Kinbote Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Another dead fish today, this time a rosy tetra, and a sick bleeding heart is steadily deteriorating. I've completed two cycles of Furan-2 and am starting a third, and it's had absolutely no perceivable effect with the fish steadily dying. I'm trying to keep the temperature down to 24C but with the ambient room temperature it's usually nearer 26. Ammonia and nitrite have consistently been reading 0. The fish aren't eating much and I'm not feeding them much, so I doubt decayed food is a factor, but I've removed most of the gravel in case that was harbouring anything. I've also added tonic salt since that's meant to inhibit columnaris's ability to attach to fish. But if it is columnaris or saprolegnia I'd have expected it to respond to Furan-2, and it wouldn't make sense that this all started after contact with some sick cardinal tetras. My last bleeding heart that died was a lot more symptomatic than the current ones, but I didn't get a picture unfortunately. It had the characteristic whitened saddle ring around its dorsal fin and some fuzzy white patches on its side. I don't see anything on the rosy other than some internal whitening around its stomach, which looks vaguely like NTD, which would fit my suspicion that they might have NTD and only have columnaris as a more obvious, but secondary, infection. The bleeding heart has a big patch of fuzz on its mouth and some more on its left pectoral fin and tail. And here's a pic of one of the sick cardinals that seemed to start it all about 2 weeks ago. Hope someone can suggest something. Pretty depressing so far. :dunno: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 That really sucks. It does seem likely that the two incidents are related, but I cannot be certain. Do you have access to a UV sterilizer? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GZ_Loach Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Seems like some sort of fungis infection? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DennisP Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 columnaris. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
livingart Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 are you quarantining fish as soon as they show any sign of a problem? water change regime? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 columnaris. Could be this, do some research and see what you think, it usually resembles fungus but is alot nastier.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Could be this, do some research and see what you think, it usually resembles fungus but is alot nastier.. I'd said in the original post that that's what I'm assuming it is and what I'm treating for, but if it is columnaris it should be responding to the medication, and it shouldn't have suddenly started after bringing in some infected fish, since columnaris preys on already weakened fish is already present in most aquariums. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 are you quarantining fish as soon as they show any sign of a problem? water change regime? 25% every four days as per the Furan-2 directions, and I've done an additional 50% in between treatments. So lots, in other words. And of course I'm dosing with StressCoat as well as StressZyme. The fish are all in my quarantine tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ryanjury Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Maybe it is a different type of columnaris or the antibilotics aren't the right ones for the job? Here is a really good article on it and symptoms treatment etc.. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/c ... isease.php Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ichthus Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Somebody I know used Trisal for columinarus - double dose (2 tablets crushed per 50 litres of water for 7 days). But this can only be dispensed by a vet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted February 5, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Maybe it is a different type of columnaris or the antibilotics aren't the right ones for the job? Here is a really good article on it and symptoms treatment etc.. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/c ... isease.php Good article, thanks. Unfortunately the antibiotics he (and everyone else I've read) recommends are the same as I'm using with absolutely no effect, which is what makes me suspect that it may not be columnaris or that the columnaris may be secondary to something I haven't detected, eg. NTD. :dunno: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ally07 Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 Looks like 'cotton mouth' to me. Not sure what the medical term for it is, but my betta got it years ago. Didn't make it unfortunately. You might have some luck google-ing cotton mouth, but IIRC the chances of survival are slim once it's advanced. Edit: (Sorry, just read the article above.. :oops: But from personal experience, once the mouth is so badly infected it's usually a case of making the fish comfortable..) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsarmina Posted February 5, 2011 Report Share Posted February 5, 2011 there could be a couple of problems in your tank. 1, the original infection 2, and the stress coat, stress zyme, tonic salt and furan2 could be causing a chemical reaction your fish can't handle Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kinbote Posted February 6, 2011 Author Report Share Posted February 6, 2011 there could be a couple of problems in your tank. 1, the original infection 2, and the stress coat, stress zyme, tonic salt and furan2 could be causing a chemical reaction your fish can't handle I think that's pretty unlikely since everyone uses StressCoat and StressZyme together, and consequently would be using those together with tonic salt and/or Furan-2. There are some contraindications for combining different antibiotics, but that's all I know of. The others are unrelated. I only added the salt a couple days ago and like everything else it's made no difference. And it's always only ever one or two fish that show any symptoms at a time, the other fish are fine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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