New Sick 25" RTC

[thefredpit]

I recently got in a 25" RTC that came in from a store Monday that had him with a bunch of tiny feeder fish. I had to transport it 240 miles over about 8 hours, I do trips like this regularly so have gotten pretty good at it. I ran into the youtuber IFG there so you can see the fish at the time of pickup in this video


when I got home from the trip I discovered that 2 of the 3 remaining big gars had died, my big my 28" florida gar and one of my 24" shortnose gars had died in the 280g that I was using as a hospital tank because they had been in the 400g in my garage when it had a huge ammonia spike when I had a couple big fish die because of heater problems. This left my remaining 24" shortnose in very bad shape so I did a 80% water change and added stress coat along with the usual safe. I added the RTC to the tank and he was active but would occasionally flash so have been doing daily 50% water changes. On the 3rd day he cut his head open on the driftwood so I removed it. He seemed to be getting worse and yesterday I thought I might of seen some spots on his eye but he wouldn't come close enough to the glass for me to get a good look. After todays water change I noticed his left eye was a little cloudy and his right eye had noticeable spots so I kept an eye on the tank waiting for him to get close to the front glass and snapped the pics below. I think it is freshwater velvet because I have had to treat it before but with the RTC being sensitive to meds I wanted to ask the experts on recommendations on how to treat him.

So far I have started raising the temperature, currently 83, and turned off the lights. My thoughts were to raise the temperature to 86-87 and treat with aquarium salt and seachem paraguard. I am just unsure if RTC are actually sensitive to either. I have about 1/2 a gallon of paraguard left and I am picking up more salt in the morning. Also should I continue to add stress coat? The gar is still in with him and doing a lot better but is still looking a little rough but should make it.

 

[..puSkar..]

kno4te RD. Rocksor

 

[kno4te]

I’d reduce the temp to 78. Lights off. I’d leave the stress coat out since adding the salt. Wait it out and cross your fingers.

 

[thefredpit]

I’d reduce the temp to 78. Lights off. I’d leave the stress coat out since adding the salt. Wait it out and cross your fingers.

Why would you reduce the temperature? Don't you increase the temperature to speed up the life cycle of the velvet since the salt can only affect a small portion of its life cycle

 

[phreeflow]

If it’s a bad infestation and salt doesn’t do the trick, Hikari Ich-X or Kordon RidIch Plus have malachite green formulations that are safe to use with scaleless fish like RTC. You can also add Erythromycin or Kanaplex at the same time if you’re worried about the wound getting infected.

Do lots of water changes and clean out your filters to remove cysts

 

[thefredpit]

If it’s a bad infestation and salt doesn’t do the trick, Hikari Ich-X or Kordon RidIch Plus have malachite green formulations that are safe to use with scaleless fish like RTC. You can also add Erythromycin or Kanaplex at the same time if you’re worried about the wound getting infected.

Do lots of water changes and clean out your filters to remove cysts

what about copper sulfate

 

[kno4te]

Why would you reduce the temperature? Don't you increase the temperature to speed up the life cycle of the velvet since the salt can only affect a small portion of its life cycle

Prone to getting other infections and speeding up life cycle of the pathogen can stress out the fish. Since you already dosed the paragaurd then I’d suggest wait and see. Can go with malachite green or copper. Need to monitor copper levels.

 

[thefredpit]

Prone to getting other infections and speeding up life cycle of the pathogen can stress out the fish. Since you already dosed the paragaurd then I’d suggest wait and see. Can go with malachite green or copper. Need to monitor copper levels.

I had decided to wait to use paraguard until I got responses here

 

[kno4te]

I had decided to wait to use paraguard until I got responses here

Ok. Copper is most used compared to malachite green and paragaurd. If u use copper then get a copper kit to monitor levels. If you aren’t able to do the copper tests then malachite green formulations can work as P phreeflow has mentioned.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

I am certainly no expert. This resembles ich but it looks like the number of the parasites is too great to be counted, so you may be right about velvet. Velvet parasites are smaller than ich and usually more numerous.

From memory, the good news is that both are rather easily controlled by Malachite Green + formalin formulations, such as Rid Ich, Microbe Lift BSDT (broad spectrum disease treatment), etc.

IME, I have not found catfish to be more sensitive to medications than other types of fish, most certainly not the RTC. Same goes for salt. Others might have different experiences.

I never used copper meds. I have only read about them. Not a good position to advise from. I understand it is not easy to administer, hence the need to test for solutes containing copper. Copper is too easy to precipitate with a variety of other inorganics present in typical water. Copper cation forms water-insoluble salts with many common anions present in water. On the other hand, too much dissolved copper is exceedingly damaging to fish internal organs. Hence the need to monitor.

F fishdance