Mycobacterium, Fish Tuberculosis Treatments

[bluehairman]

I think people should spread possible treatments and post results, because even though there is no proven treatment, I've read reports of a couple of antibiotics that some people have had success with. Mycobacterium are also acid fast bacteria. That means they survive best in acidic tanks, so keeping your tank clean could be the best prevention. Right now I am actually testing some of them out. Firstly, fish tuberculosis is a gram-positive bacteria, keep that in mind while getting antibiotics.
Here's some that people say they have success with:

Kanamycin - Makes sense, since it is used on resistance tuberculosis strains.

Trimethoprim and Sulfathiazole Sodium - Supposedly strong antibiotics, only one report on success, but it included Kanamycin in the dosage as well.
Erythromycin - A couple reports on success. One report on immediate success of injecting the antibiotic into the fish.
Neomycin Sulfate - I haven't read any success on this, but it's labeled for treament of fish tuberculosis.
Tetracycline Hydrochloride - Strong antibiotic. Recommended because resistant strains don't destroy the antibody, but instead shoot it out of the body. This causes stress on the cell and eventually cannot shoot the antibodies out.



Kana-Pro Active Ingredient: Kanamycin Sulfa​

TMP Sulfa Active Ingredients: Trimethoprim and Sulfathiazole Sodium​

EM-Pro Active Ingredient: Erythromycin​

Neomycin: Generic, buy in powdered form
TC-Pro Active Ingredient: Tetracycline Hydrochloride

You will most likely have most success using more than one antibiotic at once. You will also probably have more success by administering the antibodies through the food so the antibodies are directly into the body. You can also try direct injection of antibodies.
​

Please remember, if you treated your fish while it had fish tb and treatment failed, do not flush your fish. Mycobacterium are very hardy bacteria, and only high level cholorine will kill them, so resistant strains will be spread of whatever you treated with.

 

[Fish Room Plus]

it is transferable to humans, beware

 

[bluehairman]

it is transferable to humans, beware

I know, usually through cuts.
But after having this bacteria around for almost 2 years, and sticking my hands in and out of tanks, I'm not too worried about it.

 

[Lupin]

It's hard to diagnose actual fish TB in most cases as there are plenty of types of bacterial infections. I've already encountered this once and my situation was completely depressing losing a lot of fish for months. A lot of companies can claim they treat the most unusual health issues but they have to back up their claims that their products actually work especially the neomycin sulfate which you mentioned, they claimed it works. A lot of cases may have been misdiagnosis on their part.

Is there actual study conducted on this? Unless the information about it remaining incurable is outdated, it is hard to believe some of the treatments mentioned, can successfully eliminate this problem. Take note, using more than one antibiotics, can potentially kill a fish faster than the disease can. Per the reports of number of successes claimed, the odds of eliminating the problem is still slim.

 

[bluehairman]

It's hard to diagnose actual fish TB in most cases as there are plenty of types of bacterial infections. I've already encountered this once and my situation was completely depressing losing a lot of fish for months. A lot of companies can claim they treat the most unusual health issues but they have to back up their claims that their products actually work especially the neomycin sulfate which you mentioned, they claimed it works. A lot of cases may have been misdiagnosis on their part.

Is there actual study conducted on this? Unless the information about it remaining incurable is outdated, it is hard to believe some of the treatments mentioned, can successfully eliminate this problem. Take note, using more than one antibiotics, can potentially kill a fish faster than the disease can. Per the reports of number of successes claimed, the odds of eliminating the problem is still slim.

Yes, I'm getting most information from less than reputable sources... But people report that it works. Usually members from other forums, but nobody tests it out and posts results...

But with some there are also cases where these treatments did not work. I think it depends on if your bacteria is resistant or not, how much damage is already done to the fish, and how you distribute the antibiotic.

Currently all I'm testing is kanamycin, and so far results are so/so. With 2 fish dead since treatment, and a fish that's almost been infected for a month seems to be improving.. And from experience, once symptoms start to occur the fish rapidly declines until death.

 

[bluehairman]

I'm happy to post that kanamycin is showing very positive results. After distributing through the food it only took about a week, and my RBP is starting to gain fat back around the spinal area. A major improvement, as some of you may know, from the wasting body he used to have.

I'll probably post pictures of how he was in the beginning of treatment, and then how he is now.

I'm going to start EM-Pro tonight through the food as well. Possibly Neomycin, but I'll wait and see, I don't want to give them too many antibodies at one time. Hopefully EM-Pro will show more positive results.