White Blotch on Peacock Cichlid?

[Fiji]

Hey everyone,

As stated in the title, one of my cichlids has something abnormal going on and I'd like some advice on how to fix it. It seems that he has a white "blotch" on the top of his head near the dorsal fin that may be destroying tissue :nailbiting:. Funny thing is, is that he behaves completely normal with the other fish. Granted, he may have gotten into a tussle with another tank mate but I'd like to be sure before jumping to conclusions. Currently I've quarantined him in a 20 hex by himself.
I will post water parameters tomorrow.
55 Gallon stock:
Moderately planted, running Fluval 406 and C4
4 Male Peacock Cichlids
2 SMALL (2") Clown Loaches
1 Blood Parrot
1 BN Pleco

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm so sorry you haven't had a reply yet.

This is a very difficult thing to properly diagnose. It could be an aggressive bacterial or fungal infection, or one that's come on as a secondary infection on a wound.

I'd be inclined to treat it with a general anti bacterial medication.

Could you post your test results, please?

On another note, I know it's not what you're asking about, but I really feel I have to say that you really can't keep these fish together in the long term. The peacocks will be far too aggressive for the other fish, and they need much harder, more alkaline, water than the other fish will be comfortable with; especially those poor clown loaches

 

[Fiji]

I'm so sorry you haven't had a reply yet.

This is a very difficult thing to properly diagnose. It could be an aggressive bacterial or fungal infection, or one that's come on as a secondary infection on a wound.

I'd be inclined to treat it with a general anti bacterial medication.

Could you post your test results, please?

On another note, I know it's not what you're asking about, but I really feel I have to say that you really can't keep these fish together in the long term. The peacocks will be far too aggressive for the other fish, and they need much harder, more alkaline, water than the other fish will be comfortable with; especially those poor clown loaches

The water parameters in the big tank are as followed
Ammonia- 0ppm
Nitrite- 0ppm
Nitrate- 40ppm- before water change, probably closer to 10 or 20 now
pH- 8.2
Very hard/Alkaline water

I've been doing weekly 50% water changes on the quarantine tank and dosing API Stress Coat (I know it's not really a medication but it's all I've got right now). I'm only temporarily holding the clown loaches for a friend while he's working on a new build.

 

[Colin_T]

It looks like a wound that has fungus in it. Try using rock or swimming pool salt at a dose of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20litres of tank water. If no improvement after 48hours double the dose so there is 2 headed tablespoons of salt per 20litres of water. Keep salt level here for 2 weeks and see what happens.

If there is no improvement after 1 week then try some methylene blue, you can use methylene blue with salt.

 

[Fiji]

It looks like a wound that has fungus in it. Try using rock or swimming pool salt at a dose of 1 heaped tablespoon per 20litres of tank water. If no improvement after 48hours double the dose so there is 2 headed tablespoons of salt per 20litres of water. Keep salt level here for 2 weeks and see what happens.

If there is no improvement after 1 week then try some methylene blue, you can use methylene blue with salt.

Should I continue using stress coat along with salt? I have a carton of aquarium salt (not marine salt) I can use.

 

[fluttermoth]

Only if you don't have another dechorinator.

 

[Colin_T]

Stresscoat is a water conditioner and won't do anything to help with an infection. Use it when you do the water changes.

Any idea what is in the box of "aquarium salt"?
With salt I normally suggest getting a bag or rock salt or swimming pool salt from the hardware or pool shop because it is cheaper than "aquarium salt" that is sold in some shops. But any sort of plain old boring sodium chloride (salt) will do.

You could try adding Melafix as well but tis expensive and might not do anything.

 

[Fiji]

Stresscoat is a water conditioner and won't do anything to help with an infection. Use it when you do the water changes.

Any idea what is in the box of "aquarium salt"?
With salt I normally suggest getting a bag or rock salt or swimming pool salt from the hardware or pool shop because it is cheaper than "aquarium salt" that is sold in some shops. But any sort of plain old boring sodium chloride (salt) will do.

You could try adding Melafix as well but tis expensive and might not do anything.

This is the product I have, I would assume it's just plain sodium chloride with a fancy label:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0010P82UO/?tag=ff0d01-20

I would think that stresscoat has other benefits as well. "Replaces fish’s protective coat damaged by handling, shipping or fish fighting with healing power of Aloe Vera extract"... I've been dosing this once per week and the spot/injury seems to be getting a lot better. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Colin_T]

the api salt is fine and will do the job. It's salt from evaporated sea water and Api just adds a few more things to it.

stresscoat helps increase or repair the slime on fish but the peacock has an actual would that is infected. Once the wound is clean then stresscoat might help but the fish will have its own slime that will quickly cover it. If you want to use it in addition to using it for water changes then that is fine and it certainly won't hurt the fish, but it probably isn't going to make much difference.