Oscar briefly hopped out of the tank… next steps?

redmare
  • #1
So Ursula the Oscar decided to make a break for freedom this morning and hopped right out of her tank and onto the floor. Fortunately my mom happened to be right there and got her back into the tank within maybe 10 seconds- very lucky!! She’s a little banged up now though, a few of her dorsal fin rays are broken and she’s got a big scrape of missing scales on her side. What’s my best bet to make sure she heals up well? I do not have access to antibiotics or most actually useful meds (Canada). I have salt, I also have stress coat, and I could buy melafix- I know it’s efficacy for treating problems is dubious, but something like that might help keep a problem from happening?
I have plants growing out of the tank hung into it that would be very easy to remove for a salt treatment. I’m thinking a low dose of salt is probably a safe choice, like 1tbsp/5gallons or so?
just for some background, she’s about 2 years old and 11” long, in a 75 gallon tank with no tank mates, kept between 78-80*F. About two weeks ago I had a horse accident and got a bad concussion and so it’s been three weeks since water change- nitrates are high, she tends to get pissy when I haven’t changed water frequently so I’m guessing this led to the escape attempt. I’m doing a big water change now which she is very upset about- as always.
right now she’s breathing pretty heavily and not moving much, but I’m guessing she’s pretty traumatized and exhausted.
2EF2AC90-82E3-4989-9BD9-AFEA2BBD8B17.jpeg
 

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BigManAquatics
  • #2
Clean water and some of that aquarium salt will probably help more than anything. Should at least keep infection at bay and help healing.
 

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redmare
  • Thread Starter
  • #3
Alright water is changed, 10 tbsp salt added (dissolved first), and some stress guard since I had it on hand anyways. Ursula is sulking in her cave at the horrible injustices she has had to face today. Now I gotta go to work, I will update this thread this afternoon!
 

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86 ssinit
  • #4
Yes salt and water changes should be all she needs. Years ago I had an Oscar jump while I was at school. The fish was dried up. But I noticed the gills still moving. Dropped it back into tank and it was fine within an hour. Tough fish!!
 
redmare
  • Thread Starter
  • #5
Yes salt and water changes should be all she needs. Years ago I had an Oscar jump while I was at school. The fish was dried up. But I noticed the gills still moving. Dropped it back into tank and it was fine within an hour. Tough fish!!
Holy cow! What a tank!
 

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