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Noticed something strange a few minutes ago... My big Synodontis Eureptus (4") has what looks like a circular wound on his abdomen right bellow pelvic fins. It's a perfectly round patch of exposed pinkish-white tissue that stands out very clearly against the dark skin. The wound is roughly around the size of hole from a paper puncher. The only other tankmates at the time are

10" plypterus lapradei -- would probably bite eureptus in half if anything
15" electric cat -- has a huge maw, he would have inflicted a much larger wound
10" eels catfish -- tiny mouth and wouldnt hurt a fly
2 other syndodontis much smaller than the "vitim"

I am very curious to guess what could have possibly caused this. My only thought is maybe a heater to blame -- the wound is too perfect to be a bite mark. Also, what do you think of this plan for treatment: I want to isolate him in a 10 gallon tank and nuke with Melafix. Should I use a full dose or half?

Could be the heater, I have also seen some cats that rub a rough part of rock or something everytime they go into their favorite hiding place and eventually wears to a open sore. You may investigate that just to make sure.

I would use half dose of melafix and see if that doesn't work. I don't think a full dose would hurt though. Make sure you add extra aeration to the tank as melafix seems to make the water hold a lot less oxygen for some reason. Remove the carbon as well.

I sat down and observed him last night after lights out. Seems the fish is not one bit impared by the injury. He acts perfectly normal and eats like a pig. In fact, he was the first one to nail a bunch of live blood worms yesterday.

So I was thinking... Rather than going through stress of taking him out into a hospital tank, perhaps I can let him stay where he is? I will add generous amount of salt and raise the temperature up a notch. After all, it looks like a flesh wound, although a pretty nasty one, perhaps it will heal on its own? What do you think?

Well, this evening, just one day since I first noticed the injury, the wound has progressed to the size of a quarter. He is also missing some skin on the edges of gill covers

I realized something else. I now know who to blame My smaller euretus (2") has been constantly hanging out with a big guy. First I thought it was cute -- sorta like a kid hiding behind a parent for protection. This behavior was displayed for weeks. I even thought I might have a pair. Today I realized that the little guy is actually gently biting at the edges of the wound Big one didn't even seem to notice he was being eaten alive

Needless to say, I separated poor fish and started dozing with Pimafix. He looks really bad, dunno if he'll pull through...