Help looks like bacterial outbreak in tank!

[Diana]

Erythromycin (Maracyn) should not harm the nitrifying bacteria. It treats mostly Gram positive bacteria. Good to combine with Maracyn II (Which treats Gram negative bacteria). More fish diseases are caused by Gram negative bacteria than Gram positive. Combined, they will treat the main problem, and possible secondary disease causing bacteria that may try to move in on the stressed fish.

Boosting the population of nitrifying bacteria is a good idea after any medication has been cleared from the water.

Here is a way to grow your own beneficial bacteria:
Many medicines for fish will be dosed for a week or two, and in this time you will grow a replacement population of bacteria for when you have removed the medicines. Start as soon as you know you will be using some medication in the tank.

When you know you will need some bacteria take some well cycled filter media from a healthy tank and set it up in a bucket of tank water (or tap water with dechlor) and add ammonia to read 3 ppm. Test daily and add enough ammonia to replace what the bacteria are removing.
The longer that this can grow the bigger the population of beneficial bacteria you will have. By starting with some cycled media there are a fair amount of bacteria to jump start the culture.
Be sure to add some water circulation, and a sponge or some bio-media for the new bacteria to grow on.
A really good set up is a small HOB filter such as the Aquaclear 20 or so on a plastic storage box. The flat sides of a storage box will accommodate a filter better than a round bucket. There is plenty of room in the Aquaclear filters for you to add some media such as a sponge, or some ceramic bio-media. Anything with a large surface area will work. I have also done this in a bucket with a small fountain pump for circulation, and a few sponges just drifting around in the water.

When you have cleared the medicine from the tank simply hang the filter on the tank alongside the original filter or add the newly cycled media to the old filter so the new population of nitrifying bacteria can move out to re-colonize the treated tank.

[LoachOrgy]

well ive been doing a 2nd treatment of furan 2. but the two fish that looked worse. actually are starting to get new bloody streaks. the current bloody streaks they had are a bit faded but they have new ones. the other fish including the glass fish are doing fine.


im not going near maracyn 2 again. it killed about 6 fish i had last time. didn't realize it would crash the bio filter. don't want to test that again.

im tempted to treat with another medication. seems like this medication is just holding them off for now. but the two fish are starting to act a little crazy as of today. they have appeared fine the last few days.

ive been treating with the recommended level of bio start bacteria on the bottle every other day just in case. seems to be working fine.

if i treat with another medication. should i half the dose?


i currently also have api general cure and the er erythromycin. would it be ok to combine the erythromycin with the furan 2?

im also leaving town in a few days. so i won't be able to treat those 4 days.

[LoachOrgy]

so now the 1 fish that had it the worst is the only fish that visually appears to have the bloody streaks. erythromycin has been used for the last 2 days.

and the fish with the worst symptoms at least looks better than it did. hopefully he will get better while im gone. but i won't be able to treat the tank.

[LoachOrgy]

have done 2 full treatments of furan 2 and em erythromycin. the two fish still have bloody streaks. the glass fish that had the minimal amount of bloody streaks looks to be better. i see no visible bloody spots near his stomach where they were previously for around a week now.

any suggestions on what i should try next? so far it doesn't appear that these medications are working for the 2 rasboras.

at first they appeared to get better. then after the initial recovery. they showed symptoms again.

i may do a bigger water change and filter out the meds for a day to give them a break. but im a bit reluctant to. i feel the medication is holding off death for these two rasboras.

[Diana]

Erythromycin treats mostly Gram positive bacteria. I am not sure which group of bacteria Furan treats. Do a little research and try a different one (antibiotic) that treats some different things.
Sulfas?
Tetracycline?
Other?
How about feeding a food with medicine in it? Are they eating well enough to get the proper dose?

I know that Levamisol is helpful to boost the immune system, perhaps clear out the current meds, run a single dose of Levamisol, clear that then go on to something else.

[Diana]

http://www.nationalfishpharm.com/products.html

Scroll down to EM (next to the bottom)
There are 4-5 pages of fish medicines listed at this site.
There is also a very extensive list of symptoms and possible diseases.

I have looked up Furan 2. You would search the site linked above for the 2 ingredients, separately. Sure looks like Furan 2 should have helped!

[LoachOrgy]

ive got kanamycin and tetracyclin.

will the tetracycline crash the filter?

need to pickup more live filter bacteria if so.

they seem to be eating well.

ive also got some levimasole.

ill try that thanks.

