks it's color has improved some in 2 days we've had it. Is this fin rot? What about salt? Thanks.

 

[MartinD]

I don't see any white on it's fins, but it has white "sores" on it's sides. My son thinks it's color has improved some in 2 days we've had it. Is this fin rot? What about salt? Thanks.

i've bathed fish in a little salt to cure fin rot - it has always helped and cleared up the fin rot within 24 hours

 

[augustaranger]

I now have it in a 5g tank with just an airstone. Not having a filter, how much water should I change everyday? Should I just bathe it or should I keep salt in the water until it's healed?

 

[augustaranger]

I now have 1 tsp. of salt per gallon of water in the tank. Also added a heater. Read somewhere that I should gradually up the temp to 80 degrees. Am I on the right track? Any help appreciated. Anyone???

 

[ilikebunnies311]

sounds like he got beaten up pretty badly..... you dont have to add salt to the water... it wont hurt to do it and it wont hurt not to..... if the color is improving then he should heal up.... from the sounds of it... he was smaller then the other fish in the tank in the docs office and i know my chichlids dont take kindly to new commers and fish smaller then they are... you should get metafix anyway just to be sure its not fin rot.... you might have to up grade the tank to at least a 10 us gl for just him with a filter.... for water changes you should change at least 25% weekly and what i do for mine is take the gravel and clean it out every month.....


hope this helped

 

[DiscusKeeper403]

sounds like he got beaten up pretty badly..... you dont have to add salt to the water... it wont hurt to do it and it wont hurt not to..... if the color is improving then he should heal up.... from the sounds of it... he was smaller then the other fish in the tank in the docs office and i know my chichlids dont take kindly to new commers and fish smaller then they are... you should get metafix anyway just to be sure its not fin rot.... you might have to up grade the tank to at least a 10 us gl for just him with a filter.... for water changes you should change at least 25% weekly and what i do for mine is take the gravel and clean it out every month.....


hope this helped

Salt can be good for stressed fish. It can also help with fungal and bacteria woes. I recommend adding it. 1 tsp. per 10 gallons is fine. You said the fish has some white growth on the wounds? If so, the salt should help. I would add Melafix to the water just as a precaution, it will help with the wounds and help to make sure nothing else appears. Increasing the temperature slowly to 80 degrees sounds okay. Increasing temperature can help with some different sicknesses. I recommend you posting a picture if you can, this way we can make sure it's not fin rot and identify the type of Cichlid.

 

[augustaranger]

Update - It's been 3 weeks and "Short Tail" (my 9 year old daughter named it) is doing great. It's still in the 5g with salt water and the temp is at 80 degrees. It's color is much, much better and the grayish areas are gone. It's tail is beginning to grow back. The fish actually resembles the one on the FishForums logo. I believe it's an African cichlid, but I don't know what type. I'm feeding it color flakes and a little bit of shrimp pellets.

Will it be OK alone, or do cichlids like company (another cichlid). What about food and decor?

Thanks to those that responded!