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my discus cut himself up badly
This morning, my discus (apparently very skittish today) thrashed around the tank and cut himself up. What is the best topical med to throw into the tank to help with healing? There is no bleeding, but cuts are not nice.
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
pictures of the injury
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
kahunabill,
Hi, I hope the damage your discus sustained does not include an eye. I have many discus most of which are wild. I know the first impulse is to medicate but I would advise against that. Discus are always getting scraped in their panic moments but if the aquarium is well established and otherwise in healthy conditions the scrapes should heal quickly on their own. If in a few days it doesn't get better put it in a 10g quarantine tank fiiled with his own water. Add 1tsp of rock salt/gal and raise the temp to 88-90dF. He will be like new in just a few days to 5.
This may seem old fashioned but it has worked for me for over 40 years and has the added advantage of saving the money and exposing your over discus to unnessary medications. One other thought, this won't be the last time your discus panic so you might want to minimize the objects in the tank that they can crash into. Good luck.
Larry Waybright, Clarkston, WA
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
actually, salt was the first thing I thought of and added 1 tsp per 10/gal and raised the temp already. So bad because they were just getting ready to lay eggs!
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
sry: off topicOriginally Posted by kahunabill
What kind of fish is that?
(im guessing male ... turk or somethin?)
However, there's always a however
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
On many, many occassions over the last 15 years I have used a small squirt of Aquarium Pharms Stress Coat when I've have a fish with any sort of wound. I try to squirt it so that is "lands" on the fish, while they are at the top eating, if possible. I've never had any ill effects, and have always witnessed very fast healing, with no scarring. I've even used it on a Discus that had HITH, while feeding medicated food. A little squirt on the head. Within about 2 weeks, holes were healed and no scarring. Torn Angel fish fins, a little squirt, one or two days later, fins completely healed. I assume its the Aloe Vera in the Stress Coat that does it.
Connie
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
I had a discus that banged his head pretty bad (to the point of bruising and having a round patch/wound without scales. I used Melafix and it is healing up nicely. It may just be me but I worry about using salt on an open wound (I know I wouldn't like it much if it were me).
Tina
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
Salt in the tank will help some. Clean water and clean tank, with good food sorts 90% of it with nothing else added. Sometimes they get a little infected on the site of the injury. Dabbing it with 3% hydrogen peroxide is very effective. The fish will twitch a bit when (or if) you do this. If it gets a bit of fungus I would use a salt bath before the H2O2.
hth,
Paul
Comfortably numb.
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
I always use salt and/or melafix. Works well and is very gentle on both fish and bio.
Amber
Amber
Proud single working mother of three.
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
Tina, when I used to play rugby, if you got a graze or cut whilst playing they used to put straight salt on the wound and then the magic sponge. It stung!! But diluted in solution can be quite soothing, I use it to bath my dogs if they get cuts, they don't wince and both are whimps!I had a discus that banged his head pretty bad (to the point of bruising and having a round patch/wound without scales. I used Melafix and it is healing up nicely. It may just be me but I worry about using salt on an open wound (I know I wouldn't like it much if it were me
Tina
Paul
Comfortably numb.
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
Tina, when I used to play rugby, if you got a graze or cut whilst playing they used to put straight salt on the wound and then the magic sponge. It stung!! But diluted in solution can be quite soothing, I use it to bath my dogs if they get cuts, they don't wince and both are whimps!
LOL, or maybe it is the mental image that you salt up a fish before cooking them that's getting me? LOL
Tina
Re: my discus cut himself up badly
No worries Kahuna. I did the same thing to my discus when wiping down the sides of my tank. I had my heater removed so I could give it a thorough wipe down but I didn't take out suction cup yet. The suction cup still had the prong sticking out of it that holds the heater.. guess what.. fish freaked out and ran his whole body across it. Scracth marks looked exactly like your fish. I didn't treat my fish at all, just made sure the water was clean and now it is 100% healed.
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