Mystery Illness in a senegalus cuvier

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mjryan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 2, 2006
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Harrison Twp, Mi
I got refered over to this site for better information. her was my original post from another site...

Yesterday i noticed my Birchir (polypterus senegalus cuvier) being way too lathargic compared to his normal self. i was thinking possible constipated as he scarfed the night before, so i planned to see how he was today before giving him an epsom dip. we'll i did that, but have noticed today he body is looking bad. in the pictures below, you will see a clear line running on an angle to his body, where the tail section is pale. also, the dorsal fin in missing the "web" of the fin now in the pale area...and is happening on the caudal fin too.

IMG_2836.jpg



IMG_2838.jpg


IMG_2840.jpg



heres a close up (though not too clear)

IMG_2837.jpg



Basically he looks like crap and im trying to figure out hat is wrong. water checks out at:
NO3: 19ppm
NO2: 0
Ammo: 0

***Updates****
the line is the same on the other side. its like the back of him is dying off. never saw something like this either so im stunped. got him in QT with a Mela, but he dont seem to be doing too good....

here are close ups. click the links since they are higher res. i didnt want to slow the site down with big pictures....

http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k153/ShorgasmIII/fish%20tank/IMG_2845.jpg
http://i87.photobucket.com/albums/k153/ShorgasmIII/fish%20tank/IMG_2843.jpg

***
the story ends there... his "snout" was turning red, as where his pec fins... and he wouldnt move at all, so i humanly euthanized him. i didnt see any way of coming back from this.
NOW, to figure out what it was???

does anyone have any ideas? something he ate? my water is good, i know the tankmates didnt cause it, so im stumped... i never saw something like this before! :confused:
 
Sorry to hear that you ended up euthanizing it. Hope someone here could figure out what happened. And welcome to MFK.
 
it was most likely some kind of bacterial infection that turned into Hemorrhagic Septicemia
which would account for the redness in the fins-Anne
 
well i think you may be right after searching for it:(

now, the other fish in the tank... at risk? should i start a 5 day tank treatment with Maracyn 2 now?
 
yes i also think it's bacterial infection. and sorry for your loss :(

i have a bichir that suffered from the same thing (or at least similar). part of its body started turning white. The white area looked really rough indicating the slime coat was gone in that region. The white started off with a small area only couple scales wide and was spreading very fast, getting larger by the hour. at first it was just the white, eventually the edge of the white area was lined with red. When the white spread to its back, the dorsal finlets started eroding away, membrane and spines.

at first i started treating with kanamycin and salt, but that did not stop the spreading at all. I was finally able to stop the spreading of the white region with a combination of salt and tetracycline, at which point the edge began to be lined with red. Long story short, i was able to use tetracycline to control the spreading early enough, and eventually with a combination of salt/tetracycline/kanamycin/melafix/pimafix for over two months, it finally healed after it started eating.

ps. reason i used kanamycin was because i have had success using it to treat hemorrhagic septicemia, which is what i suspected the red was, and at that point i was already treating with tetracycline, so apparently tetra didn't help for whatever reason. and pimafix because it was also getting some fungal growth. oh and i also used stress coat to try to give the fish some protective layer, if the product does what it says
 
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