Is there any hope???

[happyniu]

:(i have one 4" leoper snake. it's been sick for almost 3 weeks now!! i put him/her on Maracyn and Maracyn 2. after 3 weeks of not eating... it is still alive. the symptom started with hiding and fins turn white. yesterday i saw the tail fin has fell off... it has become so skinny that you can see the head bone sticking out....the body still have some white stuff but not as much as last week.

is there anything that i can do???

i do water change every day at 40% and re-add medicine into the tank. it is also quarantined and has been for a week now. it is swimming upright but still not eating. should i give it food anyways???

thank you!!

[mikel]

You have been using good med for this, so I think you should just let it take its course. The white on the tail is indicative of fungus infection, but it could be a secondary symptom too. My first choice would not be the med, but a heavy salt dip. But now, I think you should just leave it alone and hope for the best. I still think you should just lighten up on the med gradually, and keep doing your 30-40% water change with conditioner (prime). Keep the water warm and clean and hope the fish will recover.

I am not an expert at disease for fish, but I always though it is best to let the fish recover on its own by giving it optimal living conditions.

Dont get discouraged by any momentary setback. If you only knew how many fancy goldfish, oscar and even silver arowanas I inadvertantly killed when I was a kid because I did not understand something as simple as the nitrogen cycle.....mike

[Kevin22]

for external infection the pimafix and melefix is very good.
your antibiotic won't treat Fungus. use both to treat him a week.
don't need antibiotic for 3 weeks anyway.
then raise temp and treat with Metro, fish not eating more likly with hex infection. it's ok to feed him with worms, but takes food out if he doesn't eat.
been too long like this and the fish is weak and skinny , it maybe too late to save him, even it back to life, it won't be a nice speiceman anymore.
Good luck. it's normal to kill a dsicus or two, don't feel bad. everything dies. but next time you should treat a sick fish eariler with right remedy.

after that
:(i have one 4" leoper snake. it's been sick for almost 3 weeks now!! i put him/her on Maracyn and Maracyn 2. after 3 weeks of not eating... it is still alive. the symptom started with hiding and fins turn white. yesterday i saw the tail fin has fell off... it has become so skinny that you can see the head bone sticking out....the body still have some white stuff but not as much as last week.

is there anything that i can do???

i do water change every day at 40% and re-add medicine into the tank. it is also quarantined and has been for a week now. it is swimming upright but still not eating. should i give it food anyways???

thank you!!

[bumblebee]

If this is your last one that survive, the humane way is to put it on your freezer, he sounds like suffering painfully. But don't give up on discus, keep up your water change. Read a lots of your sick discus, can you post some pictures on the recovered one, I'm sure a lots of us want to help.

Alex

[happyniu]

here's the picture of my sick leop-snake...

[Kevin22]

you wanna treat the fin rot first, surprised that the antibiotic didn't help.
test the water, almost sure there's ammonia there.
don't know if you have a sponge filter in there, if you do, change a large amount of water, add bottle bacteria, I use API stress Zyme. don't care what Mike says , works for me. after that use API's Melafix and Pimafix. once fin rot is gone, it's time to cure Hex, need Metro


here's the picture of my sick leop-snake...

[bumblebee]

He's not that bad, I would stop all the medicine now, make the temp to 92F, change water daily for couple of days, slowly introduce some CBW or frozen BW. hth

[Kevin22]

it won't work, sick fish won't eat just cause daily water changes.
It's a weak fish, got fin rot, cloudy eye, 90% sure got hex infection.
can live couple weeks without any proper treatment. raising temp too early just makes the bacteria infection more serious


He's not that bad, I would stop all the medicine now, make the temp to 92F, change water daily for couple of days, slowly introduce some CBW or frozen BW. hth

[happyniu]

i am very comfused..................:confused:

he is on Maracyn and Maracyn 2 right no. no sponge filter. regular filter only. it's a 10 gal quaratine tank. i change 50% every day and give full dose of meds. no ammonia either... water temp is 88..

[Kevin22]

try Pimafix and Melafix, one for bacteria, one for fungus.
as long as there's bio-filter, then fine.
temp sounds fine, water sounds fine.
weired, never used Maracyn before, supposed to clear the cloudy eye at least.
anyway, if you been dosing the antibiotic for 3 weeks, then it's no use.
Furan II's full treatment is only 4 days. time to try something else.
good to try some Blood worms even black worms see if he eats.
if you can't stop the fin rot, then I guess it's no use to treat hex, either.



i am very comfused..................:confused:

he is on Maracyn and Maracyn 2 right no. no sponge filter. regular filter only. it's a 10 gal quaratine tank. i change 50% every day and give full dose of meds. no ammonia either... water temp is 88..

