MAJOR ick/other problem

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laura65536

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 3, 2007
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Nebraska
I had posted in the catfish forum yesterday cause I have no idea what is on my paroon sharks, there is ick, I am aware of that, and I don't know if that caused the other problem because it got out of hand before I caught it or what, about 4-5 weeks ago they were moved into a makshift pond in my laundry room, so I have been looking down on them, and didn't catch this until my larger paroon was as pale as my albino channel cat. I promptly took them out of the "pond" and put them in a 55 for a hospital tank, water parms fo the "pond" they were in are as follows:
ammonia: 0
nitrites: 0
nitrates: 20
ph: 7.6

it's really hard to get pics of them, my camera isn't the best, and they don't hold still, but the first two pics are from yesterday when I first got them into the 55 and the second two pics are from tonight. They are still active, but not eating, in the catfish forum it was suggested that possibly it was columnaris, so that is what I am treating atm. Macryn/macryn2 and salt, temp is at 75.

I need to get some more opinions and I am hoping this will have more traffic over here, there isn't a lot of info on how to treat Columnaris, especially with catfish, just that I should treat it as a bacterial infection, not a fungal one, and that it kills fast, and that is not what I am looking for....it may be something else entirely, I have no idea, but your opinions and advice would be MUCH appreciated, these are my favorite fish, and I just can't loose them!
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these give a little bit better idea of what wrong, there are cream colored "fuzzy" patches all over them, there are the white (I am assuming) ick spots, and their skin is actually falling off:

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My opinion... Ich and Fungus... Up the temp to around 86* Add Salt... And get some Pimafix for the fungus.. Or what you are comfortable with for the fungus..

I doubt it is columnaris.. If it were it is likely too late to save...
 
You could also impliment melafix into the treatment..


And I usually use about a cup of API aquarium salt.. That is half of the 16 oz carton ... But that is just me... I sometimes use more ..
 
I was using melafix and pimafix yesterday, switched to the macaryn today...but there is 11 tbsp of salt (it's a 55 gallon), not sure I can add much more than that, I'm doing full strength on everything and I think you're only suposed to do 1/2 strength for cats, but I can certainly start back up with the mela/pima combo again, and bump the temp back up, I had just turned it down in case it was columnaris, that way I might have time to save them...
 
what if any appetite?
i agree with 86 F
nitrates are too high at 20 ppm
watch overcrowding and under filtration.
salt is good. short term salt dips are good
watch the stress levels, and make sure they are eating.

ben

never enough time to do it right. always enough time to do it twice
 
And best thing is to go with a treatment and stick with it.. Changing it up could have severe consequences.... Just my opinion...
 
well the smaller of the 2 sharks is just kinda laying on the gravel today, once in awhile he gets up and swims across the tank, then goes back to sitting on the gravel next to the bubble wand...he's not looking very good right now :cry:
 
It looks like he has columnaris to me. Has it spread?

If that's the case you have a huge issue, because columnaris is best treated by lowering the temperature and treating with antibacterial meds, and ich is best treated by raising the temperature and using meds specifically for ich.
I think if I had this problem personally I would put the temp around 75 and treat for both.
Of course right now if you've already set the temp higher just leave it. You will only stress them more by turning the temperature up and down.

Make sure you have plenty of aeration or turnover while you're treating and especially if you raise the temp. Higher temp = less oxygen.

I agree that it's important to complete a treatment before switching to another one. With antibacterial ESPECIALLY it's important to complete treatment because the infection can actually come back nastier than it was before. That is why even when taking antibacterial meds yourself doctors recommend you NEVER stop taking the meds until the end of the treatment even if your infection appears to have gone away.
Messing around with altered doses or incomplete treatments of antibacterial meds is a bad idea. Use full dose, scaleless or not with maracyn and maracyn2. There is no need to add pimafix or melafix along with it.

Continue with salt for the ich if you don't think the fish are getting worse. If it's getting worse I would suggest moving on to a half dose of super ich cure. As heavily infected as your fish are with ich I would worry more about getting rid of it than stressing them with the meds. If you do not get rid of the ich soon anyway you're fish aren't going to have any chance whatsoever.
 
whatever the "fungus" is, it has spread like wildfire, I am sticking with the maracyn/maracyn 2 treatment, and have salt in the tank, but only at about half a dose now cause I just did a w/c and I have added ick cure to the regimen. The temp is at 78, cause I didn't want to keep bouncing it all over the place. They really don't seem to be doing better at all, the ich is worse, the fuzzy stuff is worse, hopefully they'll start to get better before it's too late....

also, I am doing 50% w/c every day, I know it says not to do a w/c until the meds are done, but it's a very overstocked 55 right now, so I am just adding for what water I take out after the w/c, I figured clean water would be important at this point...
 
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