The 55 should be done curing by tomorrow (we had to reseal it) and then we just need to leak test it tomorrow night. Those were my thoughts on the filter as well because when I asked a while back about cycling a hospital tank the consensus was why bother. Either way he has a cycled sponge filter since I figured if it kills the bactera, who cares, it will grow back once I clean it and place it back in the big tank. Being as vertically challenged as I am (aka short) its hard for me to get the bucket up on the 55 and use my hand to advert the flow by muself but the SO isn't always around to help, thats why the 20 is much eaiser, it just sits on a low counter. Is the methalyene blue sold at pet stores or is it the same thing as the New methylene blue used to stain bacteria under a microscope? I know we have some drops at work but I'm not sure if they are in date or if it even does expire. I'll have to look that up.
Last night when I got home from work it looked like his skin had sloughed off where there was previously a white area. It was very red and inflamed last night and tonight its less of an angry red and more light pinkish red and not so inflamed and raised but kind of scary because it doesn't look as healthy. My background is animal medicine and if this were a dog I would be doing warm compresses, wet to dry bandages, and antibiotics! I know antibiotics are hard on fish but im not really sure what to look for as far as infection. Has the game changed now that there's an open wound, should I go ahead and medicate him? He ate the two pellets of Hikari cichlid gold that I left in there last night but didnt eat anything over the day today. Tonight I left 5 pellets. I have an email in to a vet who is part of the local koi club so hopefully he will get back to me soon. Though, i'm not sure if that is as strict as maamals where the vet can provide advice without first doing an exam. Pictures attached. The first picture of his body is of last night and the second picture is tonight. The third picture is some orange tint on his cornea. Im not sure if that is nornal or not. Theres something similar on the other eye but in a different shape.