Using Kanamycin powder

[Aquanero]

Move the fish to a temp tank. Drain the tank let it dry a few days, fill it, nuke it with peroxide or potassium permanganate. Drain it again let it sit a few more days refill it and recycle it with new midia. Mean while treat fish in separate tank once tank is cycled replace fish a couple at a time so you don't overwhelm the new bb. This should do but a big pita I know.

 

[spiff44]

Yeah, I was realizing for a while that that might be my only alternative. I was thinking of a bottle or two of ammonia though... and then let it dissipate naturally. That would sterilize everything too and its cheap. But doing it would be a huge ordeal. I'm going to give this medicated food a chance first.

So much for the small schooling fish community tank idea. Putting so many tiny fish in one tank.. the odds are not in your favor for this to not happen.

 

[spiff44]

Here are some pictures.. sorry they're blurry.. but you can see the large white patches... new ones starting on my pearsei's... some of those rainbow fish have had the same lesion for a year[

 

[spiff44]

Beyond normal treatment, I have been dosing tanks with hydrogen peroxide to reduce/oxidize ubiquitous bacterial populations of bacteria in my tanks, I had read some aquaculture research where its addition was helpful.
Not on peroxide but about flex
http://www.thekoikeepers.com/koihealth/dreadedflexi.html

Thanks Duanes... that was the best article I have seen on columnairis...

it was also great to read that tetracycline is useful for this... this is readily available compared to kanamycin..

 

[spiff44]

Whelp... just bought 5grams of Kanamycin sulfate powder.. when it arrives I'll pick up the rest of the ingredients at the grocery store for making some medicated food. Lactobacillus acidophilus is available on the shelf in the vitamins... I'll be adding both to this suggested recipe:

1 pack unflavored gelatine
sardines
1 jar babyfood peas

I'm hoping the double whammy application of probiotics that I plan on feeding every other time will do the trick. I might even make it a triple play by using tetracycaline too.

 

[DMD123]

Thanks DMD... so did it work on your fish.. getting rid of the Columnaris or whatever you was using it for?

I have been using it for week now.. so its hard to tell if its doing anything yet or not. I'm guessing this will be a long term application.. probably a month of feeding them dosed food to make a difference. I'm using a lot of garlic too.

I had acquired a beautiful regani for free that the owner thought might have had a lip lock issue with another tankmate. I soon realize it is not feeding and has duck lips starting up. I started up the feeding of meds and the fish healed up nice.

You can see the mouth stuck open


Also had white stringy poo


Basically from what Ive seen, once the mouth sticks open and fish stops eating its usually is done for. This fish was likely going to die and the meds worked.

This is what I used to force feed the fish the meds. A simple baby medicine syringe and a piece of soft silicone air tube.

 

[spiff44]

I'm glad that worked for you. That is a cool looking fish.

Luckily all my fish still eat. If they stopped, there wouldn't be much I can do about it as its pretty much impossible to catch a single fish if you had to. I have live traps but success on catching one specific individual ranges from days.. to months to never. So I'm holding high hopes now on the medicated food regimen. Having diseased fish has been sapping a lot of my enjoyment of the tank.

For a Pearsei update.. these guys are just about a foot now. Any slight aggressiveness they showed toward each other during feeding stopped months ago. They really are total buddy's.. always together.. its pretty cool. It makes me want to get more. The only new acquisitions since those two were 3 chocolate cichlids that are now about 4inches.. they also seem to get along with everything.

How is that Regani's disposition compared to the Pearsei's? If/when I nip this disease issue I want to start getting more cichlids... for now I have green and gold severams and some rams on my radar.

 

[DMD123]

I'm glad that worked for you. That is a cool looking fish.

Thanks, he was worth the effort.

How is that Regani's disposition compared to the Pearsei's?

Ive had him for almost a year now and most of the times plays well with others but recently had a shift in power when my pearsei hurt herself and he took control. He was also going through a springtime wanting to mate thing so he tried to cuddle up to my pearsei who just hid in a corner for about a week. Now the pearsei has healed up from her scrape against driftwood and power is back in her hands so the tank is calm again. The regani is about a foot long and the pearsei is about 14" but when he was in charge he did chase the smaller fish a bit. Granted Im only dealing with a 210g so it can get a bit tight at times. The cichlids I have are H. Pearsei x1, P. regani x1, P. heterospilus x1, Red Bay Snook x1 and overall they get along great.

 

[spiff44]

I'm hoping to keep a calm tank too. Right now the only aggressive behavior in the tank is between my kissing gourami.. they seem to like sparing with each other, but they never come close to doing damage.

Concerns of the smaller fish being eaten has so far been unfounded. Its cool to watch groups of tiny Xray and Torchlight tetras mingling in close proximity to the Pearsei's that are about a 1000X's their size with no fear. They just barely get out of the way when one decides to cruise through their group. I just hope that the chocolates will be like that too when they get big.

 

[DMD123]

Its cool to watch groups of tiny Xray and Torchlight tetras mingling in close proximity to the Pearsei's that are about a 1000X's their size with no fear. They just barely get out of the way when one decides to cruise through their group. I just hope that the chocolates will be like that too when they get big.

That is one of my favorite things about pearsei, they are really easy going with little fish. I have two Australian rainbows with my Oscar who is now a bit over 11" and he has shown no interest in eating them. Hope I can add a few more with no issue but we will see. Love the look of the little fish and giants together in the same tank.