whats wrong with this guy

i got a tx cichlid, had 3 the biggest one killed the other 2. well, i was loooking in the tank and it looks like something is eating his skin or something. hes in the tank by him self.

Never seen that before. Where did you get them and how long have you had them?

they are from San Antonio River. Ive had them for about 2 weeks, didnt have it when i got them.

This is just a total guess so take it for that but being that it is from the wild it might have carried something with it. Might have not shown until now. Maybe even a reaction to the change.

If you think it may be a parasite of some kind try salt in his water or garlic. Garlic will kill parasites. Yeah it looks nasty.

i have been putting salt in there. how do i give the garlic, crush it and put it in the food? it really sucks, he is a beautful fish other than whatever he has on him.

I buy the jars of it already crushed up at the grocery store. You can add some of the juice to the tank and feed some of the chunks to him. For my smaller fish like the Bettas I will crush it up more. It all depends on how big his mouth is. I do this on a regular basis like maybe once a month just as a preventative.

ok thanks

To be honest it looks like an area that was impacted by another fish. I used to see this when I was young and stupid and put feeder goldfish in a 10 gallon tank with a male betta... the goldfish would ram the betta and the injury looked just like this photo.

It could be where he was hit/rubbed during the process of catching him, you might put a little treatment for Ick or some tetracycline in the water.

Dave