medication

[GriF]

Hi,

does anyone here have some experience with lungfish and medication.
I can recall reading somewhere that lungfish, are sesitive to medication.
Does this go for all types of lungfish, and what type of medication.
And what to do, do you dose half or use an alternative.

The reason I ask, I moved my dolloi to a bigger tank a while ago, and it seems he is still a little stressed, he probably liked his old tank better.
He does eat, but probably just 15% of what he used to do.
It took a while before I got him to eat in his new tank. He would only except live fish.I have been breeding some fish for him to eat but not nearly enough for a complete diet. He did not except night crawlers, freshwatersnails. Just live fish. I stopped buying live fish for him aprox 7 or 8 months ago.
But to get him to eat again I just bought a big bag of goldfish....no feeder goldfish...but the once for your pond and aquarium at a large pond shop.
And he ate about 40 in the first week. I took the rest out. And got my lung to except sprot. and some times a mussle. and some tiger shrimp.
He does eat hikari algae waffers on a regular basis.
When I feed mussels it will only take 1 or 2, while my other lungfish will eat 15 to 20 a day.

I'm thinking about getting a fishdocter over to check for paracites, or some bacterial infection. But if he finds something I don't know if he can dose in the same way he is used to.
I have had him over a few years ago when I had some problems with my koi fry.
They scrape some slime from the skin and check for paracites under a microscope and in case of a bacterial infection they take some poop and check it for bad bacteria.


p.s. water is o.k.
good filtration, I do aprox 40 to 50% water change a week...never missed a waterchange, ph is stable (neutral) . water is a little soft...but this should not be a problem.



So any imput on lungs reaction to medicine is welcome.

 

[E_americanus]

i wouldn't be too concerned just yet about the lungfish...is the fish appearing to lose weight at all? as lungfishes get older (especially in captivity) they won't need to eat as often...so this can be a factor if you are feeding it just as much as you used to, and just as often.

also, lungfishes will go through fasting periods from time to time...this is common throughout just about all species in captivity.

if you are concerned about any health issues, i would stick with adding a small amount of salt to the water and (especially) bumping up the frequency and volume of water changes...these methods are much more useful than most meds...which are generally risky to use on primitive fishes. good luck, and keep us posted on how the fish is doing--
--solomon

ps-- i would doubt a parasite is affecting its appetite if you have had the fish for many years. most parasites that would do this (i.e. tapeworms, acanthocephalans) have a very complex life cycle, most of which cannot be carried out without various intermediate hosts...which aren't present in the home aquaria. the fish will come around

 

[GriF]

Thanx sol it worked...i added 3% salt and bumped up the temp to 30 degrees (C) +...and blided the tank for 3 days...he is doin much better now. after 1 week I'm lowering the concentration of salt. to 2%.
His skin looks much better now. And he started eating better than before.
I do think it was some kind of parasite. because his skin looked iritated. and he started fliping his front fins. (like something was iritating him)
But he seems fine now...thanx for the advice.