# My fish has a hole in his side!



## TailorO

My fish has a HUGE hole in his side that keeps getting bigger! it looks horrible. i have him in a sick tank right now. luckily none of my other fish have it. he is swimming around like normal i haven't seen him eating though. I am treating him with "Lifeguard" it is a 5 day tablet treatment but it just keeps looking worse! is there anything else i should do? :-?


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## Gibbs

Can you post a pic?

How did the injury occur, Fight or if it's an infection.

Post alot more info like how long the fish has had it, what it looks like, how you think it got the wound etc.

I'm not much on injuries or cures not for these type anyway but there are poeple on here that are and can help you.

I do no that adding salt would be a good thing for you right about 1 teaspoon per 5 gallons. It will help kill or prevent any parasites that might growing on the wound and if you say that the wound keeps spreading then it is infected......Add the salt. Rock salt preferably and disolve it before you add it.


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## TailorO

it's like a fungus or infection i think


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## Robin

More information would be helpful but I'll go with what you've given so far.

Keeping the fish's water pristine with daily partial water changes will go a long way towards healing. I don't know what LifeGuard is suppose to treat, (dial-up makes me to lazy to google it), but what you want is a good broad spectrum antibiotic. Amazingly, fish can and do recover from gaping holes in their sides but you just can't let it get infected.

Stop feeding him. Epsom salt at the rate of 1 Tablespoon per five gallons will works as a mild pain killer and also work as a laxative which may be helpful if the hole was caused by a blockage in the digestive system.

Robin


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## TailorO

lifeguard says it is a broad-spectrum, non-antibiotic agent that treats bacterial, fungal, viral, parasitic dieases. i am a little worried about the water quality in the tank though cuz you are supposed to use one tablet a day for five days then do i water change once the cycle is done. i am worried about the water getting ucky before then...


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## Robin

If you started out with good water then I wouldn't worry about going without a water change for five days. Test the water daily to make sure its okay. One option would be to do a 20% water change on day three just before you dose the tank.

How is the fish doing? Has the hole stopped growing? Any white or gray fuzzy growth around the hole?

Robin


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## TailorO

it is either the same or still growing and there is white around it. today was the last day of the treatment. i am going to clean the tank today but the hole is not any better. not sure what to do next? frequent water changes and salt maybe?


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## TailorO

well, i just checked on him and he was dead....  So my next question is, cleaning the sick tank. is there any special way i should clean the tank and rocks and filter? if i change out all the water and rinse everything could another fish i put in there later get the same sickness from the tank or does it die off or what?


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## fishwolfe

boil everything you can.as for the tank and filter housing,cut a lemon and scrub the tank with the wedges then clean it with water.i don't like to use bleach but some do.if you use bleach make sure you really rinse it out.then test it with some cheap feeder fish.


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## Robin

Sorry you lost him.

I can't tell you how he got the hole but it sounds like it got infected. Sometimes you can get ahead of the infection with the right treatment but not always. If it was Columnaris then this bacteria may have caused the hole in his side or just taken advantage of the hole.

As far as other fish getting it--well it's not likely. Yes, Columnaris is contaigious but its one of those bacteria that's present in your tank and only becomes a problem when fish are under stress. A healthy, unstressed fish can fight off just about anything.

Did you want to keep the sick tank up and running in case you have other sick fish?

Robin


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## TailorO

yeah, it's a ten gallon that i try to keep it up and running most of the time as a hospital tank or a new fish quarntine tank


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## Robin

TailorO said:


> yeah, it's a ten gallon that i try to keep it up and running most of the time as a hospital tank or a new fish quarntine tank


Okay well if you _want_ to keep it up and running with a few resident fish living in it to keep the filter cycled that's something that some people choose to do but if you just want to keep it running soley for the purpose of having it ready for the unexpected sick fish it's really not necessary to do so.

You can have the -empty- ten gallon tank, filter and heater in a box or a closet and just pull it out and fill it when the need arises. To instantly cycle the hospital tank you can 'borrow' some of the established media from your main tank and place it in the hospital tank's filter. Gravel from the established tank that is placed in the hospital tank's filter will do almost as well. Some people actually keep a smaller filter running on the main tank and when they need to set up the hospital/quarantine/fry tank they just move that small filter.

Keep in mind that a tank without fish to 'feed' the filter will quickly become an uncycled tank.

Robin


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## TailorO

thanks but that was already what i decided to do. i'm just gonna keep it empty untill i need it then seed the tank from the filters on my main tank


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