Injured Oto! Best course of action?

[auxout]

My new small oto got sucked into the filter twice! The filter was too strong and he couldn't get away from it, at first I thought he was dead but I knocked him away from the filter and he swam away! So that was good, but he seems to have taken some damage to his scales. Whats the best additive to make sure he recovers alright. I have a sample of some aquasafe that says it supplements the slime coat, should I dump that in there. I would just go to the pet store now if it wasn't so far and it snowed last night.

I came up with a temporary solution to the problem but the pop bottle looks tacky :) Whats a good way to screen off the tube so he doesn't get stuck anymore. Any disadvantages to making it suck water off the top with a tube?

[Tempest]

What sort of filter is this? I haven't seen one a healthy Oto couldn't get away from. You can take a sponge filter and slice it to fit over the intake though. I used this to keep fry from getting sucked in.

[auxout]

Aquaclear 500, he's a pretty small oto, I have 2 a bigger one and the smaller one. The bigger one is fine swimming away from it but not the small one.

[Raithan Ellis]

Considered putting a pre-filter sponge on the intake? Not only would it help little mr. oto from visiting filter hell, but also help water quality a fair bit. You can squeeze out the sponge when you do your water changes to help prevent a large buildup of wastes that contribute to nitrates.

[auxout]

Bump for my original question, rephrased.

What's the best thing I can add to help him heal up?

[Tempest]

The most I would use would be Melafix and then only if I saw some actual scrapes.

[auxout]

Yeah he's got some visible damage where his scales are gone. He seems ok active, lively. But I just want to make sure he heals good and it doesn't develop any infection or anything.

[Tempest]

Melafix is a good preventative. I used it in my 55 gallon when one of my angelfish got stuck in a cave and was scraped up pretty good getting it out.