Raccoon Attack Albino Catfish Wound

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A raccoon attacked my fish. He got one 2lb goldfish and took a huge chunk out of the back of my huge albino catfish. I quarantined my catfish (ghost) and have been maintaining a salt content of about 500-700 ppm and adding melafix every couple of days to make sure it stays sterile. My question is will it heal? the dead skin has fallen off, the wound is clean but will a layer form over the muscle tissue to protect it from bacteria?
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Oh my gosh! that's terrible! My guess is yes, it will eventually heal over, but that's not based on any real knowledge on my part. Other than knowing human skin will eventually heal, no matter how badly is gets damaged. It seems logical that fish skin would also heal.

I am a bit intrigued by your 2 lb goldfish - do you have a picture of it? And how did a raccoon manage to drag that off?
 
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I've seen some amazing stories of healing from gruesome wounds such as this. Good clean water conditions go a long way in promoting healing.
 
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Oh my gosh! that's terrible! My guess is yes, it will eventually heal over, but that's not based on any real knowledge on my part. Other than knowing human skin will eventually heal, no matter how badly is gets damaged. It seems logical that fish skin would also heal.

I am a bit intrigued by your 2 lb goldfish - do you have a picture of it? And how did a raccoon manage to drag that off?
He was the biggest of my goldfish, here are the others next to my approx 18" koi. The 2lb may be a little exaggerated, but he was huge and missed. The goldfish were my experiments when I built the pond 8 years ago. I bought about 20 1/2" feeder goldfish and they are the survivor's.
 

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OK - probably not 2 pounds, but he was a beauty. I'm sorry that someone found him too delectable to pass up.
 

addy1

water gardener / gold fish and shubunkins
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Welcome to our group!

Sorry about your fish. There are good koi keepers on here that will chime in to help with the process of healing. I don't have koi and have never worked on a fish.

Keep your water clean that will help a lot.
 
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1- Fish are amazing healers and your fish will heal if you keep the water clean.

2- Net your pond forever.
 

j.w

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So sorry for the loss and hope the other fish recovers. I agree you need a net or something even stronger to keep those raccoons out. I have a short wire fence around mine w/a top net attached to that. Raccoons still got in so I reinforced the fence w/more wire and then used small boards w/short nails protruding up in the area around the pond where they were using to get in by. So far so good! The nails were very small and short so just uncomfortable to walk on but wouldn't injure them. You might even have to resort to an electric wire around the pond.

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