botched asassination attempt on mandarin!

[tucc185]

This is one of the weirdest things I've ever seen happen to a fish. My mandarin came down with a body/eye fungus last week, so I took him out of the 75, into an empty 10 setup to treat him. I used Pimafix, which I have used before with good results. The body fungus disappeared in 2 days or so, but the cottony growth on the top of his eye didn't. about two days ago, the growth was gone, but there was a massive hole behind the eye with a large flap of skin hanging off! It looked like it had been shot through the back of the eye. I figured the mandarin was in trouble, but he seems to be doing fine, even though his "wound" doesn't look much better. I can't understand how something like this happened (there is nothing in the 10 but some live rock, a few yellow polyps, and about 3 hermit crabs). Any ideas? could this be an effect of the fungus? should I do something, or just see if he heals up on his own? Any help on this one would be great--Mike

 

[stang8s]

There is a Freshwater fish disease known as "hole in the head" disease. Oscars and some of the larger south american cichlids are very prone to it. Maybe there is a saltwater version?

 

[tucc185]

Well, I've seen hole in head with freshwater fish before, but it usually is like an erosion behind the gills. It's not usually so pronounced, but there certainly could be a salt version. In freshwater, it is usually caused by keeping cichlids that like a low pH at neutral or higher, so i wonder if the problem is pH related? I wonder if other mandarin keepers have experienced similar problems.