SICK PAYARA NEED HELP ASAP

[gavigan1]

I need some desperate help. I have had 2 red tail tats for almost a year they are about 8-10in. The smaller got a large part of his tail fin bit off by another tank mate likely a alligator gar. Gar is gone. The payara stopped eating , appeared listless and developed fin rot. I treated him in a hospital tank for a week w maryoxyn, salt , 86 temp etc. unfortunately he died. I attributed it to his weakened state and the fin rot.

A couple weeks later my second payara has stopped eating as well, swimming pattern looks irregular, blank stare in his eyes. He has the same look the last one developed when he got real weak. I have been treating the entire tank w increasing temp to 85 and 1.5 lbs of salt 100 gallons. IT has not seemed to help in fact he looks worse. The tank is 265 gallons, I have been performing 100 gallon water changes every 5 days. Water parameters are perfect: PH 7.2, Amonina , nitrate, nitrite all 0. I also treated with a antifungal but now Antibiotics. I rarely feed live food since everytime I do I get some outbreak of parasite or disease in my tank. My UV bulb is flickering and I have ordered a new one. The payara reguarily eat shrimp. He shows no outward signs of infection or parasites. No new additions to the tank that would be likely to stress him out? I got rid of several tank mates that could possible be stressing either payara a few weeks ago. I know this is long winded but I want to provide as much info as possible

I dont know what to do. Im afraid to put him in the 30 gallon hospital tank it seemed to stress the last one more than it helped. It seems like some neurologic or wasting disease causing them to stop eating. Is this how scombs die? I know I am going to lose the second payara just as the first and feel like there is nothing I can do. I need some advice.

 

[gavigan1]

Several of my fish have exhibited these signs over the last 6 months. Come to think of it I have lost a few fish for unexplained reasons. Most recently my smallest arowana. I made a futile attempt to seperate and treat him. Upon death the only physical abnormality was a cloud over one eye. I did a amature autopsy in attempt to find parasite in gills and such to no avail. I cut and pasted this from another site. Does anyone have experience treating this?

Fish tuberculosis, wasting disease

• Causes Mycobacterium bacteria
• Symptoms There’s really no external sign for this kind. If your fish looks fine from the outside appearance and looks healthy, it will be hard to recognize if it is internally infected.
  Fish that are infected though may live a year or more. Skin lesions, emaciation, labored breathing, scale loss, frayed fins and loss of appetite are all signs of this infection. Unfortunately, by the time these symptoms are recognized, it is probably too late to save the fish.
• Treatment This bacteria are transmitted orally through raw infected fish flesh, detritus, and feces of the infected fish. They can also infect skin wounds and lesions.
  The best treatment is prevention. Try not to feed raw fish and shellfish to your saltwater fish. Antibiotics, including kanamycin, erythromycin, and streptomycin, can be used.
  If the saltwater aquarium is heavily infected with this type, it must be sterilized and the water should be discarded

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

How long has it been since it ate? I have a few red tails and they do not eat every day like they did when they were smaller. If you think that the fish has a bacterial infection like the TB or fin rot, I would go ahead and put it in the hospital tank and treat it with both maracyn and maracyn2 at the same time for 7-10 days. also have the temp around 82-84 and 1tbs per 5 gallons of salt. I have had to do this with many payara and all of the ones that were save able were saved with this method. Payara get infections easily and they tolerate antibiotics well. I would not offer any food for 2-3 days in the hospital tank. Then place 1-2 of your normal feeders or what ever in there and turn out the lights and come back later to see if it has ate or not. This is very important because you do not have to see the fish eat to know if it has or not. Cause it is in a tank by its self.-------------1 more thing i allways do a 25-50% water change on the hospital tank on the treatment days before treatment. ---------------------------And to let you know by adding the antibiotics into your main tank they will kill your bio-bacteria the same as the disease bacteria. So you need to check the ammonia and nitrite levels daily and be prepared to seed the tank and do water changes. I have lost alot of fish from ammonia spikes when I use to add antibiotics to my main tanks to treat infection.

 

[gavigan1]

After doing some research , I am fairly sure I have a TB out break in my tank. Euthanization of the fish is defenitly not an option based on the value of fish. Has anyone sucessfully treated fish afflicted with TB. What antibitics and dosing are most effective?

 

[Lupin]

After doing some research , I am fairly sure I have a TB out break in my tank. Euthanization of the fish is defenitly not an option based on the value of fish. Has anyone sucessfully treated fish afflicted with TB. What antibitics and dosing are most effective?

Gavigan, you have a choice between continuing treatments to no avail while more stocks get affected or end all of this to save you more bucks. I was into this situation myself before and made a heart wrenching decision to destroy all my stocks and start over. This is better than trying all means to keep killing the fish TB which are far more resistant to antibiotics than any strain of bacteria. There is no cure for fish TB, I'm sorry to say. Even if you dump a whole bottle of antibiotics in your efforts to destroy the TB, it'll only kill the fish more than the bacteria itself. It took me a few months before I suspected it couldn't be columnaris as it kept destroying my fish every few days with more acting listlessly and getting noticeably thin.