Post by koijoi on Mar 10, 2022 22:16:36 GMT -5
Hi all,
First, I want to thank you for all of the fantastic advice available through your websites! I am a research scientist, and really appreciate that your advice is based on veterinary research and your own careful experiments.
I need help with my two new fantail goldfish. I have kept koi and goldfish for several years, and have never had fish with one illness right after the other like these two. I’m at a loss of what steps to take next—they seems to be sick with almost everything…
About one month ago I purchased two small (~1” long) calico fantails and started quarantining them in a 5-gallon hospital tank (with the intention of moving them to a MUCH larger display tank after quarantine). They have a mature 3-stage filter, and an air stone with plenty of aeration. I treat the water with SeaChem Prime for dechlorination, SeaChem GoldBuffer, and SeaChem FreshTrace.
I removed the Purigen in my filter during each of the treatments below, regenerated and sanitized it with bleach, and replaced it after treatment. I’ve been performing regular 20% water changes and siphoning the gravel between medication doses. I’ve also added aquarium salt at 1TBS/5gallons and have replaced the removed salt with every water change. I have followed all dosing instructions on medications, and have given the complete number of recommended doses.
After their first day, they began to show signs of an internal bacterial infection (tightly clamped fins, listing, bloody pinpricks on abdomen, refusing food). I treated them with KanaPlex in the water column, every other day for 3 total doses, and they recovered. Within about two days of finishing treatment, one began clamping its fins again, and although it ate voraciously over the next few days, began losing weight. I fed food mixed with General Cure, and soon the fish passed tapeworms and began gaining weight. Within two days of finishing the General Cure treatment, I checked on them in the morning to find both sitting on the bottom of the tank, fins clamped tightly, and a milky slime coat and eyes. They still had an appetite but had buoyancy issues when coming for their food. I treated the water column with Fin and Body Cure, suspecting Streptococcus. Their infection has been slow to clear, and so I’ve repeated the four-day treatment. I am currently on the third day of the second treatment.
They are finally improving, but I came home from work this evening to find one of them covered in ich (small white cysts, the fish is hanging out near the air stone just under the surface, with some mild erratic swimming and they easily startle).
I would like to treat them for ich with SeaChem ParaGard, but I still have one more dose of Fin and Body Cure left for this treatment. I plan to give this fourth dose in the morning, then after 24 hours do a water change and replace the Purigen to remove the antibiotic. How long should I wait between Fin and Body Cure doses and ParaGard? Is there something else I can do in the meantime to alleviate the ich?
Each time they perk up and treatment works I'm dreading what the next days will bring. Thanks for any advice to break this outbreak cycle!
First, I want to thank you for all of the fantastic advice available through your websites! I am a research scientist, and really appreciate that your advice is based on veterinary research and your own careful experiments.
I need help with my two new fantail goldfish. I have kept koi and goldfish for several years, and have never had fish with one illness right after the other like these two. I’m at a loss of what steps to take next—they seems to be sick with almost everything…
About one month ago I purchased two small (~1” long) calico fantails and started quarantining them in a 5-gallon hospital tank (with the intention of moving them to a MUCH larger display tank after quarantine). They have a mature 3-stage filter, and an air stone with plenty of aeration. I treat the water with SeaChem Prime for dechlorination, SeaChem GoldBuffer, and SeaChem FreshTrace.
I removed the Purigen in my filter during each of the treatments below, regenerated and sanitized it with bleach, and replaced it after treatment. I’ve been performing regular 20% water changes and siphoning the gravel between medication doses. I’ve also added aquarium salt at 1TBS/5gallons and have replaced the removed salt with every water change. I have followed all dosing instructions on medications, and have given the complete number of recommended doses.
After their first day, they began to show signs of an internal bacterial infection (tightly clamped fins, listing, bloody pinpricks on abdomen, refusing food). I treated them with KanaPlex in the water column, every other day for 3 total doses, and they recovered. Within about two days of finishing treatment, one began clamping its fins again, and although it ate voraciously over the next few days, began losing weight. I fed food mixed with General Cure, and soon the fish passed tapeworms and began gaining weight. Within two days of finishing the General Cure treatment, I checked on them in the morning to find both sitting on the bottom of the tank, fins clamped tightly, and a milky slime coat and eyes. They still had an appetite but had buoyancy issues when coming for their food. I treated the water column with Fin and Body Cure, suspecting Streptococcus. Their infection has been slow to clear, and so I’ve repeated the four-day treatment. I am currently on the third day of the second treatment.
They are finally improving, but I came home from work this evening to find one of them covered in ich (small white cysts, the fish is hanging out near the air stone just under the surface, with some mild erratic swimming and they easily startle).
I would like to treat them for ich with SeaChem ParaGard, but I still have one more dose of Fin and Body Cure left for this treatment. I plan to give this fourth dose in the morning, then after 24 hours do a water change and replace the Purigen to remove the antibiotic. How long should I wait between Fin and Body Cure doses and ParaGard? Is there something else I can do in the meantime to alleviate the ich?
Each time they perk up and treatment works I'm dreading what the next days will bring. Thanks for any advice to break this outbreak cycle!
