Sore on Elephant Nose Fish

[Richelle]

This morning I discovered what appears to be a sore in the right side of our elephant nose fish. We have Dragon rock in this tank and I thought it might be a scrape but not sure. Does anyone know what meds are acceptable for this scaleless fish? I don't want it to get infected. If it already appears infected, I'll need to act fast and maybe get it to the vet.

 

[Autumnsky]

Injuries if caused by a scrape on a rock can heal themselves, what is needed is basically perfect water parameters. And daily every other day water changes.

Are there any fish in the tank which might be harassing the EN? Chasing, startling it?

 

[Richelle]

No, no fish startling it. There are rose line sharks, various barbs (green-rosy-tiger), reticulated loaches, pigmy gouramis and a pleco, but this EN rules the tank. The booboo looks better today. Increased the heat andused Fishkeeper.

 

[Autumnsky]

Maybe a burn from the aquarium heater? You might look to see if it could be from hiding in a back space, if your heater doesn't have a guard on it.

Do you have a glass cylinder "cave" for the EN?

 

[shellyx]

Hi I keep elephant nose fish and see this a lot on mine, keep the water clean extra pwc, they can get these marks with rubbing of items or bumping into things. Mine always clear up pretty quickly. Dont add any medicine to the water as these guys are really delicate.

 

[Richelle]

Thank you both for your replies. I think our EN got scraped when he took over the crayfish cave. Our crayfish died recently, so opened another hiding space. The EN has to get in/out sideways, so I think thats when it happened. It is a 60 gal tank with a Fluval FX4 canister filter. I do water changes weekly and filter changes monthly, though I think it's time to change the tubing.


I know not to put meds in the water. In my ignorance when we first got them, I did just that and we lost one.