injured fish

[frosty27]

So at the beginning of the month brought 6 platy's for my fluval evo sea 52lt.
About a week ago i noticed one of my girls was missing; looked everywhere, in all the caves and where the water goes through the grid to then go through the filter sponge (she had got in there before) no sign of her.
Today i got some ender guppies and moved the sponge to the first compartment so the enders would not get stuck in the first compartment as grid was then blocked by sponge.
Low and behold my missing platy has appeared (she must have some how got into the sponge area, dont know how).

Now to the problem, she seems to have had her tail damaged (looks like its been nibbled off) have seperated her off from the rest of the tank (floated a takeaway box with her in til can get a breeder box tomorrow).
she seems to be having issues swimming down from the surface (before seperated the current was just throwing her around the tank).
Is there any chance she will survive and what can i do to help her if possible.

 

[frosty27]

She has an algae pellet in with her for a bit of food as don't know last time she ate

 

[Rocky998]

You could try salt treatment to help keep fungus off the wound... Its 1-2 heaped teaspoons per 5 gallons of water for the salt. Only keep it at that level for 4 weeks or until you see improvement in the fish... If you want the instructions themself I can copy and paste them to here.

 

[frosty27]

If you want the instructions themself I can copy and paste them to here.

If you could that would be great. Am hoping I can save her.

 

[Naughts]

Its tablespoons not teaspoons. So two and a half tablespoons of AQUARIUM salt for the 52 litre tank. Dissolve it in warm water before adding it.
Leave it in for two weeks. If you do a water change add the appropriate level of salt (eg. Change 20 litres, replace the 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt). After 2 weeks do 10% water changes daily for a week, then 20% daily for a week. This will slowly reduce the salt levels.
If the fish can't eat or swim it may be that you need to consider euthanizing her.

 

[Rocky998]

Its tablespoons not teaspoons. So two and a half tablespoons of AQUARIUM salt for the 52 litre tank. Dissolve it in warm water before adding it.
Leave it in for two weeks. If you do a water change add the appropriate level of salt (eg. Change 20 litres, replace the 1 tablespoon of aquarium salt). After 2 weeks do 10% water changes daily for a week, then 20% daily for a week. This will slowly reduce the salt levels.
If the fish can't eat or swim it may be that you need to consider euthanizing her.

oops... That was a sincere mistake. Thanks for correcting me Naughts

 

[Rocky998]

If you could that would be great. Am hoping I can save her.

SALT
You can add rock salt (often sold as aquarium salt), sea salt or swimming pool salt 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.

If you only have livebearers (guppies, platies, swordtails, mollies), goldfish or rainbowfish in the tank you can double that dose rate, so you would add 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres and if there is no improvement after 48 hours, then increase it so there is a total of 4 heaped tablespoons of salt per 20 litres.

Keep the salt level like this for at least 2 weeks but no longer than 4 weeks otherwise kidney damage can occur. Kidney damage is more likely to occur in fish from soft water (tetras, Corydoras, angelfish, Bettas & gouramis, loaches) that are exposed to high levels of salt for an extended period of time, and is not an issue with livebearers, rainbowfish or other salt tolerant species.

The salt will not affect the beneficial filter bacteria but the higher dose rate (4 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will affect some plants and some snails. The lower dose rate (1-2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres) will not affect 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.

This is Colin's method. I can take no credit but lots of people have reported success with it.

 

[frosty27]

Thank you so much for the replies. Sadly when i got up the next morning she had passed away during the night.

 

[Naughts]

Sorry for your loss Frosty