Hole in the head in Pleco

[Benyaminsimkhis]

Hello everyone, sadly my pleco of 13 years has a strange injury on his head behind the eyelid, really need help figuring what this is as my local pet store had a hard time figuring out and we are kinda clueless at the moment.
The pleco has no other fish in the tank with him, it's the same tank for his entire life. Eats regularly, has two filters with coal.
Thanks ahead! I'll be very thankfull for any help!

 

[Colin_T]

A bit hard to tell but it looks like a physical injury. It might have cut itself on something in the tank.

Does the pink part stick up above the fish?

I would do a big water change every day or two for several weeks. Make sure you gravel clean the substrate when you do this. And clean under rocks or wood to remove any gunk.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

Give the filter a clean too if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. Wash the filter media/ materials in a bucket of tank water and re-use the media. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the lawn/ garden outside.

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If it starts to go white and fluffy (like white hairs sticking up) around the wound that is Saprolegnia fungus and can be treated with salt (1 heaped tablespoon of salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. Leave salt in the tank for 2 weeks then water change it out.

If the wound goes red and looks inflamed, it has a bacterial infection and you can try salt (same dose as for fungus) but if there's no improvement after a couple of days you need a medication to treat bacteria.

 

[Benyaminsimkhis]

Thank you very much for the response!
The pink part is not sticking out, it is a "cave in".
Is it alright to move the fish out of the tank and into another body of water in order to clean it? If not then should the bottom/rocks be cleaned with the fish in the tank?
Can salt cause any harm if it isn't any of the above mentioned problems? You mean regular table salt right?
Do you perhaps know the name of a relevant medication?
Thank you very much for your time!

 

[Colin_T]

Leave the fish in the tank when you do water changes and gravel cleans. Buy or make a basic model gravel cleaner and use it to clean the gunk out of the substrate when you do water changes. There is a picture of a basic model gravel cleaner in the following link. It's about half way down the page.

Aquarium Cleaning Made Easy

Aquarium cleaning should take 30 minutes every two weeks. Learn how the professionals do it in 18 easy steps.

www.about-goldfish.com

You can also make a gravel cleaner out of a plastic drink bottle (like a Coca Cola bottle) and a length of plastic hose or garden hose.
Get a 1, 1.5 or 2 litre plastic drink bottle.
Remove the top and plastic ring at the top and throw those in the recycling.
Use a pair of scissors to cut the bottom off the bottle and throw the bottom bit in the recycling.
The bottle that is left is the gravel cleaner.

Get a garden hose or buy some plastic hose from a hardware that goes inside the bottle. That is your gravel cleaner.

If you have a big aquarium, you can buy a plastic hose that fits snuggly on the outside of the top of the bottle. The bottle where you drink out of gets pushed inside a plastic hose so you have a bigger diameter hose for draining water out faster.

A lot of people simply use a 2 litre bottle and a garden hose. They run the hose outside onto their lawn or garden and gravel clean 1/2 to 2/3s of the water outside, then refill the tank with clean dechlorinated water.

You can check on YouTube to find out how to use a gravel cleaner. They are pretty simple and you simply start syphoning water out of the tank and push the gravel cleaner part into the substrate in the aquarium. You lift the gravel cleaner up and the gunk in the gravel gets sucked out with some of the water. You move the gravel cleaner around the tank cleaning as much gravel as possible in the time it takes to remove some of the water. You then stop gravel cleaning and refill the tank with dechlorinated water.

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If you have big rocks or pieces of driftwood in the tank, you can take them out when you gravel clean the tank. The big rocks and wood should be hosed off outside about once a month.

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Salt (sodium chloride) won't cause any harm at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon of salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of water. I will add more info about salt below.

A broad spectrum medication that might help is Waterlife Myxazin. It might not be available where you are and shouldn't be necessary unless the wound gets infected and doesn't respond to salt. Outside of that, any liquid fish medications that treat fungus and bacteria will probably work but check the instructions on how much to use for scaleless fish like catfish. A lot of medications recommend a half dose for scaleless fishes.

 

[Colin_T]

USING SALT TO TREAT FISH
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 1-2 weeks. If there's no improvement after a few days with salt, you normally stop using it and go onto a broad spectrum medication.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

 

[Benyaminsimkhis]

Got it, Thank you very much for your help and time that you dedicated to this, it is a very thorough answer, very much appreciated, i will do all of this.
Have a great day And rhanks again!

 

[Benyaminsimkhis]

USING SALT TO TREAT FISH
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), swimming pool salt, or any non iodised salt (sodium chloride) to the aquarium at the dose rate of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20 litres of water. If there is no improvement after 48 hours you can double that dose rate so there is 2 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for 1-2 weeks. If there's no improvement after a few days with salt, you normally stop using it and go onto a broad spectrum medication.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria, fish, plants, shrimp or snails.

After you use salt and the fish have recovered, you do a 10% water change each day for a week using only fresh water that has been dechlorinated. Then do a 20% water change each day for a week. Then you can do bigger water changes after that. This dilutes the salt out of the tank slowly so it doesn't harm the fish.

If you do water changes while using salt, you need to treat the new water with salt before adding it to the tank. This will keep the salt level stable in the tank and minimise stress on the fish.

When you first add salt, add the salt to a small bucket of tank water and dissolve the salt. Then slowly pour the salt water into the tank near the filter outlet. Add the salt over a couple of minutes.

Understood, thank you very much!