Cardinal fish with hole in side

[heather2112]

Hello, I have had a cardinal fish in my reef tank since it was first cycled. He has been healthy and always ate well. Yesterday I noticed there is a fairly big hole right in his side behind his side fin. I am feeding LRF mixed with a little extra mysis, focus and metroplex right now. I don’t know if this is the answer but I was hoping it would help. If anyone has any ideas on what this could be please let me know I would appreciate it so much.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looks like an injury that has developed into a bacterial infection
I generally don’t suggest mixing meds but treatment will be in a separate quarantine setting using Seachem neoplex and adding seachem metroplex to the foods provided it’s eating
Increase aeration during treatment with air stone

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello, I have had a cardinal fish in my reef tank since it was first cycled. He has been healthy and always ate well. Yesterday I noticed there is a fairly big hole right in his side behind his side fin. I am feeding LRF mixed with a little extra mysis, focus and metroplex right now. I don’t know if this is the answer but I was hoping it would help. If anyone has any ideas on what this could be please let me know I would appreciate it so much.

Can you get a better picture under white light?
Do you have any sense as to how deep the "hole" is? Is it just in the skin, or does it extend deeper down?
What other fish are in with it? Anything that might have caused this injury?

Jay

 

[heather2112]

Can you get a better picture under white light?
Do you have any sense as to how deep the "hole" is? Is it just in the skin, or does it extend deeper down?
What other fish are in with it? Anything that might have caused this injury?

Jay

Thank you for your response. He is actually and surprisingly fairly aggressive so he doesn’t have any real competition I’ll try to grab a better picture it does seem to be healing a little bit now I’ve been feeding metroplex mixed with focus in his frozen food. I’m not sure if it is what has helped but he’s looking a bit better. He is one of my very first fish so he’s a little dear to my heart lol
.

 

[GalaxyBenny]

This looks almost identical to what I’m seeing on one of my cardinals. Did you have any resolution?

 

[vetteguy53081]

This looks almost identical to what I’m seeing on one of my cardinals. Did you have any resolution?

These are times you wish you could just place a bandaid as with humans but is an open lesion and will require treatment from healing. The question is what triggered it as a cardinal stays out in the open rather than rocks to get injured. A bite mark is my suspicion.
Seachem neoplex comes to mind for treatment in a quarantine setting.