Silver Dollar injury ?

[Rkerrd]

Hello all , I’m new to your group . Have a 75 gallon tank for 4 years now , mostly underpopulated with fish . My question relates to my silver dollars. They are fairly large 3 1/2 inches long. The one has a white oval elongated strip on its left side. Looks like an injury from banging into something .Chemistry is always been good , tank is looked after well. I’ve attached some pictures of the injury or health issue . what are your thoughts about this? Thank you so much for your anticipated response. Rob

 

[Magnum Man]

I have one similar... yours looks more like a heater burn... when I 1st saw it on mine, I expected mine to be a fungus or bacteria, ( my heater has a plastic guard around it ) but it doesn't get any worse, or spread to any other fish, so assume it's mucus, around some sort of a wound

 

[Rkerrd]

Thanks for your response , didn’t realize the heater could cause a burn ! Good to know , will buy a heater guard tomorrow

 

[FranciscoB]

I agree that it could be a heater burn, but it is hard to tell. It does look like an injury, rather than a disease.
What is very important is to make sure water quality is excellent (better than normal), to avoid/combat secondary infections (bacterial, fungal) which very commonly occur on top of injuries.
Your fish is a young female Metynnis, looks like M. altidorsalis. You have two of them in the photo, both females. Do you know how old are them (how long you have had them)?
I noticed that the same fish with the injury has missing the distal half of the first 4-5 rays of the dorsal fin; almost as if at some time in the past somebody took a bite at it and she lost a good portion of the fin. It is all healed now, and there is no infection. It may or not grow again. Good luck!

 

[Rkerrd]

I agree that it could be a heater burn, but it is hard to tell. It does look like an injury, rather than a disease.
What is very important is to make sure water quality is excellent (better than normal), to avoid/combat secondary infections (bacterial, fungal) which very commonly occur on top of injuries.
Your fish is a young female Metynnis, looks like M. altidorsalis. You have two of them in the photo, both females. Do you know how old are them (how long you have had them)?
I noticed that the same fish with the injury has missing the distal half of the first 4-5 rays of the dorsal fin; almost as if at some time in the past somebody took a bite at it and she lost a good portion of the fin. It is all healed now, and there is no infection. It may or not grow again. Good luck!

I agree that it could be a heater burn, but it is hard to tell. It does look like an injury, rather than a disease.
What is very important is to make sure water quality is excellent (better than normal), to avoid/combat secondary infections (bacterial, fungal) which very commonly occur on top of injuries.
Your fish is a young female Metynnis, looks like M. altidorsalis. You have two of them in the photo, both females. Do you know how old are them (how long you have had them)?
I noticed that the same fish with the injury has missing the distal half of the first 4-5 rays of the dorsal fin; almost as if at some time in the past somebody took a bite at it and she lost a good portion of the fin. It is all healed now, and there is no infection. It may or not grow again. Good luck!

Thank you so much for your very comprehensive response. One of the silver dollars is 3 1/2 years old and the other one is probably about 2 1/2 years old . One with the injury seems to be active. It seems to be feeding well and I am considering putting some API Melafix in the water to hopefully aid in the healing . It has always had a partially missing fin since I acquired it.

Water chemistry has been good/stable . Use API 5 in 1 test strips :

GH was 60

KH Was 40

PH Was 7.0

NO2 was 0.5

Thank you again for your response , Rob

NO3 was 80

 

[Myrkk]

Nothing to add, just wanted to say your tank looks lovely, what I can see of it and I now love silver dollars... gah, now I need another tank!

 

[FranciscoB]

Couple of comments. Going by your numbers, something may be amiss -
NO2 (nitrite) should always be zero in a well stablished tank.
NO3 (nitrate) at 80 is way too high. Perhaps you are not changing enough water? It should be as absolutely low as possible, with levels over 20 being too high.
How much water (volume in gallons and percent of total water) do you usually change, and how often. A good guideline is at least 50% weekly, but different people will have different opinions.
Excellent water quality is needed for healing and minimizing infections upon wounds. Good luck!