injured blood parrot.

[andruboz]

my puffer has decided he doesnt need anymore dawdling around by goofy lookin parrot fish. he showed his dissatisfaction by taking a chunk out of its face. i have moved the 3 inch parrot over to a 10 gallon temporarily because the 10 has a little bit of salt in it for the mollies. is there some general meds i could add to prevent infection while it heals? should i move the mollies out for a while?
was thinking of turning this 10 into a hospital tank anyway. i am pretty sure its not the face rotting disease because it looked normal just a few hours earlier.

[ChilDawg]

I am sorry to hear about your blood parrot. For the record, and for other people's benefit, puffers really should be kept solitarily because they are notorious fin-nippers.

For your fish, I would keep him in a hospital tank. A little bit of salt is often helpful, but I am not sure about the dosage. You will want much more information on that.

Some people like to put a little bit of anti-fungal medicine in the water, and this may be a good prophylactic solution, but I have also heard recommendations against it. Ask for other opinions!

If you medicate your fish, you will want to remove the activated carbon from your filtration, as it is very effective in removing medicine from water.

You must be very diligent in keeping the tank clean.

I am sorry that I don't have much more information, but hopefully this post will give you a list of specific questions to ask.

[pinballqueen]

Pretty sure the dosage on salt is about a tablespoon to 5 gallons (or 1/2 tsp./gal, roughly).

Melafix would be a good thing to add, as well as stress coat. Melafix is a good general astringent (kind of like putting alcohol on a cut to kill germs), and stress coat is soothing to injuries because of the aloe it contains.

Keep a good, close eye on him, as he might develop a secondary infection, especially with the injury being that close to his eyes and gills.

Remove the carbon, as previously stated, and I think I would probably move the mollies out, since you'll be putting a lot of additives in the water. (Don't move them in with the puffer, though. I would bet they'd be fish food if you did.) I also agree that puffers should be kept in a species tank because they tend to be a little mean to their tankmates. Plus, they appreciate a brackish setup, and parrots don't as a rule.

Hope he (or she) gets to feeling better soon!