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Injured Silver Dollar

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 11:18 am
by FranM
I guess nothing can go smoothly. I posted earlier about the great shape my tank is in and how happy I am about it.

This morning I woke up to find a silver dollar jammed in one of the holes of the clown loach cave. A family member was able to pull him out but of course the top of his back is scraped and he has one broken pectoral fin. I do not want to remove it to another tank. I will keep the water extra clean. Should I add aquarium salt? Sometimes I feel the salt is more stressful. But I certainly don't want infection to set in either.

55 gallon, 78-80 degrees, ph, 7.2-7.4. Nitrates no more than 20. Clown loaches and cherry barbs in addition to silver dollars.

Thanks,
Fran

Re: Injured Silver Dollar

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 3:34 pm
by mikev
Salt would not do much good and will stress other fish.

Do keep the water as clean as possible. Watch for signs of a bacterial infection on the injured fish -- you may need to isolate it and treat with antibiotics if you see things going wrong. Some would suggest adding Melafix.... I prefer just to do extra water changed, but Melafix is an option.

Re: Injured Silver Dollar

Posted: Sun Feb 15, 2015 4:22 pm
by FranM
Hi Mike. Thanks for your input. I was reluctant to put salt but I think of how salt is helpful for humans and healing so I did it anyway only a few moments ago. There's really no way I'm going to isolate the crazy and skittish silver, plus I don't have an already set up tank, and I can see it causing itself even more damage in a smaller enclosure. He is schooling with the others and is trying to eat but he's not darting around as sharply as the others. Hopefully I'll see improvement tomorrow.

Again, I was really undecided on the salt, but I have used it before with the current inhabitants and it was ok. I probably should've just treated immediately. I will do a water change tomorrow.

Thanks,
Fran