HELP! Very sick 12" red devil!

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gutted

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jun 19, 2012
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Around Wednesday/Thursday I noticed my red devil was covered in white spots. I figured it was ich so I bumped up the temp and added salt. Saturday morning I found him lying in the corner sometimes turning over a little but never completely on his side. Just to test how sick he was I tapped my finger on the front glass and he attacked it like normal. Most of the white spots were gone but there was still a good amount on him. I did a 50% water change and added salt back to his tank. This morning he is still in the same corner but he's tilted up (pic 2). He doesnt care to chase my figure and he looks like he's barely hanging on. A large majority of the white spots are gone but his skin looks odd (pic 3). The best way I could describe is it looks dry and flakey. I dont know what to do. Whenever I have dealt with ich it would have cleared up by now. I need help! This is one of my new favorite fish and its the first one my GF likes.

Heres the specs and parameters
90 gallon tank, temp was 80F now 86F. 1 tablespoon of salt / 1 gallon. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 10ppm.

Sunday, see the tiny little red dots around the top of his head


Today


His "dry/flakey" skin
 
he looks really old
 
I dont think his stomach is sunken in. I think it may be the angle and how his fin is clamped. Its hard to check since he's back to lying on his belly. I just got him on the 1st. A guy was moving out of state and was giving him away.

Here's some pics of him on Thursday


 
This looks like columnaris (saddle back) to me. API Triple Sulfa is effective in the early stages of columnaris. If the fish doesn't respond to this API Furan-2 & kanamycin (caution must be taken not to overdose Kena) can be used. I would go with either the sulfa or furan-2 first. Make sure to do a large water change before starting treatment. Not every gram negative antibiotic is affective against this so use what I suggested before trying anything else. What is the ph of your water?
 
May I ask why you think its columnaris? I'm going to run to the store and pick up some API triple sulfa. Should I leave the temperature as is? What about the salt?
 
From the pix you posted and the discription of the swaying to the side.

The salt can stay, do the 50% wc and don't add any more. The salt was a good 1st line treatment is probebly why it's not worse than it could be. What is the temp in the tank currently? What is your ph? The sulfa should work, if you have to change to the furan or kena the kena is more effective if your ph is over 7 the furan is better under 7. The kena will whack you BB too.
 
I just test the PH for the first time and its around 7.4-8. Temperature right now is 86F. I'm hoping Petsmart carries the API triple sulfa. Where can I find kena? Thanks for the help!
 
I found some API triple sulfa. I'm planning on moving him to my 40 breeder or just dropping the water level to half because I have to dose the water 4 times and triple sulfa is expensive.

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Seachem makes Kenaplex. I doubt you'll find that at Petsmart. If you don't have a good lfs a vet can give it, call one and explain the situation. Lets hope you wouln't need it and the sulfa does the job.
 
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