oto injury

[frog girl]

I have been doing a fair bit of transplanting in my 60 gallon with a clay bottom. I have never had trouble before but it seems this time one of my female otos bumped her nose hard on something. It is white instead of the usual dark grey brown in a small patch on the tip of her rostrum. There is no hanging skin & she is still eating fine but I am still doing renovations & I do want her to heal. All my other fish are bright colored & eating normally including my other otos.

Should I take her out & put her in clean water?? A little bit of methyl blue in the water?? An airstone & some zuchinni??

I have treated other animals for diseases/injuries but never fish so I'm a newbie at this.

Thanks

P.S. I have had her for over a year & no new fish have been introduced recently (a few new plants though).

 

[TankGirl]

I'd remove her and use some Melafix for 4-5 days, if you can. These are relatively sensitive fish and I'd rather be safe than sorry, especially if you have a hospital type tank for the fish. Skip the salt - they do not do well with it - but catching it early might mean Melafix is all that is necessary.

 

[frog girl]

oops guess I left out some important info

some new rocks, new driftwood, and new substrate (taking gravel out putting sand in) I am doing it gradually.

pH = 7.0 ammonia = undetectable nitrites = undetectable nitrates = unknown
KH = 10 degrees

Right now I have 4 harlequin rasboras. Only 2 tiger barbs (had six but quite a few from one batch got odd mouth deformities - seemed to be congenital); I will be getting rid of them soon but I am quite sure they are not picking on the otos. 6 otos, 1 mosquito fish.

75 gallon tank - only filled to 60 gallons 6 sided so deep

I did a water change of about 40% a week ago (normally I only change water about every 2 months because it just seems to really upset my fish - I don't seem to get waste buildup with the plants & I do have DIY CO2 & plants are fertilized) but I have disturbed the substrate so there is still some turbidity & I will have to vacuum again when I am done with renovations. I thought about taking all the fish out but when I have done this in the past they seem more stressed (i.e. lack of color, refusal to eat, odd behavior) than when I leave them in & make gradual changes.

I don't remember the name of my filter but its a hang on the back (though I don't use it that way. I set it on the tower of driftwood & rocks in one corner. I think it does about 50 gph.

I think thats it. Oh tank has been up for over a year.

 

[TankGirl]

Definitely check the nitrates - they can sometimes spike when you disturb the substrate in an established tank, and that won't make the otos happy.

 

[youronlysin]

From some of her other posts, it sounds like her tank is pretty heavily planted with good light and CO2 supplements. I'll bet her Nitrates arent too big a problem if at all. It would be interesting to see how they test.

 

[TankGirl]

I have had major nitrate spikes in my heavily planted tanks that really surprised me after I disturbed my gravel rich with fluorite or laterite. Up until then I was dosing nitrate, so color me cautious! It took a while before I had to start dosing nitrate again in my case.

 

[frog girl]

Hmmm. . . I don't have a nitrate test in my master test kit . . .

I did put a bunch of anacharis in to help absorb nitrogen changes before I started all of this. Guess I will have to stop at the LFS tommorow.

I don't have any fluorite or laterite but I did put substrate fertilizer in for my plants around 2 months ago so its not impossible.

 

[TankGirl]

Yeah, if you have stirred up some root tabs it can cause a spike as well. Easily enough handled with a sizable water change, but it is good to have a nitrate kit on hand. Sudden changes can stress sensitive fish like otos.

 

[frog girl]

Its sort of funny but my otos seem to be the toughest fish of the lot. I never think of them as sensitive & they where the 1st fish I put in my aquarium. I know other people have trouble but . . . Mine seem to be troopers . . . Sometimes when I am vacuuming I have to move a fish & the otos actually have to be pushed out of the way sometimes (gently of course & then they just swim off to another plant or panel & keep munching away) The only time I have seen them be freaky was when I was 1st setting up the tank. They seem to love it when I stir up sediment it really gets them busy cleaning the leaves.

Nonetheless I shall be careful. I need to get a nitrate & phosphate kit for my pond anyway.