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Post by Carl on Jan 6, 2009 21:23:35 GMT -5
Sorry for all the difficulties you have had with these guys Stephanie This is an excellent picture though to see him/her and help make some better guesses as to what is wrong. Looking at the ragged fins, worn out looking body, and poor respiration, I would have to venture that this fish is suffering from a rare ailment in aquariums; Tuberculosis I of course am not positive, but based on appearance, the one by one die-off, and the meds we have thrown at this problem, I think it is a reasonable guess This is not the same Tuberculosis that most are familiar with in humans, and the only way a human can contact this is via an open sore and even then it is a local infection. This is VERY difficult to treat, and since this is one of those few gram positive infections (most aquatic infections are gram negative), medications such as Kanamycin, nitrofurazone are not very effective if at all. The drugs that are effective are Neomycin, Isoniazid, and Usnea (an organic treatment)UV Sterilization can also help check the spread of this often very selective pathogen as well. Isoniazid used to be the treatment of choice but is now hard to find and less effective. My recommendation is to use Neomycin as a medicated Food (such as Gel Tek Neomycin) and Usnea in the tank and as part of twice daily medicated baths. UV Sterilization can only help in prevention for the future and is highly suggested. Although I do not have a specific article about this possible problem, I do reference it in these articles: Aquarium Medications 2; AntibioticsAquarium Medications 4; Organic TreatmentsAquarium Answers, UsneaI hope this helps; Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 6, 2009 21:57:53 GMT -5
Well, reading the list of symptoms that you list in the one article, TB would make sense. They do fit quite a few of those. Considering how quickly the first one died after starting to float around like that, I think they are done for.
How contagious is it? I have my red female betta in there too, but she is not exhibiting any signs of illness.
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Post by murdock6701 on Jan 6, 2009 22:23:36 GMT -5
sorry hon - looks like 2 of us w/ experimental adventures that didn't work out! great effort though......
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Post by Carl on Jan 6, 2009 22:43:09 GMT -5
How contagious is it? I have my red female betta in there too, but she is not exhibiting any signs of illness. It is not very contagious, however like many pathogens, it is opportunistic (often entering via injury or similar). As well, Fish Tuberculosis is VERY slow in its progression, especially as compared to more common infections such as Columnaris, so a fish may have this disease and not show symptoms for even weeks. Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 7, 2009 12:49:13 GMT -5
Thanks John! We are in kind of the same boat. I do still have one julii cory in my 30 gallon that is doing ok on his own. I thought I'd try to get him some friends, but now I think he's just going to have to stay by himself. The 30 is sort of a misfit tank; with the exception of the rainbows, all of the fish in there are the only one of their kind! 1 rasbora, 1 tetra, 1 cherry barb, 1 betta, 1 SAE, 1 flying fox, 1 julii cory... and 6 celebes rainbows, lol.
I guess Red will just have to stay in the 5 for a while after the cories pass. Do you think a couple of months without any symptoms would be sufficient? I'd really love to tear this tank down sometime in the next year!
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Post by Carl on Jan 7, 2009 13:09:25 GMT -5
I guess Red will just have to stay in the 5 for a while after the cories pass. Do you think a couple of months without any symptoms would be sufficient? I'd really love to tear this tank down sometime in the next year! Although I cannot say for sure, as a fish can be a carrier, but his is likely a good time frame. Without ANY fish this would be even more certain, but if you were to do this, you would be better off starting over. Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 8, 2009 19:23:22 GMT -5
I just want to put the female betta in the 30 at some point. I will wait a couple of months before I do this though, just to be on the safe side. Maybe I should remove her, completely clean out this little tank, and put her back in there with clean ornaments and such until the couple of months are up...?
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Post by Carl on Jan 8, 2009 19:29:46 GMT -5
If the pathogen is active in the tank this will help (you would want to bleach or add Potassium Permangante to make sure), however if the pathogen is active in the fish, this would not make a difference
Does this make sense?
Carl
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Post by babygeige on Jan 9, 2009 10:35:12 GMT -5
Yes, I think it makes sense! Thanks. I will do this since I have not observed any signs of sickness in my red betta at all. So hopefully if I get the tank cleaned very well, and put her back, then that will reduce her chances of getting sick. It's not going to hurt anything.
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Post by babygeige on Jan 15, 2009 15:44:19 GMT -5
Ok, my last 2 peppered cories died last week and I just now got around to cleaning out the tank. I cleaned it with a weak bleach/water solution, soaked the sponge filter in super hot water, and replaced all the decor. Hopefully I killed any traces that may have been left of TB or whatever the cories had. As I was cleaning, I had Red the betta in an MB bath. I don't know if it did any good, but I figured it couldn't hurt, right?
So I'm thinking if she can go like 4-6 weeks without showing any odd symptoms, it should be safe to put her in the 30 gal. Cross your fingers!
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Post by babygeige on Jan 18, 2009 18:38:56 GMT -5
I completely jinxed myself in Kassidi's thread this morning! I mentioned that I still had one julii cory left and he went and died today!! I think it may have been because of kerosene fumes in the house. My dad uses one to heat the garage and it messed up this morning and completely stunk out the house. Since they like to breath surface air, I'm wondering if that caused his death. ::sigh::
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Post by bikeguy33 on Jan 18, 2009 22:01:45 GMT -5
first off....sorry for the loss. but the good news is, i have my doubts that the kerosene fumes were the culprit for the simple fact that if it killed the fish ,the carbom monoxide would have had to be enough in the air to kill other pets as well as at least make people in the house ill....
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Post by Carl on Jan 20, 2009 10:41:44 GMT -5
Sorry to read this Stephanie (I am a little late, being gone just a few days makes it hard to catch up on everything) I hope that whatever the cause, whether fish TB or something else has passed away too and that someday you can have some Corys again Carl
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ctendoh
Junior Member
Filling my room with water, one tank at a time...
Posts: 39
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Post by ctendoh on Jan 20, 2009 15:43:10 GMT -5
Awww... I'm so sorry... Cories are absolutely my favorite fish. I know of a shop about an hour from here that sells julii cories on a regular basis, but I don't have a way to get them to you, otherwise I would try to help you out there...
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Post by babygeige on Jan 20, 2009 17:39:27 GMT -5
Thanks guys. I really did like these guys. I just don't know what the deal was. The peppered ones I understood, I think they were sick when I bought them. I got them from a different lfs. But the julii just up and died. He was never in the same tank as the peppered ones, so it's not likely the same cause.
I'm just going to stick to my SAE and Flying Fox as my bottom dwellers for the foreseeable future. They're fun in their own little ways.
I actually feel a little relieved now that they are all gone. It's like a big cory shaped black cloud has been lifted!
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Post by Carl on Jan 20, 2009 19:36:03 GMT -5
I'm just going to stick to my SAE and Flying Fox as my bottom dwellers for the foreseeable future. They're fun in their own little ways. One way of looking at this is you have done well with SAE and Flying Foxes where others have not I think this is a good way to look at it! Carl
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