Bad trauma to upper lip that is getting worse (graphic pictures)

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Lab_Rat

Lab_Rat

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Dec 3, 2009
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My stunted craigslist chocolate cichlid picked a fight with someone last week and got a huge chunk of his upper lip torn off. My course of action was to do some extra wc on the tank and keep an eye on things. Throughout the rest of the week, the damaged tissue sloughed off gradually and by Friday all the tissue on his upper lip had sloughed off. He also went from acting pretty normal to hiding over the weekend. I've pulled him out and have him in a 20g long hospital tank with a little aquarium salt, melafix, and pimafix. I'm not sure what to do at this point since I don't really know what to treat him for. The dying tissue simply gets white and falls off, but there is nothing fluffy growing on it, it just looks like the blood supply is cut off. Maybe I'm an idiot and missing some obvious infection. I just took these pictures and it's so much worse than it was this morning. Any advice is appreciated.





 
chefjamesscott

chefjamesscott

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May 28, 2008
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wow nasty war wound there

Hopefully it will heal up. Constant wc and bit of treatment with anti fungal if it gets a fungus infection. I would also do a bit of salt to the water.

Who did it pick a fight with.

Another thing I would do is prime the water every 2 day or so in an effort to keep the bad stuff in the water neutralized. Plus do a water change every 3 days or so.
 
Lab_Rat

Lab_Rat

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No one else in the tank had any war wounds. I think he must have pushed the JDs buttons. She's a very sweet and laid back fish (very un-JD like) but he's pestered her before and she's a beast. I could see her having the power to tear his lip off if he really provoked her. The only other possibilities are my male nic or one of the severums. The severums generally lip lock amongst themselves and don't really do much with non-severums.

I may up the dose of salt. I added 1 T last night to 20g, may add a little more today and do a wc tomorrow.
 
SubRosa

SubRosa

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Jul 3, 2009
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That's really ugly Allie, but it looks clean from the pics. Is the fish eating relatively normally? If so I would just keep up what you're doing and not worry too much! I once had a Firemouth lock up with a Jewel and lose both his lips in just as ugly a fashion and he recovered and lived a couple of years after the incident.
 
Lab_Rat

Lab_Rat

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Dec 3, 2009
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He lost interest in food on Friday or so, but he's plenty fat. After talking to a couple of people, we think it's ischemic injury (probably many blood vessels crushed during the initial trauma) and the tissue loss correlates with that sort of injury and timeline. He actually seems to be in good spirits, he came to greet me when I snapped those pics. I'll keep him in the qt for a while and just do every other day wc with a touch of salt in the water unless it starts to look infected. I just feel so bad for him.
 
mel_20_20

mel_20_20

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Sep 1, 2008
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Deep in the heart of texas
Labby, I think you're doing things right. I would maybe do daily water changes and dose with Melafix and Pimafix after each. Keep the salinity constant, too. I had an Oto that was absolutely brutalized, his face torn badly, caudal fin torn off at the peduncle, and dorsal fin half gone, and with daily 60-90% water changes and adding Melafix daily, he recovered completely. (I did daily for the first week and then went to every three days on the second week and kept that up for about three or four more weeks)

You may remember the thread with the paroon shark that was incredibly injured, and with nothing but daily huge water changes it recovered. There was severe skin and tissue avulsion on that fish, down to the muscle, and around the face and eye that you would not believe it could survive.

I would ramp up the O2 in the tank: add airstones and crank them up. Keep the room quiet and low light. First sign of infection I would start an antibiotic, but it looks clean right now.

Many disagree about Melafix, but it does have mildly antibacterial properties, and Pimafix helps prevent fungus in injuries. I would go with those and the salt that you've been doing.

I'm a big believer in huge water changes in cases like this, too.
 
Last edited:
stephcps

stephcps

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Jun 2, 2009
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Wow! what a nasty wound. I agree with everyone above. Think it is just gonna take a while to recover. Good luck!
 
Lab_Rat

Lab_Rat

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Dec 3, 2009
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Thanks Mel. I'm a big believer in clean water being the best medicine as well. I can throw some indian almond leaves in too if they might help. I know they have some mild antiseptic properties.
 
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