Injured Clown

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

Hey folks, it's been a rough afternoon.

I set up my first quarantine tank and added two ocellaris clownfish from a local breeder yesterday. Everything was going great until I dropped the glass lid of the 10 gallon quarantine tank into the tank. I feel terrible.

One of the clowns seems to be doing fine, though there could be internal injuries I'm not able to see. He continues eating, swimming normally, etc.

The other clown is badly injured. A small portion (maybe 2mm square) of his body was cut off by the glass lid, and there is a large opening near one of his gills. Strangely, he been swimming normally and behaving normally since it happened about an hour ago.

I've attached a video where you can see the opening as well as a picture of the portion of his body that was cut off.

What should I do?

Thanks in advance!

EDIT: I just reposted the video as an MP4 as I think the MOV file format isn't supported by all browsers.

EDIT2: Here's the youtube link:

sc50964 · Aug 6, 2023

Can’t see the video but lowering salinity and keeping your water clean will help any wounds.

fishguy242 · Aug 6, 2023

Sorry ,cannot see video,
#fishmedic

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

sc50964 said:
Can’t see the video but lowering salinity and keeping your water clean will help any wounds.

Thank you. I just reposted the video in MP4 -- hope it works now. It seems to work in Chrome.

fishguy242 · Aug 6, 2023

try a 20-25 sec video

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

Here's a longer video if the other ones aren't working. Thank you!

Sharkbait19 · Aug 6, 2023

YouTube links tend to work better across all platforms.
If the fish can still move and eat, that’s a good sign. Fish have very good regenerative abilities so as long as infection is avoided it should heal up fine.

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

Sharkbait19 said:
YouTube links tend to work better across all platforms.
If the fish can still move and eat, that’s a good sign. Fish have very good regenerative abilities so as long as infection is avoided it should heal up fine.

Here's a youtube link:

Thanks!

sc50964 · Aug 6, 2023

ooh man that looks really bad.., swollen, but yet he seems to be acting normal so it may looks worse than it actually is. Add an air pump, lower the salinity by a few points (i.e., 1.025 to 1.020) over a few hours today, make sure they are fed well, and make sure the water quality is good are all you can do at this point.

Jay Hemdal · Aug 6, 2023

Agreed - you can only offer supportive care at this point; lower the SG, avoid bright lights and be sure the tank is well aerated.

Also, since this looks like a new tank, you'll want to monitor the ammonia.

Jay

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

Thank you. I made a big batch of clean saltwater for the quarantine tank, so I can do 100% water changes (all same temperature, pH, etc.). They've been in the clean water for under 24 hours. I have an ammonia badge. There's an air stone in there already, and I just lowered the salinity from 1.025 to 1.024 and will keep lowering to 1.020 over the next few hours.

Rozeen · Aug 6, 2023

Salinity is now 1.020. Both clowns responded positively each time I lowered the salinity by 0.001, so I'm thinking that it may be making a difference. The temp was around 80 and is now around 78 as I lowered the heater and cranked up the A/C a bit.

I've done two more feedings, with the excess food and waste siphoned from the bottom afterward. Both clowns are eating. Water is clear and the ammonia badge is still bright yellow (the clowns have only been in this water for around 26 hours). The clowns are moving around a lot more, up and down in the water column and all around the tank, not stuck in the corners or under the heater.

The lights are off, but there is some indirect light coming through the window so it's not totally dark.

If I didn't know any better, I'd say the two clowns were equally healthy. Their behavior is about the same. It's making me a bit more hopeful than I probably should be.

Any thoughts on what I could do next for the injured clown, or have I done all I can for now?

Rozeen · Aug 7, 2023

Both clowns are still behaving normally with lots of energy and continue eating. I've been feeding LRS frozen food every few hours (siphoning out whatever they don't eat within a couple of minutes), and the water is getting a little cloudy so I'm going to do a water change with more 1.020 water at 76-77 degrees. Here's a video of the injured clown now, about 29 hours after the injury.

Rozeen · Aug 10, 2023

Well, he's made it through the last four days with no signs of distress. The wound still looks pretty bad, but it's a start. Any thoughts on whether methylene blue or antibiotics might be a good idea?

Jay Hemdal · Aug 10, 2023

Rozeen said:
Well, he's made it through the last four days with no signs of distress. The wound still looks pretty bad, but it's a start. Any thoughts on whether methylene blue or antibiotics might be a good idea?

Skip the methylene blue. If it looks like it is worsening or turning red or white, that can be a sign of secondary bacterial infection and you might consider a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like kanaplex or Neoplex.
However, if it looks unchanged, then it isn’t infected and antibiotics won’t make it heal any faster.
Jay

sc50964 · Aug 10, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
Skip the methylene blue. If it looks like it is worsening or turning red or white, that can be a sign of secondary bacterial infection and you might consider a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like kanaplex or Neoplex.
However, if it looks unchanged, then it isn’t infected and antibiotics won’t make it heal any faster.
Jay

How about nitrofurazone? Doesn’t that have some healing quality?