When to stop heat & metro treatment after signs of improvement?

[ssevasta]

One of my fish has been battling a wide variety of illnesses over the past two months after a cross contamination incident. After curing the fish of its swim bladder infection/whirling disease and fin rot with grey slime coat patches with salt and lots of extreme twice daily water changes I noticed that the fish still wasn’t eating and it had started to lose its red color. At this point I suspected that the fish had hex because I had treated all of my tanks with levamisole a few weeks prior so I knew that round worms wasn’t the issue. However I was very afraid that any additional treatment would put the fish over the edge considering all of the meds and illnesses it has gone thru in the past two months. After a week of clean water with 100% daily water changes with two TBS salt per 10G I decided to myself that it had reached the point where the fish was definitely going to die without my intervention but I could learn from the experience and give it a chance by trying to treat the fish. I decided to raise the temp to 94F with 400mg metro & 2 TBS salt per 10 Gallons. After three days I saw the fish eat for the first time in over a month. The fish’s color, activity, and appetite have all been continuing to improve. Today I’m on day 6 of the salt/metro/heat treatment and all of the fish in the tank are eating like wolves. The only question I have is should I stay the course for a 15 day treatment or stop at 10?

[LizStreithorst]

Metro is a very safe med. I'd keep up treatment for 12 days and keep up the high heat for two days more.

[Filip]

Sorry to hear about your problems Sean .
I'm experiencing a 2 month battle with discus illnesses after cross contamination from a darn plant my self and I can relate with your hesitations every time you fell the need to medicate again.

I think that since Metro and the temperature has already achieved its goal there is no need to go for 15 days .
Given your situation , 10 will be enough IMO just for the purpose of running its full course and avoid any reoccurrence of resistant Spiro /hex protozoan.

Good luck Sean .

[ssevasta]

Thanks guys

[sanjay21]

Sean, as per Kenny he recommended me to continue the heat for the full 15 days. I personally did that and now have a healthy fish, even after stopping the treatment its good to keep the heat I think.
After 15 day treatment and adding the fish back to the community tank. I let the fish settle for 1 week and treated the full tank with De-wormer to be safe.

[ssevasta]

Sean, as per Kenny he recommended me to continue the heat for the full 15 days. I personally did that and now have a healthy fish, even after stopping the treatment its good to keep the heat I think.
After 15 day treatment and adding the fish back to the community tank. I let the fish settle for 1 week and treated the full tank with De-wormer to be safe.

I treated both of my tanks so that I wouldn’t run the risk of reinfection in the future and now all of my fish are “compatible”. In my tanks I have fish from Ton Tan, Stendker’s from Discus Hans, Goh Eng Khoon and the Lin Family from Discus R Us, and Walter Magin Farm L134’s from Discus N More. It’s a relief that everyone is compatible now. It’s a hell of a lot easier to just go with one supplier but unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that and get all the fish I wanted.

[sanjay21]

I treated both of my tanks so that I wouldn’t run the risk of reinfection in the future and now all of my fish are “compatible”. In my tanks I have fish from Ton Tan, Stendker’s from Discus Hans, Goh Eng Khoon and the Lin Family from Discus R Us, and Walter Magin Farm L134’s from Discus N More. It’s a relief that everyone is compatible now. It’s a hell of a lot easier to just go with one supplier but unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that and get all the fish I wanted.

Glad to hear that
I know how it goes, its hard to restrict yourself to one supplier. But damn ! you got quite some mix there !

[Filip]

You should consider your self a very lucky discus keeper Sean .
Discus from 5 different sources and still you are close to the end , overcoming the issues from cross contamination.

[ssevasta]

You should consider your self a very lucky discus keeper Sean .
Discus from 5 different sources and still you are close to the end , overcoming the issues from cross contamination.

Don’t get wrong, it’s been quite the struggle keeping the ship afloat and there’s been some losses along the way but I’m very happy with things the way they are now. I definitely got a crash course on medications and treatments for the spectrum of issues you can encounter when a discus’s immune system crashes. I wouldn’t recommend doing it this way to others because your mileage may vary lol

[LizStreithorst]

You got of easy, son. All you had to deal with were the usual suspects. Just wait until you are gifted with Discus Plague or Cryptobia.

[ssevasta]

You got of easy, son. All you had to deal with were the usual suspects. Just wait until you are gifted with Discus Plague or Cryptobia.

Honestly the psychological pressure caused by the fear of cryptobia & Discus Plague is just as deadly if not more so than either of those wretched afflictions. As much as I hate to admit it, most of the losses in the past two months occurred after using the wrong medication due to misdiagnosis under psychological duress. I’m a firm believer that I could have saved most if not all of them if I knew then what I know now.

[Filip]

Honestly the psychological pressure caused by the fear of cryptobia & Discus Plague is just as deadly if not more so than either of those wretched afflictions. As much as I hate to admit it, most of the losses in the past two months occurred after using the wrong medication due to misdiagnosis under psychological duress. I’m a firm believer that I could have saved most if not all of them if I knew then what I know now.

Sean , would you care to share a quick timeline of symthoms and treatments youve gone through and what you think you did wrong or right ?
Maybe we can all use and benefit from your bitter experience .

[ssevasta]

Sean , would you care to share a quick timeline of symthoms and treatments youve gone through and what you think you did wrong or right ?
Maybe we can all use and benefit from your bitter experience .

Filip, I wasn’t really writing things down or keeping much of a detailed record as things unfolded because I was on the edge of my seat trying to prevent a total loss scenario at a few points. At some point today or tomorrow I’ll take the time to provide you guys with a detailed timeline to the best of my memory and some of my key takeaways from the whole experience. It was a very humbling experience and in hindsight some of the mistakes I made along the way are embarrassing. However hopefully other forum members can get some valuable information in one thread that I had to gather from many sources and a miserable two months. On the bright side the fish look even better today than they did when I started the thread so I’m pretty sure I won’t have any more losses.