What is killing my Acarichthys Heckelii?

[JK47]

Oddball, I found the tetracycline today at a vet. Only one would prescribe it to me for $70 for 85 caps. I'm cool with that. I am treating the 125g right now and want to walk through exactly how I am doing this so you can tell me if anything sounds off or wrong?

1. Turned off my fx5, put sponges in bucket with tank water.
2. Did 50% WC. (added tank volume of Prime before refill)
3. Let tank sit for 20 mins with powerhead to mix, put sponges back in/turned on FX5.
4. Added 1 tblspn of dissolved aquarium salt per 20 gallons.
5. Disolved x6 500mg tetracycline pills in a cup of warm water. (500mg / 20gals) and added to the tank.
6. Turned up heater from 81 to 85 degrees.

Questions:

• Will using the tetracycline kill off my BB?
• Should I crack open the pills and take out the powder tetracycline? Disolving the pills didn't seem right.
• I continue to add 500mg / 20 gallons per day?
• Anything other than post treatment infections I should be worried about?
• You mentioned an orange color. After being disolved the tetracycline turned green in the cup, is that right?

 

[Oddball]

-You stated 'aquarium salt'. Do you mean pure sodium chloride usually bought in milk carton type containers or, do you mean marine salt mix? Hopefully, you're referring to the former since there are buffers in marine salt mixes.

-It's better to open the tetracycline capsules and pour the powder into a jar to be mixed with water before putting the med in the tank.

-My BB didn't seem affected by the meds. Several reports on the 'net claim BB will not be killed off by tetracycline.

-Antibiotic treatment is accomplished by maintaining a level of medication. Therefore, daily dosing is required to maintain effective medicinal levels.

-Post-treatment infections can be anything. So, keep an eye out for any abnormality. Pay particular attention to the upper dorsal areas of the cichlids. Bacterial infections often lead to destruction of fat reserve tissues. Once lost, they're lost forever and a specimen can still die weeks later from starvation simply from stress in waiting for regular feedings. The fish's back should be slightly convex. Flat or any concavity is a sure sign of loss of tissue. In the extreme form, the fish will appear to be humpbacked due to the tissue loss causing severe pitting or cupping in the upper anterior dorsum.

-You should have noticed the green color turning orange in your tank by now. By morning, it should be obvious. The green initial color is also normal.

 

[JK47]

- It's the sodium chloride from the milk style carton.
- Sorry I didn't catch that first time around on the 125g. I did break open the capsules before adding the disolved powder in the 220g per your advice.
- I think the green color came from the dissolved capsules themselves (yellow and black casing). I would not know if there was an orange tint (tannin fetish). I keep fresh DW in all my tanks so they are stained with tannins.

Below is tonight after a 50% WC and adding the tetracycline.


See the top of the caudal fin of this Satanoperca Mapiritensis, the red lines do not belong and are not normal coloration. I am adding these pics so I can benchmark where the progress is as I go along with the treatment. Day one:



This is how the caudal should look. Juvinile below in the same tank:


It will be almost impossible to tell if any of my other fish get early signs because they so much red. Same in the 220g. So I am treating all tanks.

 

[Oddball]

Note the redness at the base of the doral spines of the affected fish. That'll be your indication of affliction to the other cichlids that contain red in their fins. Also note that the fins take on a milky or moonstone appearance.

 

[JK47]

Todays loss 5" female Acarichthys Heckelii. I now have only one of the original group. She was in the QT 55g finishing it's treatment of maracyn II. Now only the male resides in that tank. This disease is such a terrible disease....



The 3 of the group of 5 Satanoperca Mapiritensis are now showing signs, flashing redness etc. The largest female from above pics last night is getting worse but are only on day two of the tetracycline treatment in the 125g so I'm trying to be hopeful.

 

[devder1]

this is horrible i feel for you

 

[JK47]

this is horrible i feel for you

Thanks dev. No losses today, it's a good feeling not to have anything die for a day. My last heckelii, the previous alpha male is a fighter. I won't get my hopes up, but he's hanging on. Chuck Norris of eartheaters...

 

[Carpet Man]

I have the female Chuck Norris of the eartheaters.

 

[JK47]

**WARNING** to anyone using tetracycline with a sump, be advised this stuff creates ALOT of foam. I heard my water alarm speaker going off tonight because the foam had gotten so thick, it clogged my mech pads and slowly started over flowing my sump into my stand.

The below pics are after I removed the mechanical pads and scraped off most of the foam.... You can see how thick it had gotten in the drip tray area.





Life saver right here, no sump owner should go without one.

 

[Carpet Man]

I have your back in case of a flood.


http://www.vimeo.com/10470821