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Wound not healing

alzak

alzak

Member
Joined
14 Aug 2009
Messages
375
Location
Tipton West Midlands
Hi all do have small problem with my angelfish as one of the is wounded and scar is not healing very well.

It is white in colour and is like that for past few weeks.

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I really need help with this as looks like this is spreading and this wound is getting bigger and bigger...

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Looks like hole in the head disease. This's all what I could say. Not sure what to do myself.
May be Metronidazole mixed with food.
 
Looks like a bacterial infection following on from the wound. All is not lost you could treat with Melafix or similar but its difficult to diagnose I would probably try a product like ESha.Whatever you use dont forget to remove Carbon if using in the filter,I think water change before and after treatment are required
 
Yeah I treat this with melafix and pimafix also bought some sera baktopur.

Initially this was just a wound but now looks like some bacterial infection as of you looks closely there is some white spots on top fin as well.
 
What are your tank details?
size
temp
pH
livestock
food
water change schedule

how old is this angel? how long since you noticed the first symptom? where does this angel stand in the tank hierarchy? any other angels (or other fish) affected? - look very closely

do you have a hospital tank for treatments - cheaper/easier than treating in the main tank, also some medications will affect plants, shrimp, filter ...

The most efficient way to treat this is with medicated food BUT fish needs to be actively eating (lots not just a little) ... general scheme with this sort of condition is begin with metronidazole, then follow up with kanamycin (one of the few easily available antibiotics that is actually effective against the types of bacterial infections observed in fish); if available you might try levamisol (this would likely remove the need for a follow up antibacterial treatment).

If this is the only fish in the tank with an issue, this suggests an immune depression in this particular fish - stress is a major factor in immune suppression in fish, so even if you successfully treat this fish for now, you may need to alter it's living conditions, eg, separate tank or alter livestock in existing tank or continue to treat at intervals
 
Tank is 240l temp 28c, pH unknown, 50% water changed weekly apart from 9 angels I have some kribensis in it, food mainly dry tetra and I just bought sera baktopur tablets.

Angels are about 2 years old and this wound is there for past 3-5 months with regards to hierarchy is difficult to say as i have 3 males and 4 females and there is no clear alpha in this group but non of the fish is separated and all form part of swim, I have notices small patch of white on another fish also on small wound but this looks like is healing now.

As I have no another tank I would treat water in main one I don't really care about plants as long as angels would get better.

I do not have any access to antibiotics so along can rely onnis widely accessible fish treatments.
 
Seachem sells both the Metronidazole (as MetroPlex & AquaZole) & Kanamycin, neomycin sulfate & sulfathiazole are also effective antibiotics (different antibiotics target different bacteria) but often less palatable
.
If the Sera label does not list the active ingredient, you might contact the manufacturer.

Your angel's lesions look much like those observed in HITH (hole in the head) - this is a decent article worth reading
Spironucleus: Hole In The Head & Head and Lateral Line Disease

If you observe any body or fin lesions on your angel fish this is an indication of poor water quality, try doing a 50% water change, 3 days in a row; then move to a routine of 50% water change twice weekly.
If possible add frozen food to your fish diet, eg, brine shrimp, blood worms etc (I prefer the Hikari brand as they are careful with sanitization & vitamins).

With this sort of disease, you're looking for improvement over months rather than a couple weeks.
The fish posted above, may never look 100% but the wounds should heal over & fill in considerably.

General recommendation for adult angels, is 35-40 litres per fish, as a tank of this size usually provides sufficient territory/space & water quality: depending on your individual fish, your tank should be fine but you do need to be consistent with water changes.
You don't mention how many kribensis ... these fish will often compete with angels for tank space/territory; as they breed so readily in home tanks, they can easily/quickly overstock a tank.
 
Waterlife Octozin is excellent for 'hole in the head' amongst other things.
 
There is just 5 kribensis in this tank so tank is not really over stocked as angels have plenty of space to swim, kribensis tend to keep bottom of the tank for themselves.

I'm gutted to hear this may be hole in the head...

With Regards to water changes this are done on weekly basis no matter what.

Can This spread to other angels?
 
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alzak said:
tank is not really over stocked
Click to expand...
the physical condition of your angel is telling you something is amiss ...

The easiest - & likely most effective - intervention is to increase water changes.
Even with 50% weekly water changes it is easy for nitrates etc to accumulate in a tank & gradually affect fish wellbeing.
I can't tell from your photos how large your angel fish are, but at ~2 years they should be full grown with at least 4-5inch bodies (not including fins) - note the discussion at the end of this article (it's short ;) )

A second easy action is to adjust diet - if you can't provide frozen foods, then look at various cichlid pellet type foods available in your area
These often store better than flake, not just in your home but also along the distribution chain, if possible buy foods with manufacture dates, if there is a visible "lot number" or "production number" you can contact the manufacturer for dating information, store fish foods in fridge or freezer, especially once opened.
Offer a variety of foods, also try to source foods from various manufacturers.


alzak said:
Can This spread to other angels?
Click to expand...
please take some time to read the linked article - it provides some very good information.

In short, yes!
BUT this sort of disease is not highly infectious in the way of ich or other external parasites or bacterial conditions such as columnaris etc

HITH or HLLE is a longterm "disease" (think of it as "chronic fatigue syndrome" if that helps) - it's observed when conditions are not quite right for a long time, rather than just a few weeks.
Anecdotes abound ... one fish lab (I don't recall what sort of research) had HITH/HLLE show up in their tanks after they'd installed a new water system - they'd always run the tanks with "purified" water in order to better control tank parameters - this was not a case of "poor" water parameters but rather "something missing" ... the situation resolved when they returned to their previous water system (not the first solution attempted ;) ).
That anecdote aside, most hobbyist tanks fall on the side of lesser water quality :)
 
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