[Afunnyone]

Can I ask where you found levamisole? I am really in need of that med. please pm me or post here I have been trying everywhere to get some.
My loach and I will really thank you

[LoachOrgy]

isn't it a horse dewormer or pig dewormer. i think i got it at vet supply place online. there are some threads on it here. just search for levimasole.

also look on the regular loaches.com for info.

the worse off rasbora is blowing up like it has dropsy. it was real bad yesterday. but a little better today. but still has the bloody streaks. ive started a kanamycin treatment for one day after a day of filtering the chems out. also did a 30 percent water change. the tds was really high from all the meds.

so far the fish have been treated with:

furan 2 for 2 full treatements
em erythromycin for 2 full treatements
kanamycin treatment 1 now

the glass fish is a ok. looks fine, eating regular, no bloody streaks or anything. one rasbora looks better. the other one is blowing up.

i guess after this all thats left is tetracycline. levimasole and aquadoxy. if these top 3 don't work.

[LoachOrgy]

well. the glass fish made it and one rasbora made it. the rasbora that is all blown up is about to croak. looks like dropsy along with the septicimia.

this 2.39 fish ended up costing me about 40 bucks to try to heal him. but no luck. poor guy. he fought it as long as he could. so 2 for 1 in this treatment.

im going to filter out the qt tank with carbon in the morning. also i will do frequent water changes till the tds is adequate enough to put the fish back in the main tank.

[LoachOrgy]

update:

well i started making medicated food for every medication i have. anyway, i tried every medication i have to try and get rid of this bacterial septicimia with no luck. each medication was treated for the full treatment. some two times if the mediation did not appear to show signs of improvement.

ive used all of these as water treatments and some of them as medicated food treatments:

2 treatments of er erythromycin
2 aquadoxy
2 metronazidole
2 treatments of furan2
2 treatments kanamycin
maracyn 2- currently finishing this treatment
tank buddies fungus clear
2 tetracycline

also take note, i give the fish a little break from the meds in between doses so i can filter out the previous dose.

now visually i can still see bloody streaks on my infected fish. it goes away randomely but comes back randomely. and the blood spots are in the fin joints. the fish is acting normal but still has these symptoms.

nothing has worked. anyone have any suggestions. ive tried all the medications i can get a hold of. and ive spent about 100 bucks trying help a 3 dollar fish. i have all the rasboras in my qt tank and i was wanting to put them back in the main tank but i still see these symptoms.

all fish are eating well and acting normal. has anyone had this issue as well?

so as of now. im stumped. ive followed all treatment directions and id say i was successful in administering the treatments but they have not proved to fix the problem. this is a big variety of medication. its really all i have access to for now. not real sure what to do.

[Diana]

This is really getting frustrating. To have the symptoms coming and going makes it even harder to tell if a particular medicine is working.

How about clearing all the meds and simply working at keeping the tank as absolutely clean as possible?
Organics in the water can cause problems with some meds, and can stress the fish. High nitrates can stress the fish.

Try something like water changes every few days with thorough gravel vacuuming to really be sure all the waste and even microscopic organic matter is as low as possible. Add Purigen, activated carbon or other material that is good at removing such things.

[LoachOrgy]

This is really getting frustrating. To have the symptoms coming and going makes it even harder to tell if a particular medicine is working.

How about clearing all the meds and simply working at keeping the tank as absolutely clean as possible?
Organics in the water can cause problems with some meds, and can stress the fish. High nitrates can stress the fish.

Try something like water changes every few days with thorough gravel vacuuming to really be sure all the waste and even microscopic organic matter is as low as possible. Add Purigen, activated carbon or other material that is good at removing such things.

the tank has been crystal clear for about two weeks now. ive been keeping up with good water changes daily and i filtered out all the medicine quite some time ago. been feeding medication only recently. the last week the fish infected has shown worse signs more than he has in the last 2 months or so of treatment. in the qt tank. there is nothing in it. just fish and a tank. and some water. the filter is cleaned on a weekly basis in used tank water. all debris is removed when seen. and the tank water has been changed daily. did two rounds through out the treatment of clean water with no medication doses to give them a break off the meds. all parameters in the water are perfect just like the large tank.

ill try the purigen. the tank has biological media and activated carbon.

[LoachOrgy]

rasbora still has the stepicimia. got the pleco coming down with it now. just got the qt tank adequate enough to put him in there. treating now with metronazidole.