Injured Zebra Danio

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Tank size: 20 gallon
pH: 8.4
ammonia: .5PPM still in the process of cycling the tank.
nitrite:
nitrate:
kH:
gH:
tank temp: 77°

Fish Symptoms: Danio has a hole running from bottom to top and what appears to be blood on his sides. After putting him back in the tank he's just sitting at the bottom not really moving.

Volume and Frequency of water changes: 25% every other day.

Chemical Additives or Media in your tank: Was using ammonia clear fizz tabs but stopped about 4 days ago and Dechlorinator

Tank inhabitants: 4 other zebra danios.

Recent additions to your tank (living or decoration): none.

Exposure to chemicals:

Digital photo (include if possible): Moved him to a small holding tank to get better pictures but they're still pretty blurry.

it has a bacterial infection.
try a broad spectrum fish medication or euthanise it and hope the others don't get it.

you need to do a bigger water change (about 75% any day there is an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm), and keep the ammonia level at 0ppm.

Colin_T said:

it has a bacterial infection.
try a broad spectrum fish medication or euthanise it and hope the others don't get it.

you need to do a bigger water change (about 75% any day there is an ammonia or nitrite reading above 0ppm), and keep the ammonia level at 0ppm.

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Will the medication affect my cycle? My Ammonia had been at 0 for the last 4 or 5 days but suddenly spiked again today though nowhere near as high as before.

most broad spectrum fish medications won't affect the filter cycle but some like anti-biotics will.

Colin_T said:

most broad spectrum fish medications won't affect the filter cycle but some like anti-biotics will.

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Okay I'll see if I can find some broad spectrum meds locally. If I can't I'll euthanize the sick fish. If I have to go that route what would be the most humane way to do it?

I found some API Melafix at the store would you recommend I use that?

Yes API Melafix can be used to treat infection like open wound and abrasions skins. Make sure there's no ammonia on the tank if you want to use it.
But if the red side is @ the gills then probably the fish got Ammonia Burn
How about the rest of danios? Any update or 4 of them are just fine

You can try melafix but I doubt it will do anything.

Before you treat the tank, do the following things.
Work out the volume of water in the tank:
measure length x width x height in cm.
divide by 1000.
= volume in litres.
When you measure the height, measure from the top of the substrate to the top of the water level.

There is a calculator/ converter in the "FishForum.net Calculator" under "Useful Links" at the bottom of this page that will let you convert litres to gallons if you need it.

Remove carbon from the filter before treating or it will adsorb the medication and stop it working.

Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge.

Do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate. The water changes and gravel cleaning will reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and provide a cleaner environment for the fish to recover in.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it is added to the tank.

Clean the filter if it hasn't been done in the last 2 weeks. However, if the filter is less than 6 weeks old, do not clean it. Wash filter materials/ media in a bucket of tank water and re-use them. Tip the bucket of dirty water on the garden/ lawn.

Increase surface turbulence/ aeration when using medications because they reduce the dissolved oxygen in the water.

KevinZ said:

Yes API Melafix can be used to treat infection like open wound and abrasions skins. Make sure there's no ammonia on the tank if you want to use it.
But if the red side is @ the gills then probably the fish got Ammonia Burn
How about the rest of danios? Any update or 4 of them are just fine

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The other 4 danios are in as far as I can tell perfect health, still zipping around the tank playfully, no signs of injury, etc...

RedPhoenix981 said:

The other 4 danios are in as far as I can tell perfect health, still zipping around the tank playfully, no signs of injury, etc...

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If that's the case then probably you're just on bad luck. You can't tell any fish are sick until you re-home them.
1 years ago I bought 12 Pink Zebra Danios and they're fine at the store. When I got home 3 of them die. They look really skinny some sort of. But the rest of the danios staying on top of the aquarium running around.
I guess how to prevent this problem is to buy fishes from a reputable store. But I can't guarantee that.
Good luck! I hope you don't have to euthanize that fish.

KevinZ said:

If that's the case then probably you're just on bad luck. You can't tell any fish are sick until you re-home them.
1 years ago I bought 12 Pink Zebra Danios and they're fine at the store. When I got home 3 of them die. They look really skinny some sort of. But the rest of the danios staying on top of the aquarium running around.
I guess how to prevent this problem is to buy fishes from a reputable store. But I can't guarantee that.
Good luck! I hope you don't have to euthanize that fish.

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Yeah if he was weak to begin with putting him into a cycling tank probably didn't help matters any. I did do a bigger water change last night and he seems to be a bit more active today so I'll probably just keep doing large daily water changes and see if that helps him. At the very least it'll hopefully keep the others from getting sick.