Disease or cut?

[BTB117]

Hi All,

I purchased a flame hawk from aquarium fishsale.com and he came with a gash above his right eye.

Since I’ve introduced the flame hawk to the tank he’s been acting totally normal. A few days now and nothing seems to have gotten worse.

Can someone please ID this and tell me if it’s a cut/blemish or a disease that will spread to my other fish?

Thank you!

 

[CJB]

To me from what I can tell it looks like a laceration. Dose some melafix or stress coat to help the recovery of the skin on the hawk fish. Monitor your other fish for any new marks. Does it look fuzzy? Or raised?

 

[BTB117]

No, it looks like an indentation/crater. Is that a good sign it’s a laceration?

 

[CJB]

Possibly can you tell if it’s really deep? Worst case scenario it is HLLE. (Head lateral line Erosion) could’ve gotten stressed out during his travels to your aquarium. To my knowledge it is not contagious so your other fish should be fine. It doesnt have a high mortality rate unless left untreated for a long time. How long has he had this and how long has he been in your system? What do you feed?

 

[BTB117]

He’s been in the system 4 days and I feed mysis and pellets. Thank you for the guidance!

 

[CJB]

No problem man good luck. Update us with how everything goes!

 

[CJB]

I mainly feed my fish a variety of frozen foods, I know it can get pricey to keep a good stock of it but it’s much more nutritious than the pellets. Pellets are like a McDonald’s cheeseburger whereas mysis is like a filet mignon. I have pellets for a just in case if I run out of frozen and can get to the store.