# My Rhom Busted Himself Up



## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

Kind of a bummer. No need for help anything just wanted to post.

My tank is located directly behind and butted right up against my couch. 
Dropped a shrimp in today and my rhom took it immediately like he always does. The second I dropped it in there, I wasn't paying attention to my 6 year old daughter who was running from the kitchen to the couch because her show was starting on tv.

Her timing couldn't of been more perfect. 
She jumped up on the couch just as he had taken the food and caused him to spaz.

When he freaked, he slammed into a good sized piece of driftwood and did some damage. He's cut and now he's got a rather large flap of skin right in between his eyes, just where his skull meets his dorsum, flapping around in the breeze. I'm not able to tell if there was any damage to either eye but none of them show any signs as of now.

pretty shocking to see the whole thing go down along with the results. He hit that DW hard!

Pretty funny...My wife pays pretty much zero attention to my rhombeus. She walked into the living right when she got home from work and shrieked...
"Jesus! What happened to Romero!"

Tried to get some pics but he's hurt and hiding alot. He started to come out a few hours later but I had to go to work.

Makes me almost want to yank everything out and go with a bare tank. I've always been one to have as much hiding places for my piranhas as possible but he doesn't need them at all.
This is the 3rd or 4th time his scratched himself but definitely the worst.

I may just yank everything and go with nothing but a carpet of pygmy chain swords and call it good.

We'll see.

In the meantime I'm just kind of posting this to get an idea how long it takes for him to completely heal. I know under healthy conditions these fish heal amazingly fast and now I'm counting on it.


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

ouch buddy. 
I'll take another few pics in two weeks.


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## Sanjo Eel (Aug 21, 2008)

Ouch! I have always been careful to only use smooth rocks and driftwood with no jagged edges in my piranha tanks, because I know they just freak sometimes and can do this. I have always been a bit anxious about the sharp edges on AquaClear filters as well, but no serious damage has been done (yet).


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## Ba20 (Jan 29, 2003)

ill vent too mine bit into my new koralia 1050's cord and shreaded his talapia last night so i have to fish out a bunch of little pieces.


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

Took some pics without the flash this morning


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## xeloR (Jan 2, 2009)

wow







!	at least he didnt die from head trauma


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## Sacrifice (Sep 24, 2006)

Holy CRAP that guy did some damage ti himself. You're lucky he didn't just float to the top from head trauma. Hopefully it'll heal up nicely. I took my driftwood out of my Rhom tank because he liked to hide behind it all day, after removing it he cruises the entire tank. Now I have another great reason to remove the wood.

I like the name "Romero" a lot better then what my poor little guy has to live with. I let my niece and nephew name him and they picked "Greasy" so my poor little guy has to listen to everyone call him Greasy all the time, LOL. I catch myself calling him that too though, so I guess he'll just have to live with it, lol. It's catching on though.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

That's a pretty good gash, but looks like he'll be just fine.

Man, I wish everybody would post that good of pics when it came to injury and disease...


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## DaElongatus (Jul 30, 2005)

hes gonna be ok... at least he didnt get his eye instead.

good luck bro


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

It's only been like 3.5 days and its amazing how well he's doing.
Still a good gash...but just impressive how quickly its closing up.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Yeah man, piranhas are extremely fast healers.

Before long all you'll see is a black scar where the cut was.

(And since it wasn't very deep and not much flesh missing, he might even dodge the scar.


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

Not too sound weird but I wouldn't mind a touch of a scar. Gives him personality.

With my other serra's I was always into the "mint condition, perfect specimen" thing having come from pygo tanks where I was continuously having problems with chewed up fish.

When I received this rhombeus from Alex, Romero had done a real number on his chin during shipping. He took all the skin off his jaw while in route. Even more so during the following weeks in his new home that left scarring on his jaw. 
About a year later, while I was rescaping he wedged himself next to the heater (that I'd thought I unplugged) and gave himself a wicked burn on his right flank. That actually took a very long time to completely heal and left more scars.

Funny, with my other serras I wanted them pristine...now with this one its like "whatever, just don't seriously hurt yourself".


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## JoeDizzleMPLS (Nov 5, 2007)

I don't know how I missed this thread until now... that's a crazy looking injury, but it doesn't look too serious, just basically peeled back the skin.


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## Da' Manster! (Sep 1, 2009)

Excellent pics of your rhom and injury, Lifer!...







..however, as has been said, hopefully he will heal up soon and the wound will close...The only thing that I would be concerned about is him getting some kind of a bacterial infection from the wound..Hopefully it doesn't get too serious and you don't have to medicate...Good luck and keep us posted!...


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## His Majesty (Apr 5, 2005)

wow. damn thats a big gash.


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## weerhom (Jan 12, 2007)

you'll never know in a month


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## Lifer374 (Dec 5, 2003)

I was thinking about putting pics up but he's not really helping me out here...as soon as the camera comes out he takes off to the other side of the tank.

After the first week it was nothing but a white spot of scar tissue the diameter of a pencil eraser. Healing kind of slowed down from there. Now, its about have that big and taking on a whitish-grey coloration.


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