Reoccurring Injury?

[FishEnthusiast]

First I will give a little bit of background before getting to my question.

I have a 55G tank that has been set up since March 2005. The tank inhabitants were 2 SAE's (that is what I thought anyway, more on that later), 5 juvenile angel fish, 5 boesmani rainbows, 1 dwarf neon rainbow, 1 3 spot gourami, and a couple of otto's. I have not added any new stock or plants to the tank in over a year.

About 3 weeks ago my husband noticed the 2 SAE's fighting, which led me to believe that I don't have SAE's at all, but some other species. One of the fish had a pretty bad wound on his head. My husband immediately separated the fish, leaving the injured one in the 55G. He performed a water change and waited for me to come home. I treated the tank with Melafix that night and with in a couple of days the wound seemed completely healed.

A couple days ago I noticed that the wound is back and it seems worse. I added more Melafix, but the wound does not appear to be healing. I thought maybe something was wrong with the water so I tested it. the results were:

• Ammonia 0
• Nitrite 0
• Nitrate 40
• PH 6.0

I am concerned about the PH and I am taking another test today after I do a water change to see if the Melafix affected the sample in some way.

Now for the question. Is it possible for a wound to reoccur like this or should I be looking to the other tank inhabitants as possible culprits? Should I add anything else to the water to help the fish heal? Could it be that the fish is ill in some way? I looked through my fish health book and didn't see disease that could cause this, but I didn't see anything.

Thanks!

 

[DarkEntity]

Nitrate seems high, have you done water changes lately.

You could try Pimafix or Melafix and Pimafix in conjunction to treat the wound. Water needs to be immaculate when a wound is healing to stop infection from setting in.

My Male Krib used to get a recurring mouth cut, i found it was him dashing to protect his nest and babies and he would catch it against the wood, i basically sanded down the edge so he couldnt do it again.

 

[WILDER]

Need something better than melafix then if its gotten worse and not healing, maracyn one or two, or maracyn plus.

 

[FishEnthusiast]

A water change was done last week. I did another water change today as well. I also tested the water again last night and the ph is still 6.0. It comes out of my tap at 7 so there is definately something in the tank lowering the buffering capacity of the water. I added some crushed coral to the filter to buffer the water somewhat and since the wound seems no better today I will go get some Maracyn Plus tomorrow.

Thanks!