Tiger barb looks like a missing chunk

[enrgizerbunny]

I have a relatively new aquarium, about a month old, cycled using established media. I noticed a few minutes ago that one of my barbs looks like he's missing a chunk out of his side! He's one of the fish that has never been as colorful, but I figured out was just differences in sex out other normal variations. The chunk looks like a bite almost, but the only other fish are two kissing gouramis and a bn pleco. I added the best pic I could get. I filled my 10g in prep to isolate him.

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[Brookster123]

Does it look like a rasp mark from the Pleco?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

I couldn't tell you

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[Brookster123]

Did it happen over night? I've heard if Pleco's grabbing a sleepy fish at night.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Well it's a bristle nosed pleco that's only about 2 inches long, so I don't know if he's would inflict that much damage. I don't know when it happened, but I would guess the last 12 hours over the course of today.

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[enrgizerbunny]

He is acting confused now, swims around and randomly stops and goes head down towards the substrate. Some of the other barbs are nipping at his wound it appears. Not with much aggression though. They just swim up, nip once and calmly swim away.

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[twiddlemuffin]

How many tigers do you have ? If you don't have enough it might be aggression from the rest picking on just one.

 

[enrgizerbunny]

How many tigers do you have ? If you don't have enough it might be aggression from the rest picking on just one.

I have a shoal of 15.

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[Brookster123]

Could it be some kind of infection/blister that the others had made worse by pecking at? How are you water conditions?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

I recently had an ammonia spike that I got under control after my rainbow shark died. Now ammonia and nitrite are a steady 0. Nitrates were 10 two days ago.I tried to meet him unsuccessfully last night and gave up after about 20 minutes of scaring the whole tank.

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[enrgizerbunny]

Water temp is 76F

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[Brookster123]

Could be an ammonia burn/blister, do you have any stress coat you could add?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

He's definitely missing scales in the affected area. I tried to meet him, but only ended up terrorizing the tank for 20 minutes and getting elbow drop in both arms. I added some stress cost, maybe that will help him recover.

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[enrgizerbunny]

Well my little trooper seems to be recovering, it must be an injury of some sort. He had me worried for a bit there when he would stop moving and go belly up sinking to the bottom, almost like he was stunned. He hasn't done it in a little while and is swimming with the shoal like nothing is wrong.

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[Brookster123]

Good news! Just keep an eye on him..

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Well my good news was short-lived. He started doing the stunned act again, so this morning I managed to net him and put him in the hospital tank, which is just a 10g on the floor below my 55. I'm hoping he'll make a recovery without the stress of the community after him, otherwise I'll be looking at euthanasia.

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[Brookster123]

Well my good news was short-lived. He started doing the stunned act again, so this morning I managed to net him and put him in the hospital tank, which is just a 10g on the floor below my 55. I'm hoping he'll make a recovery without the stress of the community after him, otherwise I'll be looking at euthanasia. Sent from my SCH-I435 using Aquarium Advice mobile app

Hopefully the solidarity benefits the poor lil fella, I could not imagine having a nasty wound being poked at other people.. Did you add anything to the water?

 

[enrgizerbunny]

I added some stress coat, but I'm not sure what else I could do for him

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[Brookster123]

Just keep the water clean clean and hopefully he heals up!

 

[enrgizerbunny]

Just keep the water clean clean and hopefully he heals up!

One of the larger barbs is starting to do the same sort of thing. No apparent injury, but I witnessed it swimming and then going head down like he was doing. LFS employee that seems to know his stuff suggested it may have been a fungal infection that he was susceptible to because of his injury. He said that once it makes it to the brain, there's not much bouncing back that they can do. The larger barb is starting to hide a lot too. I hope this isn't something contagious, otherwise I'm isolating the entire shoal and treating.