Sick eruption, head standing, pop eye, heavy breathing

[sayid]

Hi Brendan;
I just saw your thread,eruptions are notorious for swim bladder problems ,i probably have lost 12 eruptions with this, in 2 of the cases i used minocycline on the advice of AL and it worked ,but swim bladder problem will take time in my case some time month or more . Minocycline is a close family of tetracycline ,my advice would be to do the full course of tetracycline and just clean water after that,you can reduce the height of the water in your hospital tank to reduce the pressure on the swim bladder . i am in Melbourne and i can help you with the medication if you ever need any .goodluck

[jeep]

He's been this way for awhile so it'll take some time to get better. The fact that he's come this far is proves he's a fighter. Tetracycline is I think a 4-6 day treatment depending on the brand and strength. I'm not sure about re-dosing but I'll look in to it

[BrendanJ23]

Thanks for the insight guys. I’m quietly confident but I figured it would take weeks possibly longer to get back to full health, if he does at all. I’ll keep this thread posted

[jeep]

I can't really see anything specifically about redosing, but I would wait at least 5-6 days if you do. Here's some general articles about tetracycline and other antibiotics you may find helpful.

http://shellfish.ifas.ufl.edu/wp-con...quaculture.pdf

https://www.thesprucepets.com/tetracycline-1379928

[BrendanJ23]

Thanks Brian, appreciated. I did come across the spruce pets article the other day. It has some surprisingly good content that seems accurate.

At the moment he is just in clean water, but has reverted back to head standing the majority of the time. I've dosed some Epsom salts this morning just in case there in a blockage somewhere. I'll do a WC in a few hours from now back to clean water and continue from there. I really don't know what else to do at this point.

[BrendanJ23]

Update: So this morning I made the decision to euthanise the fish. I was out of options and had just about tried everything. He had been sick for a number of weeks/months and it was a real rollercoaster for me, he would seem like he was getting better and then would get worse again. This fluctuated quite a bit and I couldn't get any real consistency. I spoke with my partner about it and decided he had been in pain for long enough and we had done everything within our power to try to make him better again.
I've learnt a lot along this journey and I think probably the most valuable thing I have learnt is to try and pick up on sickness as soon as possible, and treat as soon as possible. Thanks to everyone for all their input and advice.

I did have one remaining question that I haven't been able to find an answer to yet - are there certain types or strains of discus that are more delicate or predisposed to illness as opposed to others? The reason I ask is that someone commented saying that they have lost 12 Penang Eruptions as seperate times to illness and believed that to be true. Yes it is hard because there are so many variables and thats only one persons experience.

[jeep]

Well, you certainly did everything you could. I went through the same battles years ago with head standing and had the same results. A little improvement here and there followed by complete relapse. The one think I did conclude is that swim bladder issues usually begin long before they become evident, and by then it's too late.

To answer your question, unfortunately I've heard Eruptions are one of the more delicate strains. When I was working with them some time ago, I think I was lucky enough to acquire some genetically strong LSS's with excellent spotting and never had any issues with them or their offspring. More recently, I haven't been so lucky and have had them drop like flies. Depending on the breeder, many Eruptions are fed hormones very early on in order to bring out the red spotting and separate the higher "quality" for a higher price, but this can also cause organ damage down the road. Al has told me several times that he avoids LSS's for these reasons.

[danotaylor]

You fought the good fight mate. Sorry for your lost. Bugger

[BrendanJ23]

Thanks Brian, interesting about the eruptions/LSS. I’ve been just about pulling my hair out as my other eruption has just gone into hospital. Not headstanding or anything major yet, but I feel I’ve got onto treatment early. Yet in the same tank, two red maps and a mongrel yellow PB eat like pigs and strut around the tank like they own the place. I guess I might end up with a tank of just red maps lol. While we’re at it, any other delicate strains I should know of?

[jeep]

Not that I'm aware of, but I only returned to the hobby less than 2 years ago. A lot of things have changed.