Injured make cherry barb

I've 10 Cherry Barb - 2 M & 8F. One male is bigger & has a section of the tank he's decided is his. There's plenty of chasing between the male's. I thought it was harmless but one has an injury on his head. He's still swimming normally chasing the other male and females. Hard to get pic as he's very active.

Other tank mates include 6 bronze cory. I've not seen any interaction of concern between them & the cherry barb.

Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10. 127L/34G tank.

There are Aquarium rocks but they've smooth edges. There's a bonsai tree that all the fish are obsessed with. There's certainly a possiblity big scraping on Branch during a chase.

I'm going towards shops tomorrow so will get Aquarium salt. Other than that & water changes is there anything to be mindful of?

Do I need a 3rd male cherry barb to take pressure off?

Mine have done that. I would add 2 more males and do the water changes. Then you have a ratio of 1 male to every 2 females. Move things around a bit before adding the new barbs. That way everyone feels they are in a new and and the new ones won’t get picked on.

Sorry to hear that, fish do manage to scrape themselves sometimes! Accidents happen. You already know that fresh clean water is the best medicine, and you're on top of that. Personally I might wait and see how he looks in the morning. Any sign of fungus or infection, or if he looks unwell in any way, then add the salt if he seems to need it. I only hesitate to add salt right away because of the cories, which are more sensitive to salt.

But others might put salt in right away as a preventative, so it really comes down to a personal judgement call.

AdoraBelle Dearheart said:

Sorry to hear that, fish do manage to scrape themselves sometimes! Accidents happen. You already know that fresh clean water is the best medicine, and you're on top of that. Personally I might wait and see how he looks in the morning. Any sign of fungus or infection, or if he looks unwell in any way, then add the salt if he seems to need it. I only hesitate to add salt right away because of the cories, which are more sensitive to salt.

But others might put salt in right away as a preventative, so it really comes down to a personal judgement call.

Click to expand...

Oh I've no salt anyway so won't have done until tomorrow. Good point about Cories and salt though. Peggy had a much worse injury and clean water did the trick

Deanasue said:

Mine have done that. I would add 2 more males and do the water changes. Then you have a ratio of 1 male to every 2 females. Move things around a bit before adding the new barbs. That way everyone feels they are in a new and and the new ones won’t get picked on.

Click to expand...

Oh ok cool. They are frisky males! I'm happy to add another one or two if that's best. Certainly lots of room in the tank right now