HELP! Should I move injured fish?

[shrimplover]

Hi, yesterday I added a lemon peel to my tank. Lemon peel has not shown any agression what soever towards any fish but my already shy and quite dramatic chalk bass is afraid of just the mere sight of him and have tried to jump the tank a few times (lids on). During one of his attempts to flee I think he has bumped into a rock or maybe hit the wavemaker and hurt his eye/head. His eye is proceeding a lot but still working I think, very swollen, very red (def accident, not pop eye just to be clear). He is now hiding in a cave.

My first thought was to remove him to my nano tank, so I can make sure he is eating and also keep a close eye on him. But on the other hand I know that this will stress him out immensely since he don't like new environments.

What would you do?

I have added Seachem Stress Guard (methylene blue) to the tank already. Doubled the dose.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

You’re correct, moving it again increases the risk of additional damage when you try to catch it up. I use the fish itself to tell me if the risk is worth taking - is the fish still eating well? Is so, I’m usually inclined to leave them be, assuming that the original stress (a new fish being added) has been overcome.

A side note - avoid overdosing those “bandages in a bottle” products - people assume these products go right to the site of injury, but they actually coat the entire fish, including the gills. Too much of that is bed.

Jay

 

[shrimplover]

Thank you Jay, I think he eats a little bit, but he's inclined to not come out of hiding to eat. I have tried to feed only frozen since the frozen also gets swirled around the water column and hopefully into his little cave.

The bottle says dose can be doubled. So I just did that. Not double double. But yes, makes sense and you are prob right, I'll be careful and stick to single dose! Will pro do a minor not stessfull water change later.