swim bladder infection !!!

[sayid]

DISEASE QUESTIONNAIRE


Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
The prefilter was blocked during the night and one fish ,a blue turq was stuck head down in the plant pot ,breathing the contaminated water .

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).
head standing.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
epsom salt, 1 TBS PER 10 gallon
Furan-2 1 packet per 10 gallon repeated total 4 dosage

Tank/Water
500 liter
4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
10 adult discus ,8 corys ,

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
50% 2 times per week

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
bare bottom ,running for 5 years , 5 small plant pots

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
no water aging ,water change from the tap , no ph swing .

8. Parameters and water source;
gh 2 , kh 0 , town water
Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp _30 c____

- ph _6.8____

- ammonia reading _0___

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading 5____

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water _x___

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.


10. Please tell us what you feed your fish and how often. This can be critical information for solving the problem so be as specific as you can.
beef heart in morning
tetra bits lunch
Australian FBW night
sera granules before bed


11. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.
About 3 month ago i came down in the morning and found that both of my filters stopped operating due to prefilters being blocked ,all the fish were distressed near the top of the water ,my 5 years old blue turq was head down in the plant pot breathing the foul water of the plant pot , i deblocked the prefilters ,50% w/changed , came back fro work ,all the fish were o.k apart from the blue turq.

He has been head standing and eventually kind of drift in water with no particular direction and some tome lies on the floor ,but he is still eating and has no other sign of any infection i.e he has clear eyes ,no pop eye or fluid buildup or any lump in the body ,

I have treated him with epsom salt and later with API furan -2 but not very much happened .
I know this is a difficult infection to treat but i can't get myself to put him down , i have metro ,minocycline ,nitrofurantoin available , has any body had experience with this problem ,please let me know .
thanks
Sayid

[sayid]

Any body there with any suggestion !!!!
I have got some minocycline which Al had suggested for internal bacterial infection on some other thread but i don't know the dosage , the other problem is that it is about 5 years out of date , but i really don't have any alternative as he lies more and more on the floor and things are not going to get better and i have to do some thing .
I appreciate any suggestion /recommendation from any body please .
Sayid

[brewmaster15]

Sayid, the minocycline should still be good if its been protected from the air...


what form is it in? and do you have soft or hard water... its not very effective if you have calcium in your water.

al

[sayid]

Thanks Al for getting back ,minocycline is in a tablet form , it is actually AKAMIN 50 which is 50 mg tablets and i have 12 tablets left from my wife prescription but i can get more if i need to ,i have a q tank which is 60 liter and i can fill up half , my water is very soft GH 2 drop and KH 0 so i think i should be o.k , the only other thing which i am not sure is dosage ,i have a feeling the dosage is 15 mg per gallon per day but not sure if i need to change any water and how often ,the tablets are relatively protected from air ( it is in an air tight little white plastic container ). i also have a mature sponge ready to go .
Thanks
Sayid

[DJW]

Sayid, has the fish been this way for 3 months without a change in it's condition?

[sayid]

yes DJW , it has been about that ,he is a big boy with big appetite and 4 or 5 years old ,i will start a 5 day course of minocycline tonight and see what happens .
cheers

[sayid]

Hi every one ;

Well after 6 day treatment with minocycline i transferred him to the display tank ,there was no improvement ,he was lying on the bottom and regretfully i had to put him to sleep , this afternoon i cut him open to see how bad was the swim bladder ,the swim bladder had collapsed and almost decomposed ,i smelled it but there was no foul or anerobic smell which surprised me perhaps the antibiotic had got rid of the infection but there was nothing left , i don't know but it was not an experience i like to go through again., this is for reference for other hobbyist if they come across swim bladder , in h insight i might have had more success if i had treated with minocycline immediately.
Sayid

[DJW]

Its good that you followed up with the results. My guess is that the swim bladder was irreversibly damaged by infection a few months ago.

[sayid]

Thanks Dan you could be right ,there was no way that swim bladder was functional the way it looked . Thanks for taking interest.