Purple Firefish cut!

SOOOOOO i woke up this morning and was doing normal inspections on the tank and everyone looked good until my firefish came out of the rocks and BAM! he has a huge gash on his side! idk what happened! it doesnt look like it was done by a fish. it looks like he scraped it when he was swimming in or out of my rocks. it looks pretty bad.

i tore down my qt tank to cut back on electricity so idk if thats an option.

should i put him down and spare the tank from infection?

 

oh man that's terrible. Mine lost the upper tip of his fin when he was stuck in a rock once. those guys can really jam into some tight places when they get scared so its probably like you said; from scraping it on a rock. The most important thing I would think is to keep your tank as stable as possible right now to reduce stress as much as possible. Hopefully someone will chime in with more experience with injured fish who may be able to suggest a medication.

 

Just keep an eye on him. If he's acting normal and still eating then I wouldn't worry too much about it. If he starts swimming funny and looking worse, then I would stick him in the QT. If indeed he is ok, then chasing him around with the net when it's not needed would just put unneeded stress on the little guy. Fish have pretty good immune systems, but if your really worried about infection, try soaking your food in garlic. It will help your fishes immune system if he's infected or not.

 

he still eats thats for sure lol

 

you might soak your food in selcon or zoe (vitamins) if you aren't already. Also, you could add vitamin c directly to the water. Both of these could help his immune system and healing.