# whats the best way to threat fish(oto cat) with wound



## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

Hey guys, I recently bought 3xoto for my 20g due to algae issue. The tank contain 10 rummy nose tetra. But how ever soon I discovered one of the oto I bought got this wound in the middle of its body. Arrg it sux that my quantine tank is treating some other fish from parasite. My tank statue is follow:

PH=8
Amonia=0
Nitrate/nitrite is at a safe lvl

weekly water change of 25-40%.

Here is a picture I took, you can clearly see the wound in the middle of its body:

http://img522.imageshack.us/img522/917/cimg3468.jpg

Any suggestion is welcome, I been thinking if he's gonna be alrite if I just leave him. Since I notice oto dont take medication very well, nor salt. (I just move him over to my 5 g quantine tank, fungus has been spotted on his wound )


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## ameekplec. (May 1, 2008)

Just keep excellent water parameters - you need zeros for nitrites, and less than 10 for nitrates.

Keep them well fed and it should be ok.


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

Alrite thx man, gotta do more water change I guess  .


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## gucci17 (Oct 11, 2007)

ouch...I've always added a little salt when I see wounds. But that's for my african's. Not sure how otto's will react to salt. I'm sure it would be ok.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

not sure if its just me, but I cant tell what kind of wound that it. Please take a better picture.

But for now, you can do the typical:

more water changes (not sure what you mean by safe levels of nitrite and nitrate, but the only safe level of nitrite is 0 nitrite and I only consider nitrate less than 10 to be safe).

increase water temp by a couple of degrees.

add a bit of salt, and yes they do fine in a 1 tsp/gallon solution.


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

My camera sux, I cant really get a decent shot at him. I just did a 40% water change earlier today. But however all the oto dont seem to notice the peice of cucumber that hangs in the tank. Most of the algae in the tank has been eaten in the past 3 days. I just hope they'll notice the cucumber sooner, or they'll starve.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Well my otocats have been salted before. 1 teaspoon per 5gal was my original dosing and the otocats seemed to not have any problems with it for a week. After a week I took out 10-20% water change with no adding salt. After a while the tank pretty much (assuming) flushed the salt out as I didn't add anymore salt as I did 10% water changes every 2 days.

On the medication side of things I've used Mendal brand with the 'coppersafe' in it for treating parasites. I've dosed the otocat tank and kept it at the dosage for ~2weeks and the otocats just behaved as usual. Only time one of them went nuts a few days before the water change we had a power outage for 7 hrs and and the ammonia levels built up to 3. After the power outage I did a 50% water change and I think I did a 10% daily after to flush the ammonia out.

Where did you get your otocat from?


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Reason for my medical dosing was because I saw some small pink like strings hanging out of one of my otocat's. Read on line that is was a parasite and that it should be treated. After a 2 week dosing the strings are gone. 

I did not dose the tank for about 2 days just to make sure it wasn't some input-output from the fish after eating but after seeing that same hanging stuff for 2 days I bought the Mendal product.


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

I got mine from big al kennedy. They were on sale 3 for 10 + 25% off. Right now I think he's not doing so good, I spotted fungus growing on his wound today. So I guess I must net him out from my 20g and treat else where.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

is the fungus stringy or cotton like in texture?


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

Hitch said:


> is the fungus stringy or cotton like in texture?


Its kind of stringy, he's now over in my 5 g quantine tank. I added some salt and raised the temperature to 84f.


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## Hitch (Apr 26, 2009)

i see. There are a couple of things you can try:

1) get some Pimafix, and treat the fish with that.

if that doesnt work

2) get methylene blue, and add it to the tank until its a nice deep blue colour (dark enough that something 10 inches away will be hard to see) and add salt (1 tsp/gallon)...i would add this slowly, ie a bit of salt and methylene blue each hour until the desired amount is reached. (Treat for about 5 days.) *note that the methylene blue will stain everything...and I mean everything. I had a piece of driftwood in there..and now its blue..*

if that fails (clean everything and give your fish 1-2 days break before starting 3)

3) do the maracyn and maracyn 2 combo. They are a little costly, so hopefully you would not need this step, they go for 12 each. follow the instructions on each med, both can be added simultaneously, but again do like half in 1 hour and then the other half the next. These are antibiotics so undoubtably stress the fish. 

This is basically what I used for my L260 plecos, and they were fine, so I would imagine it wouldnt be too bad (ie high dosage) for the ottos.

All the above can be obtained from BA north york. The pimafix can be obtained anywhere, but I find that BA north york is the only one that has methylene blue and the maracyns in stock regularily.

best of luck


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

Hitch said:


> i see. There are a couple of things you can try:
> 
> 1) get some Pimafix, and treat the fish with that.
> 
> ...


rite thx for the suggestion, I'm gonna go with salt for now. If that didn't work I'll go get some anti fungus med . I would like to avoid antibiotic at all cost. Damn never seem fungus for such a long time, the last time I got fungus was like 6 years ago back in the day I kept serverum. I guess I learn my lesson alway quantine new fishes, I was a little too carry away since its for a 20g tank. Too lazy to set up quantine tank for a 20 G  .


