Red fines, scalare.

[Raven_]

Hello.
Noticed 2 days ago that the base of the left fin was red.
Yeasterday it had turned to a less bright red but the upper and lower fin sticks together alittle and goes on a pink-red colour and so does the tailfine.
Today i cant se any changes in colour but the behaviour of the fish have changed, it stands in the upper left front corner where the water does not move much so not doing well.

A friend of mine mentioned it could be bacteria and recommended the use of esha2000, good or bad idea ?
Does esha2000 mess around with the biological filtration ?

Could a high concentration saltwater bath do any good ?
Or is it just better to use salt directly in the aquarium ?

Im having some issues with the mechanical filtraton of the water im working on so have alot of particles floating around, could that have a negative impact on the fish ?

None of the other fishes shows any symptom, silversharks, 2 small(3cm bodylength) scalare, clown loaches, black ghost and a synodontis eupterus.
The sick scalare is roughly 1years old and well fed.
The water is changed every tenth day, around 35-40%.

Regards
Raven_

 

[Nick660]

eSHa2000 is usually a very safe med to use. Certainly worth a try. It doesn't affect beneficial bacteria either.

If it's just the one fish it would make things simpler if you could move it to a hospital tank for treatment on its own.

Good luck.

Edit:
Just check on the eSHa2000 bottle to make sure it isn't dangerous for mormyrids.

 

[guppy]

I agree that quarantining during treatment would help, This sounds like an early case of hemmorrahagic septicemia caused by a bacterial infection. I have not used the med you mentioned but Oxytertacycline or Binox work well as does a combination of Maracin and Maracin 2.

 

[Raven_]

The fish have been in quaranty for a couple of days in water with methyleneblue and these pictures are taken around an hour ago.

Hemorrhagic Septicemia does not fit the behaviour of the fish according to this page, the fish is as active as it can be in the small space its in and it clearly shows it can se and react of what happens above it and acts on it as it have done before when it was healthy in the aquarium.
http://www.geocities.com/shtinkythefish/diseases/septicemia.htm

 

[guppy]

The only other thing that I can think of is Philometra sanguinea (bloodworms), no treatment but not contagious in tanks due to life cycle. If that is what it is these nematodes should be visible as seperate entities with a magnifying glass.

 

[Raven_]

The fish have gone to the porcelainheaven but thanks for trying.
Changed water yeasterday and the fish seemed to be doing better and was curious but today i found it on the bottom dead.

Didnt look closely but did not saw any visible wounds.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I would say your fish definately has septicemia, the info in the link you gave is not entirely correct.

The best thing to do is to treat the tank with an anti bacterial med, but methyleneblue does kill of the beneficial bacteria in filters, and septicemia can be easily brought about by stressful water quality conditions, so the first thing you should do is test the water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph and post the results back here.

Do not use salt- all of your fish which you have listed have a low tolerance of salt and it will do more harm to your fish than good. To understand the effect salt has on freshwater fish, see here;

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=86298


The best thing you can do to treat septicemia is to do regular small water changes (like around 25%) once every other day (but make sure the water you are putting back into the tank is properly dechlorinated and as close to the temp of the tank as posible) and to treat the tank with an anti internal bacterial med.

 

[Raven_]

...water for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and ph...

ph 6.8-7.2
ammonia and nitrits are both low and nitrates below 15ppm.

Have not done anything with the aquarium or the other fishes and no fish show any sign as far as i know of being sick.