Expanding open sore

[ProbablyScotty]

Hello there.

Been browsing your lovely forums for a while but now I have a problem that I thought was a one off when it happened a year ago, but now a fish from different stock appears to be suffering the same. Any help identifying it would be appreciated, at the moment I'm going on it being bacterial, but I don't know how quickly after adding Interpet no 9 and salt I should see an improvement.

Hoping someone knows what it is, thank you.

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?
4 days ago a small wound like a picked off scale appeared, it’s steadily grown since then to the stage it is now.

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).
Only symptom is the wound. Edges are raised and swollen, slightly larger than yesterday. Fish is still eating, fins still raised, colour good, still comes to feed by hand. Lost an adult discus to the same thing nearly a year ago, it stretched up in a band to cover the whole side of the fish and bridged over the top before it got too much for her.

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.
Added Interpet no. 9 (10 ml per 100l) and Ektozon (10g per 100l) yesterday,


Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
640 litre aquarium, 2 metres long, 60 cm tall, 47-60 cm deep (bow front), 17 discus from 7 cm to 16cm (will be less as they grow to adult size). 14 glass bloodfin tetra, some corydoras, 5 kubotai botia. All fish been happy in there for over 4 months, some for over a year.

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
40% every 2 to 3 days, FX6 filter fitted.

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Over a year with 2 mil gravel substrate. Planted, substrate approx 5cm deep

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
I don’t age it.

8. Parameters and water source;
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 _____ 29c

- ph _____ 6.5

- ammonia reading ____ 0

- nitrite reading ____ 0

- nitrate reading ____ 25

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 ____ 100% (however, this is Sweden and the water is very different from anywhere else I’ve lived.)

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
Aponogeton longiplumosus and aponogetum boivianus 5 weeks ago.

10. 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.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/15673894@N00/9546454726/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/15673894@N00/9543666785/

[lipadj46]

Yikes that looks bad. I would use furan-2 or kanamyacin or maybe both if it keeps getting worse. After they are cured I would increase the volume of your water changes and maybe up your overall maintenance as your nitrates are high for the water changes you are doing.

sent from an undisclosed location using morse code

[Keith Perkins]

What I would do here is to get hold of some iodine or H2O2 and some q tips/cotton buds, get everything ready before hand, you will need the iodine/H2O2, a damp towel, some kitchen paper and the q tips. Net the fish and place on the towel, gently dab the area with the kitchen paper, then apply the iodine/H2O2 with the q tip. The q tip needs to be wet but not dripping with the med. Leave after applying at least 20 seconds before returning the fish to the tank. The whole process can easily be completed in a minute, but take your time and don't rush - the fish will be fine for a few minutes out of water. Don't get any in the fishes eyes or gills.

[ProbablyScotty]

High nitrates are cos I was a couple of days behind on water change, purely because a pair of my pigeon bloods had decided to lay eggs and. of course, the best place in the world to lay them was the top of the intake pipe. Wasn't high enough for me to worry about before they'd finished with the eggs though. ;-)

I shall try the Hydrogen Peroxide, in addition to the Interpet no 9, thanks. Medication is one thing that's not so easy over here. I've brought some back from the U.K. with me, but a lot of the stuff talked about on here just isn't readily available.

[lipadj46]

I've also taken out fish wiped the area with iodine then spread neosporin on the wound. It stays on for a surprisingly long time under water.

sent from an undisclosed location using morse code

[ProbablyScotty]

Neosporin isn't available here either. :(

Treated him with hydrogen peroxide and he's currently sulking at me, fingers crossed it stops the spread. Strangely enough the H2O2 was left over from the last fish with the problem, but I got to that far too late and knew very little about Discus then. It was one of two I "inherited" from elsewhere. Then the bug got me and the survivor now has many friends and is one of the breeding pair.

If the H2O2 doesn't stop it, I guess I'll have to try and find a fish friendly vet.

Thanks fellas.