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

IMCL85 said:


> rite thx for the suggestion, I'm gonna go with salt for now. If that didn't work I'll go get some anti fungus med . I would like to avoid antibiotic at all cost. Damn never seem fungus for such a long time, the last time I got fungus was like 6 years ago back in the day I kept serverum. I guess I learn my lesson alway quantine new fishes, I was a little too carry away since its for a 20g tank. Too lazy to set up quantine tank for a 20 G  .


Walmart 5/10gal Sterilite bins are awesoeme for hospital tamnking. Cheaper then an actual aquarium. The sides have holes which an airtube convinently can slide under the lid into the bin. 10gal is as large a tank as I would go as anything higher tends to bulge the sides of the bin. 5gal does not bulge at all and very portable. Lids snap on with airtubes under no problems. I've a setup with a 5gal Sterilite tub with sponge filter working awesome. ~$$3-5 5/10gal.


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## Chris S (Dec 19, 2007)

I'd say, if he looks rough, just put him out of his misery or leave him in the tank until he bites the dust.

The added stress of "treating" fish usually just compounds the problem. Not to mention the majority of problems like this, if they are serious, won't be cured by any magical chemical.

As ameekplec mentioned, water quality is your friend. Learn to test it, monitor it and make it awesome.

The reason I mention this again is that you said:



> Nitrate/nitrite is at a safe lvl


There is no such thing as a safe nitrite level, aside from 0.

If you are finding any, then do more water changes, take a look at your filtration and stocking of the tank.

Anyway, good luck. Oto's are one of my favourite little fish, I hope he does ok!


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Don't waste your $$$ on anti fungal meds other than MB. The primary reason for the presence of fungus is to "feed" off the dying tissue.

Difficult to see the wound on the mid body but the redness in the gills isn't a good sign either.

Adding salt will help to reduce the bodily function of pumping out water and better direct resources in healing. If they are from a recent shipment, generally the prognosis isn't good .

Best of luck and ottos are one of my fave fish too


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

Chris S said:


> I'd say, if he looks rough, just put him out of his misery or leave him in the tank until he bites the dust.
> 
> The added stress of "treating" fish usually just compounds the problem. Not to mention the majority of problems like this, if they are serious, won't be cured by any magical chemical.
> 
> ...


My old test kite dont show no2 and 3 lvl in number for some reason, I got these many years ago back in the day when I first cycling my tanks. After all my tank is settle and cycle I no longer use it, I tend to use tap for most of my planted tank(except discuss and altum's tank). Today I picked up some other one from lucky and the new stats is still as I expect it to be amonia 0, nitrite 0, and nitrate is at 20 before water change and now its at 0. I been doing alot of water change and the oto seems to be attive and eating(he's relocated to my 5g quantine tank). I'll keep a close eye on him. I would like to avoid using medication at all cost. But if thing r getting worse I might consider put him out of his misery.


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

AquaNeko said:


> Walmart 5/10gal Sterilite bins are awesoeme for hospital tamnking. Cheaper then an actual aquarium. The sides have holes which an airtube convinently can slide under the lid into the bin. 10gal is as large a tank as I would go as anything higher tends to bulge the sides of the bin. 5gal does not bulge at all and very portable. Lids snap on with airtubes under no problems. I've a setup with a 5gal Sterilite tub with sponge filter working awesome. ~$$3-5 5/10gal.


Thx, I might go get a 10g from walmart, gonna get more fish for my new tank.


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## IMCL85 (Sep 4, 2007)

wtac said:


> Don't waste your $$$ on anti fungal meds other than MB. The primary reason for the presence of fungus is to "feed" off the dying tissue.
> 
> Difficult to see the wound on the mid body but the redness in the gills isn't a good sign either.
> 
> ...


Yea kind of sux, I ask the guy over at big al pick me a round stomach one. And he did net me the biggest one in tank, which is the one that got wounded probably during transportation.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

IMCL85 said:


> Yea kind of sux, I ask the guy over at big al pick me a round stomach one. And he did net me the biggest one in tank, which is the one that got wounded probably during transportation.


I think you said you're at McCowan & Steeles right? Umm... you might want to chat with Michael at PetsMart (Hwy 7 & Hightech Road). Seemed like a very knowledgeable guy that everyone working there turns to for answers. That location restocks thier fish on friday. The Hwy 7 & Woodbine IIRC restocks on wednesdays.

So showing up on thursday lets you see the strongest of the bunch. I've found that that location seemed to have larger otocats (more mature) and thier bellies always looked like little swimming Buddhas.  Tho it is $3.99 each IIRC but thier tanks always looked very clean. Give it a look see as it's somewhat in your area.


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## AquaNeko (Jul 26, 2009)

Speaking of Wallys. I didn't know till last night they totally developed the area at Steeles & Markham Road. When I always rode up there it was a tree brush last year. Just happened to go by that on a return trip to give some tools to a family member of mine and choice to come back another route. I think that Wallys opened in Jun/09. The Lowes opened in Jun/09 according ot the CSR.

That area is blowing up with development into a megabox plaza setup.


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