Blue Tang.. Sickening head injury HELP ASAP

[StripesTheEel]

Hi guys,

Just a little background info..

Have had my blue tang for 2 years, very strong fish, has fought of ich many times. A little prone to injury, hitting self on rocks etc. When first started marine, like many people didnt know too much. So he has been in a 75gal (4ft) for 2 years. Finally decided to put him in the bigger tank 5ft 100gal which he is loving. Shouldve did this ages ago.

Whats wrong?
The day before the move the tang inflicted the most serious head wound he has ever made on himself and right above his head is missing a sizeable chunk of flesh, right down to the bone. Now i know this will head over time, is there anything I can do to help this along?

All I can think of is ensuring water quality is above excellent at all times and ensuring a bacterial infection doesnt ensue. Before the move the injured area looked very red, but since the cleaner shrimp has found him the injury is a lot cleaner.

To tell you the truth I nearly vomited when seeing the injury.

Can any provide any more tips? Meds? Anything? As far as the BT goes the injury is not effecting his appetite, movements or other fish. You would think the injury is not there, he is acting per normal


Please help me ASAP!!

 

[Hara]

Actually Matt, what else is in the tank? I had a beautiful puffer that had a chunk like that, taken out of it by a wrasse of all things. Right out of the middle of its back, it was a young hawaiian blue spot and the wrasse decided it was edible.

 

[hackteck]

wow i hope he recovers that looks horrible

 

[JG]

That looks like someone took a bite. Hope it recovers soon.

Don't know how practical this is, but ...

http://www.uskoi.com/bio-bandage.htm

 

[melosu58]

I would do as you say and ensure excellent water quality by doing PWC twice a week and keeping an eye out for infection in which you may have to QT and treat.

 

[StripesTheEel]

Lisa,

Looks like a bite? Thats what I thought

There was a yellow tang, flame angel, 2 clowns and the snowflake eel

Now he is in a tank with sailfin tang, zebra moray, sixline wrasse, 2 clown gobies, 2 clowns

It doesnt look infected so ill stick with x2 PWC weekly anything else i should try

This WILL heal wont it?

 

[Hara]

unless it goes septic, it should heal, the one on my puffer was too severe.

 

[steve-s]

The main problem is due to the size of the injury, it will affect the fish's ability to maintain osmotic balance/fluid loss. The tang will be using an exceptional amount of energy just maintaining osmotic balance.

If you have a cycled QT, it would be best if you could place the tang there and lower the salinity to 16 ppt aver a 24 hr period. This would greatly reduce osmotic stress and reduce the chances of secondary bacetrial infections. Adding a protein polymer like Seachems Stressguard or Kent's ProTech Marine would help bind the wound and heal faster.

Wacth for secondary bacterial infection and familiarize yourself with what the local LFS has to offer in terms of gram negative antibiotics unless you already have something on hand.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Melissamustang]

StripesTheEel
Sorry for this.You have got some bumps in the road here recently. To me you got the best advice and I hope it gets well...Looks like a nice regal other than the bite...How long have you had it? Good luck Matt.

 

[StripesTheEel]

Have had him for 2 years. Yes he is a great tang.

I have heard of stressguard, ill check the lfs for that today.

Tell me about it, everything is always good, then at once a few things go wrong, first the mandarin, now this.. oh well, all a learning process..

thanks for the help guys!