Trying to help this rainbow fish.

[ange]

One of my coworkers moved and her rainbow fish got pretty beat up in the bucket. He was alone, but panicked and definitely hit the sides multiple times and I think that the physical trauma made him susceptible to other issues.

Over the last month my coworker gave him 2 full courses of para cleanse due to blood spots that we both assumed were from flukes. Is there anything that we can do to encourage the tissue to heal? He has been in a quarantine setup  with 2 females (who were not injured) ever since the injury and aside from aquarium salt I'm at a loss regarding what else could help him heal.

The first three photos are from today and he's much more inflamed than previous times during his treatment. The last four photos are from late February when he was first injured.

Edited April 4 by ange

[jwcarlson]

How high have you been dosing salt?

I'm not advocating for this in your case, so don't run off and do it.  But my discus had some sort of bacterial infection.  It looked similar to HITH, but was not that.  I tried tons of stuff and what finally turned the tide was removing the fish from the water and using a cotton swab to dab a little hydrogen peroxide on the wounds.  I did this two or three times in total about 4-7 days in between.  It was pretty obvious that it helped within a couple of days.  

Otherwise, lots of clean water if you're not doing that already.

[ange]

On 4/4/2024 at 1:30 PM, jwcarlson said:

How high have you been dosing salt?

I'm not advocating for this in your case, so don't run off and do it.  But my discus had some sort of bacterial infection.  It looked similar to HITH, but was not that.  I tried tons of stuff and what finally turned the tide was removing the fish from the water and using a cotton swab to dab a little hydrogen peroxide on the wounds.  I did this two or three times in total about 4-7 days in between.  It was pretty obvious that it helped within a couple of days.  

Otherwise, lots of clean water if you're not doing that already.

Before he started paracleanse he was at 8 tbs of salt in a 10 gallon tank. He went through multiple water changes to get the salinity down before he started his paracleanse. His last course finished last Friday (Mar 29) and he's been sitting in quarantine without extra additives (salt, meds, etc) since then. Based off of what my coworker has told me he's getting at least a 10% water change daily because she knows that meds can upset the nitrogen cycle and the quarantine had a seeded sponge but definitely isn't what we'd consider established.

I tested his water during his first course of paracleanse (early March) and there was a low amount of nitrite but that has not happened again since that treatment. He hovers around low (under 20ppm) to zero nitrate now.

I'm definitely open to the idea of treating with peroxide. He's definitely had some dead flesh slough off here and I don't expect him to look the same as he did pre-injury.

[jwcarlson]

For my discus they were always acting totally normal, eating completely fine so I was very confident that wouldn't be any issues stressing them out a bit.  I don't know that I would suggest doing it if he's really lethargic or otherwise seems really stressed.  But he looks pretty vibrant, so it might be worth a shot.  It is a pretty big area, though.  So that might be tough.  

It does certainly look like it's getting worse.  Antibiotics might also be beneficial, but I'd see what someone else suggests in the vein... I'm by no means an expert.  

Is he eating and moving normally?

[Colu]

First thought was mycobacterium that really common in rainbow fish that what could be going  on looking  at the pictures or it's developed a secondary bacterial infection after injuring itself I would  do a course of kanaplex  and jungal fungus clear fizz tabs containing nitrofurazone following this treatment plan for more severe bacterial infections @ange

[ange]

I wanted to thank both of you for your advice! @Colu and @jwcarlson. He recovered incredibly well beyond my expectations. Unfortunately during this time he's developed symptoms of mycobacteriosis so he and his girls are unable to go back into the display tanks 😞

A word to anyone who reads this: This is why you quarantine new fish no matter how well you know the person supplying them and how well they take care of their animals. We were initially planning to put him directly into the display tank because his owner is one of two people in charge of the aquatics. His injuries were the cause for his quarantine and through that we identified what could have turned into a larger (and expensive) problem. Thank you to everyone who has offered advice on the thread and forum. I consider myself an expert fish keeper and you are the people who I often turn to when I am not certain when making a decision off of my own experience alone.

[Colu]

Sorry to hear that no effective treatment currently available  if it's mycobacteriosis be very careful with nets and other equipment to avoid cross contamination of your tanks @ange

[ange]

On 5/2/2024 at 11:30 PM, Colu said:

Sorry to hear that no effective treatment currently available  if it's mycobacteriosis be very careful with nets and other equipment to avoid cross contamination of your tanks @ange

This is exactly why I'm glad that the transit damage resulted in a quarantine. This could've potentially resulted in contamination of our 2nd most expensive to maintain display tank. At the very least now he's back to having a good quality of life and we can consolidate some livebearer tanks to give him and the girls a place to live long-term.

If I'm remembering correctly 3% peroxide at 10 minutes (our procedure for nets/siphons) should prevent other tanks from being infected by equipment. We have a net and siphon for each "area" and the quarantine area gets sanitized after each use. Everything else just gets sanitized daily.

[Colu]

On 5/3/2024 at 11:42 AM, ange said:

This is exactly why I'm glad that the transit damage resulted in a quarantine. This could've potentially resulted in contamination of our 2nd most expensive to maintain display tank. At the very least now he's back to having a good quality of life and we can consolidate some livebearer tanks to give him and the girls a place to live long-term.

If I'm remembering correctly 3% peroxide at 10 minutes (our procedure for nets/siphons) should prevent other tanks from being infected by equipment. We have a net and siphon for each "area" and the quarantine area gets sanitized after each use. Everything else just gets sanitized daily.

I would use  3% hydrogen peroxide at 6 ml per gallon to steriliser nets and equipment I would leave it over night to soak best not to take chances when dealing with mycobacteriosis