Help please! Badly injured Platy.

La Reina

I can definately put him in a bucket, I have a little heater especially for the purpose.

How fast do I add the salt? I don't want to shock him. And how much?

La Reina

UPDATE:

I put the little guy in a bucket with plant, heater and airstone. The other fish were picking on him. (Don't worry, used dechlorinater.)

Should I add aquarium salt?

Angel079

How's the wound looking to you today?
Now that he/she is separated from the rest (Gourami) yea I'd use the salt - Just very lil cause there's not much water in the bucket

La Reina

The wound is now white with ragged edges. (Damaged skin hasn't fallen off yet.)

According to my math, I should be adding 2.4 teaspoons. Correct?

Normally 3 teaspoons (1 tablespoon) per 5 gallons. He's in 4 gallons of water.

Angel079

I honestly donno, I just looked it up and found 1 tablesp for 5g water - either start low (and increase if necessary) or wait for someone who's got more exp then me with this before the fish OD's on salt
I'd shoot a PM to Lupin, she knows it ALL on any sickness

La Reina

I pm'd Lupin. So Melafix is the way to go if it gets infected?

Angel079

Melafix, antibacterial fish remedy Quote "A safe & natural way to treat fish infections, treats open red sores, fin & tail rot, eye cloud pop eye, body slime and mouth fudges and open body wounds."

Considering the active ing being Melaleuca (Tea tree oil) I'd pref that one on Tetra's over salt if I needed to.

I have no pers experience with it on open wounds, at least that's ONE thing my new fish hadn't had yet thank god, but it sure sound natural and good to me.

bearwithfish

i had a wounded fish not long ago and the wife and i QT'ed the fish and used Melafix on the fish as a preventative measure with great success!! the fish id very healthy and healed very quickly (he was back in teh general pop in a week! be sure to follow the other importand part though CLEAN WATER daily changes of 50% of the QT can not hurt....

adiumroot

I'm seconding Melafix too. Just keep up with the water changes to keep the water clean.

Clean water + melafix works wonders for wounded fish.

Oh, and keep your aeration up. Melafix decreases the amount of oxygen dissolved in the water. But since it's just a single Platy, I think having an airstone is enough.

bettababy

Angel079 is right, no salt with that mixture of fish. The medication to look for will be dependent on what symptoms present themselves, if any. Melafix could work for a fungal problem, but if bacteria sets in Melafix isn't going to have any effect. I still have to say its premature to be discussing types of meds as there is nothing to indicate they are yet needed. We don't know at this point if treatment will be needed, and if it is, what it is you will need to treat for. To just start adding medications without cause is more dangerous than letting the fish be to heal on its own.