# help! injured piranha.



## redman858 (May 18, 2009)

Just saw this this evening when i was taking pics of my tank. He does not seem to be in distress, just looks bad cause its close to his gills. should i be worried? And what should i do to fix the little guy. Thanks!

Norm


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

First off welcome to P-Fury







and hope you have found everything you are looking for as well as finding the site containing alot of other essentials for the P owner. From what I see it's not looking good but if his behavior is what you state then you are not in bad teritory yet. First of if you can you should isolate him from the rest of the shoal. The most danger posed to him right now is the realization of the rest of the shoal that he is weak and injured. If that is found to be a fact within the rest they will start to pick him apart. So if you have a hospital tank or a tank with other fish in it now would be a good time to move him. If you can't do that or do not have a extra tank available seperate the injured party from the rest of the shoal, you can find a seperator at any lfs(local fish store) as well as what I would suggest. If you don't have the funds for that or no access to one, a tuperware lid or and old plastic container will do, as well I have found myself fashioning one out of an old screen that was off a door no longer used. The reasoning being to seperate is having to do with the next steps. First raise the temp to 80-82*F and salt the tank. You can use household salt for this if aquarium salt is not in your possession. The ratio is one rounded tablespoon per 5 gallons of your tank. Make sure to dissolve the salt in a seperate container until completely mixed in the water and no granules are seen . This being you can burn your fish if not done properly and can cause more stress. I would also Melafix the tank and can also be found at the lfs if not already owned as well as Primafix it also. These meds are rather cheap but will help in the healing process. I would keep him quarantined for at least a week or until a sign of decent recovery is shown. Make sure they are seperated as the higher temp will cause aggression to heighten as well and your injured one is at a definite dissadvantage. Try all that and things should be showning signs of improvement fairly quickly as well if these steps are carried out you shouldn't worry as the healing ability of the piranha is amazing and rapid to say the least. I hope this helped and good luck and best wishes to your wounded pal.
RnR


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

Topic moved to Disease, Parasite, and Injury Section


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## redman858 (May 18, 2009)

RedneckR0nin said:


> First off welcome to P-Fury
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thanks for the great feedback Ronin!. Will do all that stuff starting tomorrow when i get home from work.


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## RedneckR0nin (Nov 5, 2008)

No problem man that's what I be here for, if you are not going to seperate right away drop your temp to 76-74*F this will curb aggression for the time being. Then when you are ready to put them apart that's when you can crank it up and let the tank slowly gain heat until 82 is shown or reached. Let us know how he is doing and how many P's do you have and in what size tank are they housed in??? hope to see more pics of him once he is healed and back on track.


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

Welcome To P-Fury

RnR has given you great advice already. anything i have to add will just be a repeat. although i would be interested to know how this happened. looks quite nasty and painful. 
anyway hope your p makes a full recovery. and good luck


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## redman858 (May 18, 2009)

Trigger lover said:


> Welcome To P-Fury
> 
> RnR has given you great advice already. anything i have to add will just be a repeat. although i would be interested to know how this happened. looks quite nasty and painful.
> anyway hope your p makes a full recovery. and good luck


i think it happened when i gave them a feeder, but im not really sure how he got that.


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## wizardslovak (Feb 17, 2007)

hospital tank , pimafix+melafix+salt, increased temperature should fix him in couple weeks.


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