Should I Euthanize this Praecox Rainbow?

[tetra]

Last Wednesday evening, I noticed one of my Praecox rainbows was missing an eye, and I could see through its head (I’m still not sure what caused it, either it ran into something or one of my dojo loaches somehow sucked its eye out, because I occasionally see them chasing the rainbows for a second then they move on to something else.) So I quickly moved it to a quarantine tank and fortunately is still eating and swimming. The problem is, will I be able to move the rainbow to the tank with the other Praecox rainbows? I have salt in there to prevent infections from arising and I’m worried if I move it to the other tank I put the other rainbows in (I put them in another tank to prevent this from happening again if it was the dojos) it will catch an infection from the wound and kill everything in the tank or cause harm. I can’t put salt in this tank because there is live plants in it so it’s not an option, unless one tablespoon per 5 gallons is enough to prevent infections.

Should I euthanize it? Because it already looks stressed in quarantine, probably from the lack of other rainbows to feel safe. And will the wound heal over, or will it just be a giant gaping hole for the rest of its life?

[mynameisnobody]

Photo will help dramatically. If it’s just missing an eye, then I’d move it to a small quarantine tank and let it heal up before deciding where to put it. I’ve seen and have kept fish with 1 eye, some happened in my care. As a matter of fact, I also had a Gold Dojo that was keen on munching on eyes for some reason, but left the rest of the fish alone. Anyways, if it’s a literal bullet hole through the head, then my assumption is euthanizing would probably be best, but I’m not 100% sold on this without a photo. 

[Lennie]

It sounds like it just lost an eye and otherwise acting healthy and okay, just stressed. Why to euthanise a fish that just lost an eye but otherwise healthy?

 

Sometimes fish make it through horrible conditions. I would say no to euthanize in this scenaria considering everything is fine except the missing eye. It did not even get infected?

 

Also better try finding a permanent solution about dojos sucking eyes or not, if thats a thing

[mynameisnobody]

@Lennie it’s definitely a thing. 

[Lennie]

On 4/29/2024 at 1:26 AM, mynameisnobody said:

@Lennie it’s definitely a thing. 

I have never heard of it before. That being said, I have never seen dojo loaches available in my country before. Therefore, Ive never kept one. I dont have such big space for any anyway

It is interesting because commonly dojo loaches are recommended to be kept with goldfish right? Goldfish today usually are not the best swimmers. Wouldn’t this cause them to be a subject to this eye sucking thingy??

yikes!