Patchy disease in Hillstreams

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Jacqueline
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Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:49 am

Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jacqueline » Sat Aug 17, 2013 6:13 am

Hello,

I recently added 5 Gastromyzon sp. to my established tank and they are slowly dying off one by one. They appear to have the dreaded Patchy disease. After researching, it seems the only thing that helps is Maryacyn and Maryacyn-2, however apparently they are not available to me in Australia.

Is there anything else I can use to prevent the two remaining (apparently) healthy guys and the sick one?

I have a planted 4' x 1.5' x 2' tank, with a rivertank manifold using an AHJ-1121 powerhead (1400L/h) that has an air pump connected to it. I have sand as the substrate and a combination of driftwood and rocks.

Current inhabitants are:
2x kuhli loaches (hoping to add more when the LFS restocks)
2x crystal red shrimp
2x Gastromyzon scitulus (one healthy one sick)
1x Gastromyzo zebrinus
2x leopard Danios
2x zebra Danios
4x white clouds
a ton of horrible snails that wont die off fast enough
and just for some randomness 1x Damselfly larva

Any help would be greatly appreciated, these guys are hard to come by in my area and expensive. Aside from that, I love them

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Jim Powers
Posts: 5208
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:15 pm
Location: Bloomington, Indiana

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jim Powers » Sat Aug 17, 2013 11:40 pm

Sorry, but the only thing I know to work are antibiotics. :(
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Jacqueline
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:49 am

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jacqueline » Sun Aug 18, 2013 1:08 am

If I were to do a quarter dose if Melafix would it help or just stress out the kuhli loaches too much?

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Jim Powers
Posts: 5208
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:15 pm
Location: Bloomington, Indiana

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jim Powers » Sun Aug 18, 2013 8:19 am

I have never tried Melafix with hillstreams or kuhlies.
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Diana
Posts: 4675
Joined: Wed Jan 04, 2006 1:35 am
Location: Near San Franciso

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Diana » Wed Aug 21, 2013 10:40 am

Melafix and Pimafix work by attaching to the disease organisms on the outside of the fish. They can also attach to almost any other organic matter in the tank.
I would do as thorough a vacuum as you can (yes, difficult with a planted tank) to remove all possible stuff that these meds might attach to so that the maximum amount of the medicine can attack the disease organisms.
Also, plenty of water changes to keep the tank as clean as possible will help.

Are there any fish antibiotics available to you? I think the Sera product line has some medications they won't tell you what is in them, but identify them by the diseases they treat.
38 tanks, 2 ponds over 4000 liters of water to keep clean and fresh.

Happy fish keeping!

Jacqueline
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 14, 2013 7:49 am

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jacqueline » Thu Aug 22, 2013 7:16 am

Thanks Jim and Diana.

I ended up doing a 1/4 dose of melafix, with no repeat nor water change. It appears to have worked and I saw no signs of stress in any of the guys.

I will do a water change tomorrow and hopefully I haven't jinxed myself with this post.

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Jim Powers
Posts: 5208
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2005 6:15 pm
Location: Bloomington, Indiana

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by Jim Powers » Thu Aug 22, 2013 3:24 pm

That's great! Keep us posted. Its always good to know alternative cures.
I suspect, though, that what we call "Patchy Disease" is just a symptom of more than one disease. Treatments may vary.
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mattyd
Posts: 103
Joined: Mon Jun 07, 2010 9:55 pm
Location: Brisbane, QLD, Australia

Re: Patchy disease in Hillstreams

Post by mattyd » Thu Dec 05, 2013 6:29 pm

I know this is an older thread, but I want to point out to local Australians that I have had success in purchasing Maracyn (Erythromycin) and Maracyn-Two (minocycline) through Ebay. It made it through in the post without a problem and I now have them ready for when I purchase my next 'borneo-suckers'.

If any one is in Brisbane and needs some urgently, contact me and we can work something out.
5ft long rocky hillstream tank - Sewellia lineolata and spotted... and lots (and lots) of spotted fry
8ft Clown loach tank: 30+ clown loaches, 10+ Yoyos.
6ft tank for 16x botia kubotai, 13x Striata, 6x Sidthimunki - I need more sids

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