Injured Danio - Advice Needed Please

[Wendy-Jane]

Hello all,

Yesterday morning when I got up I found that one of my precious pearl danios had ripped a gill cover right off I can't imagine how it's happened - I can't see him having been attacked, cos I've only got friendly fishes - (danios, white clouds, cardinals, neons, glowlights, platies), but can't think where he could have got stuck or hurt, so any ideas would be welcome. He was definitely ok when I went to bed on Satruday night, so I'm pretty certain it's an injury, not a disease.

I put some Melafix in straight away, and again this morning (bottle says put it in for 7 days), and he doesn't seem at all bothered by it - he's acting perfectly normal. But I was hoping that you experienced types could advise me and help with my questions. First off I was wondering, do you think he will be ok? Is there anything else I should be doing to help him? Is Melafix the right thing to use, or is there something else? Will the gill cover grow back? Any ideas on how long it will take? Sorry so many questions, but I'm really worried about my fishy and want to do the best things to help him.

Thanks for any advice you can give,
Wendy

 

[The-Wolf]

over the years I've had a few fish that have lost their operculum and all have lived a full life,
in fact one of my D.pathirana lost his operculum a few days after I got it and he is still doing great.

yes melafix is the treatment as this will help keep any bacteria getting into the wound until it heals.
it won't grow back, but as long as the fish is healthy and eating, don't worry.

the main thing now is your water quality, the operculum is there for many reasons and one of them is to help protect the gills from
certain chemicals in the water (no2,no3 etc) now the danio has one missing he is at a slight disadvantage in this area so good water quality is a must.
if anything goes wrong with your water parameters he will probably be the first to die.

continue the melafix for the full 7 days and don't worry too much.

 

[Wendy-Jane]

Thanks for this informative and encouraging reply Wolf - I'll keep up the melafix. At the moment my poor fishy look so sore, but I'm well pleased to know that he can carry on to have a full life. He's definitely eating, I checked that, and zooming as per normal. my pearl danios

I do my water change on Saturday morning, so I guess if it was going to happen, Saturday night was a "good" time *imagines drunken danios brawling on a Saturday night*.
I'll watch the water quality with eyes like a hawk going forward.

Thanks again for the info