Sick Leopard Ctenopoma. Help needed and appreciated

[mronan]

Seriously stressed fellow here. My 6+ yr old Leopard Ctenopoma is sick. I live in a ny apt where temp fluctuates as does the temp of my 55 gallon freshwater tank. Started about 1 week ago with white spots on head region and decreased appetite. I checked water and all was fine. Except fish tank temp around 86 due to apt temp. I initially thought ick. I may have been overzealous but i immediately got meds, super ick out i believe. I did water change before, took out filters and medicated with ick out as instructed. No improvement. I then noticed spots on face, around mouth, eyes that made me think hole in head. I immediately got antibiotics as a reflex mechanism, stupid maybe i know. I dosed with emycin and triple sulfa , continued ick med. Overkill , I know. I followed the instructions with water changes etc but he is not eating, just chills in his cave. To my dismay his fins have begun to fray and the base of his fins appear red. Also initially his eyes were cloudy, they have improved a bit but are still cloudy. here are pics Thanks for any help

 

[mshill90]

If his fins are showing red, it could be something bacterial, as blood in fins is septicemia.. You need Bi-Furan, or Furan 2 to treat that.

Bifuran is a mixture of Nitrofurazone (80%) and Furazolidone (20%). Bifuran possesses bacteriostatic, bacteriocidal and antimicrobial properties useful for treating and controlling bacterial and sporozonoan diseases. It is indicated for the control of Aeromonas spp.,Vibrio spp., and other bacterial pathogens. Bifuran treats external diseases AND internal (systemic) diseases. It can be used as a bath (or dip), a total pond/tank treatment or it can be given orally. It is very effective for controlling ulcers, fin rot, mouth rot and tail rot. Bifuran is a very effective total treatment.

I buy the pond size, as it's the same thing cheaper, you just need to calculate the dosage for a tank.

Hope that helps!

 

[mronan]

come on guys, i know its Friday night. Throw me some suggestions, this is a 6.5 inch leopard ive transported 4 times, including a chicago to ny move. Any help , and i mean any, is helping. dont want to bury this boy.

 

[mronan]

thanks

 

[mronan]

Should I attempt to lower the temp of tank, or would that cause unneeeded stress. I wonder if it started as ick, then with a weakened immune system he developed multipathogenic infections. What's your differential diagnosis of the lesions on his head and face? What is eating at me is i got 3 other big fish in tank as im typing and they are active and symptom free. Funny how

 

[mshill90]

It honestly doesn't look like ich at all. And it doesn't look like HITH. If you didn't try the bi furan yet, you could also think about maybe doing water changes until all meds are out of the water, and then using some solar salt..

Solar Salt (found at lowe's) is the SAME thing as aquarium salt.. It's in a blue bag by the water softeners.

It's a cup per 100 gallons. So see how much you need, and gradually add it. It looks like what in the koi hobby is known as Karp Pox-- but yours seems a little more white.

If you could net him, and get a pic of it with the fish out of water, that might help.