Do Discus Scar?

[sammigold]

My beautiful bbt has scratched himself just near the top of his body close to the dorsal fin area. He has 3 or 4 distinct scratch marks. I have been watching closely for the last 3 days (it happened 3 days ago) and no fungus or anything is on him. He is not scratching up against stuff on purpose so I am pretty sure that it was an accident that he may have had on some driftwood in there. I have only large pebbles no rocks. there was no visible blood or anything they seem to be surface scratches. will the scales repair themselves or is he likely to be scarred? Could he have maybe got them during a scuffle with one of the other discus. (he seems to have taken on boss status in the tank)

[DR.V]

The scales will repair themselves. I would add some salt to make it heal faster. Discus wont get scar but it will destroy the body pattern ( ie : the line pattern ) .

[sammigold]

I have a little loach in there so am loathe to use salt. (scaleless fish) But the scratches don't seem to be crossing any of the lines they are only about 1cm long if that and they seem to be getting better. But thank you for that advice.

[wyldchyld01]

he there you go, you learn something every day, i thought it was copper based stuff you had to be more concerned with when it came to scaleless fish rather than salt, thought salt was in all water to varying density

brenton

[Dee]

G'day Sammi,

I have in the past had little juvi's scratch themselves like what you have described, seems to be against things like DW and filter intakes when they get a fright etc. Sounds like it's not too bad from your description and only minor. When this happened to me in the past I just upped the WC's to daily till they healed up, which seemed to work well. Keep an eye on the wounds and if they dont heal up within a few days or so remove your little loach to another tank and dose with a little salt to help move things along.

The little fella should heal up with little to no scaring, I had one that banged himself up pretty bad once and had a deep cut down his side. After a week or so of daily WC's and keeping the tank very clean you could barely see any damage. HTH

Cheers,

Dee :)

[sammigold]

Thanks guys. sorry it took so long to answer but have had some computer probs. Hopefully all fixed!! Anyway, the scratches have healed and you can barely see where they were, getting less everyday.
thank you for your helpful info.

[Merrilyn]

Good to hear Sammi.

Our discus are pretty tough. :P