RTC or Red Tail Catfish at Fish Story Aquariuma and Rescue

thebiggerthebetter

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No progress in 5 weeks after the 1st B1 shot. Doubts over vitamin B1 ID. Second B1 (+VitaChem) injection for 3.5ft/1m RTC.

 

fishdance

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Hello Viktor, Can you confirm you have done a skin scrape and gill snip under microscope? The base of dorsal fin especially? Costia comes to my mind for example when watching RTC behaviour. Is your veterinarian able to site visit/assist?

Do you have a 200X - 400X microscope? Does not need to be an expensive one. You will find plenty of parasites which is normal, but problematic loads should be easy to spot.
 
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thebiggerthebetter

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No, I've never done any microscope work. It's something on my plate to grow in the knowledge for the future, to get a microscope and to learn to recognize pathogens.

One of my 3 vets is able to site visit, the trip charge is $650 plus her work, it can be a couple thousand $.

If I take the RTC to her office 3.5hours away, I might get away with a $1000 ($350 basic pathology work up plus more for other tests as needed) plus the fish must be sacrificed.
 

thebiggerthebetter

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It has been guessed that the RTC may be suffering from costia but the formalin + Malachite Green treatment should clear up several other potential and common parasitic problems:

 

thebiggerthebetter

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The RTC started swimming around, spread fins, hard to say if because of feeling better (hopefully) or discomfort after the medicating.

 

thebiggerthebetter

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