Black ghost knife white spots
- Thread starter Reventon
- Start date
looks like the fins are messed up too. give it doses of melafix for a week. melafix is an all-purpose ailment and it is also good for already healthy fish. saved my oscars life.
I don't like melafix (or pimafix) at all. I haven't found any concrete science behind it, and have personally witnessed some not so flattering results with it on sensitive fish. An Oscar could live in a dirty toilet, they're just tough fish, but a BGK is an entirely different animal, especially when young.
I would just recommend keeping the water extremely clean, keeping the fish well fed, and maybe throwing in a bit of salt.
I would just recommend keeping the water extremely clean, keeping the fish well fed, and maybe throwing in a bit of salt.
I would be careful to word specifics. Melafix is not really an all-purpose ailment. That's like saying it is the cure to all issues we have when it is not. It can aid recovery of shallow wounds but not necessarily prevent bacterial infections. If you see ulcerated wounds that are clearly bacterial, would you think Melafix is an answer to this? How about problems with their respiratory functions? Would Melafix answer this trouble or simply add more harm to the fish in question? Every fish is different as aclockworkorange rightly pointed out. They have varying degrees of tolerance towards different environmental conditions. Oscars are tough in several instances but not BGKs.fishkeeper4244;4853104; said:
Reventon, your issue is not ich. The issue is bacterial. The fish needs to be isolated in a barebottom tank with a couple PVC pipes. That's it. From there, keep water clean and add a teaspoon per gallon of sodium chloride (no yellow prussiate of soda included). You may use aquarium salt, pickling salt or rock salt. Be sure you dissolve the salt well and keep water well aerated.
You should but don't use them yet until we see improvement from salt and clean water alone. Give a week to see if there is significant improvement. Your options of antibiotics would be kanamycin, Maracyn Plus or Jungle Fungus Clear.
I have personally used kanamycin, maracyn 1 and 2, melafix and pimafix for a bacterial infection on a BGK. The kanamcyin worked the best with my fish to clear up a columnaris infection and seemed the most "gentle" (even though it's a fairly harsh antibiotic).
Lupin, I have found BGK's to prefer sand in general, and know is some instances people claim bacteria can thrive on the glass of a bare-bottom tank (why a lot of Cory breeders keep the babys on a thin lair of sand, supposedly). What do you think about this in this situation?
Lupin, I have found BGK's to prefer sand in general, and know is some instances people claim bacteria can thrive on the glass of a bare-bottom tank (why a lot of Cory breeders keep the babys on a thin lair of sand, supposedly). What do you think about this in this situation?
I wonder where they got that claim that bacteria can thrive on glass. The anaerobic bacteria, if this is what they are referring to, prefer stagnant areas. There is no way this bacteria can thrive in a barebottom setup with oxygen free flowing around and general cleaning of the tank will prevent bad bacteria from even attempting to establish itself. That's the purpose of hospitalizing the fish. I still disagree using sand for hospital purposes.aclockworkorange;4855907; said: