Injured fish...

[cnseekatz]

I've got tank at the office with a pair of black clowns that are currently being hosted by a branching hammer. I came in after the long weekend to find a good-sized wound on the female clown. I thought she must have gotten nipped or scraped up somehow, but I figured the best course would probably be to just let her be, and let it heal up on it's own. She isn't acting differently, she's still a pig when the food comes, but the wound is getting worse. The photo below was taken this morning (Wed). When I saw it on Monday, it was probably half that size.

 

I know that a healthy clownfish has a mucus coating that protects them against anemone/coral stings, but she's got raw flesh exposed that I imagine is getting stung. She's still all up in the hammer all the time, but I'm concerned.

 

Any thoughts?

 

[Bingo1213]

My first thought would be to pull her out and give her medicated dips at least once a day with some form of antibiotic to prevent infection. Also pristine water quality will be very important to aid her healing process. I doubt the hammer is stinging her but if you are worried about it you could pull the hammer out temporarily and put it in another tank. You do run the risk of the clowns not hosting it then when you put it back in. It may also stress the clowns more not having their hammer so its a tough decision.

[cnseekatz]

Thanks for the advice. I don't have an extra tank that I can use as a hospital/QT, so dips might be the answer. Any recommendation on meds?

[Bingo1213]

I would personally use doxycycline powder due to the fact it is a more generic antibiotic. Many fish antibiotics target certain diseases/areas but that is more of a general antibiotic. Here is a link to purchase it look close though because it brings up all kinds of antibiotics but doxycycline is the second to last one i believe.

 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4615+12101&pcatid=12101

 

The other thing you could try is adding Kent garlic extra to your water and putting a little in their food. This can help boost the fish's immune system for a speedy recovery! It has worked wonders for my fish I am a firm believer in garlic. You can even chop fresh garlic very fine and mix it in with your regular fish food during feedings.

 

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/prod_display.cfm?c=3578+4615+5016&pcatid=5016

[VABumpkin]

The hammer is not the problem. It's definitely a bacterial infection. Could be vibriosis. You need to remove all fish from the aquarium and leave them in a medicated quarantine tank for a few months. You can use Furan-2. Don't use any antibiotics in the display. You will have to leave the tank fallow of fish in order to starve out the bad bacteria, without killing the good. Also, I recommend using vitamin or garlic supplements in the food to strengthen the fish's immune systems.

 

Oops didn't see the post above!

 

Adding garlic to the water won't do anything but make it smell. The fish need to ingest the garlic for it to be absorbed.

[cnseekatz]

So if I'm setting up a hospital tank, would this be sufficient?

 

Bare-bottom glass tank

Small HOB filter with carbon

Small powerhead

Heater

Light? (For fish only, is low/ambient light sufficient, or should I use a more typical reef light?)

A couple pieces of clean PVC couplings for a hiding space

 

If I use water from the display tank, can I move the patient right in? I would assume that I'm not going to worry about established beneficial bacteria population if I'm dosing antibiotics. I'll just have to feed carefully, and deal with ammonia manually?

[Bingo1213]

In an idea situation you would already have a hospital tank up and running but in this case there is not time for that! So I would purchase an ammonia detox product such as Seachem's Prime or Kent's Ammonia Detox that way if it becomes an issue you can take care of it. No light would be necessary for that tank. Using tank water would be better if the water quality is good because it would be less stressful for the fish. Read the instructions on the medicine bottle because some medications recommend not using carbon during treatment due to the fact that it can remove the medication from the water column. If that is the case just run a HOB filter with just a filter pad to trap any floating particles. Other than that everything else looks great!

 

ps Kent Marine recommends adding their garlic extract directly to the water as well as feeding it when disease is present. Idk if adding it to the water column actually helps but I figure in desperate situations it doesn't hurt to try haha