Bites and wounds

Typically for cichlid keepers, bite marks and wounds are quite common. The large majority of the time these wounds are superficial and do not lead to further complications, however poor water quality and a bite or wound will soon manifest into a nasty wound.

Treating bites and wounds: Most wounds if not too deep will heal over within a few days, wounds like this typical bite mark


and bump/scrape from getting into mischief!

do not normally require any special treatment other than a couple of extra water changes. To aid healing however you can use melafix, a natural healing agent.

Wounds left in poor water conditions soon attract bacterial infections which are much harder to treat and cure. This angel fish had a small wound that was left in poor quality water and was given to me to treat. Sadly the wound just kept getting bigger dispite daily water changes and medication, because the bacterial infection was in the bloodstream.


As soon as you spot a scrape, wound or bite mark, do a partial water change, if the wound does not appear to be any better in a couple of days (signs of healing) remove the fish to a seperate tank and continue with daily water changes.