[happyniu]

well... actually he don't have cloudy eye.. it's the outside of the tank and light reflection that caused the picture to appear that way. my dogs like to lick the tank...

[Kevin22]

try Pimafix and Melafix, one for bacteria, one for fungus.
as long as there's bio-filter, then fine.
temp sounds fine, water sounds fine.
weired, never used Maracyn before, supposed to clear the cloudy eye at least.
anyway, if you been dosing the antibiotic for 3 weeks, then it's no use.
Furan II's full treatment is only 4 days. time to try something else.
good to try some Blood worms even black worms see if he eats.
if you can't stop the fin rot, then I guess it's no use to treat hex, either.
I had one discus died before, nothing I could do. cloudy eye, didn't eat, kinda like this one.



i am very comfused..................:confused:

he is on Maracyn and Maracyn 2 right no. no sponge filter. regular filter only. it's a 10 gal quaratine tank. i change 50% every day and give full dose of meds. no ammonia either... water temp is 88..

[sophie68]

Hi there,

Sorry to disagree but Pimafix and Melafix won't do a thing in this case....IMO.
This fish is obviously very weak and seriously ill. If you have been using the two Maracyns for weeks, it's time to use a different antibiotic. It might be a good idea to switch to maybe Furan 2 which has always worked for me. I hope someone more expert than me can chime in. With Furan 2, make sure you have plenty of air in the tank. I have used Furan 2 for up to a week. But I do know for sure that Pimafix and Melafix won't cure serious problems like that!!!!!!
How is the fish right now? Post a very recent pic and describe ALL the symptoms, especially behavior/appearance/etc...
I hope someone will see your post!!!! You can put 1 table spoon of aquarium salt per 10 gallon in there. Always helps. Plenty of clean water always helps too. Hang in there.

Sophie

[Graham]

Thanks Sophie for posting that...the Fix's are junk!..........like putting a band-aid on open heart surgery, The have very minor bactericide properties.

The fish doesn't look all that bad. Yes it had a bacterial infection causing F&T rot but at this point the fin edges don't look red or inflamed and there is no fungus showing in the pics.

How do we know that this fish has hex...we don't as the fish hasn't been eating...

This fish is weak from not eating so nothing is going to happen fast....The Maracyn/Erythromycin would have helped in any external gram positive bacterial problems, but F&T rot is a gram negative bacterial....Flexibacter. The Maracyn 2/Minocycline which is well absorbed by the fish would have helped with any internal gram negative bacterial problems, but it would have help with the F&T rot.

Tetracycline would have been my med of choice here

At this point I would stop drowning the fish with meds and give it good water and see if it will eat blood worms, what ever.

G

[sophie68]

You're welcome Graham! Only trying to help!:)

Sophie

[happyniu]

thank you Graham.

so...... i should just leave it be at this point? how often should i change water? should i keep the water temp up to 90 still? how much water should i change every time? 30%, 40%? should i age the water? should put the carbon back in the tank filter??

thank you guys!!! for all your help and inputs~~

[Graham]

Hi I wouldn't worry about adding the the carbon back unless you want to remove any left over meds. To me 90* is high and at that temp O2 levels are lower, so I would drop it.

In a 10 gallon tank, 30% every couple of days should be sufficient but needless to say there should be no NH3 or NO2 readings. As to aging that really depends on what you've got coiming out of that and how much it changes...pH and temp should be stable.

G

[happyniu]

i just go home today and he's condition is worsened..........

should i go on other meds??

color is darker, fin is rotting now. (didn't be4) more body slim.....



:mad::mad::(:(

[Graham]

Hmmmm:confused: Have you got access to a microscope...I'm just guessing here but this may have been a primary parasite infection possibly costia or oodinium that resulted in some F&T rot .

At this point it's ''cure him or kill him''..........I don't think another antibiotic is the answer here. If it were me i think I'd try some QuickCure..... following bottle instructions. If the primary problem is a parasite this should make a difference.

Good luck
G

[happyniu]

Agreed 100%!! i am determined to cure him. even if he's not going to be the most beautiful fish in the tank but his my fish~~

Kenny called and told me to put him on QuickCure. so we start tomorrow~~~

finguers corssed~~~ wish me luck~~~~~~:D
i stay possibive~~ i have to stay possitive~~~

[Kevin22]

quick cure contains malachite green, formalin, a hush medicine for parasites.
might as well as just kill that poor fish with fin rot with a knife or sth.
we'll see.
"experts" should stop giving advice , including me. from my experience:
there's not once I took "expert" advice and cured a fish.
one way to suceed is read to find the cause and browse to find a safe and effective medicine. unless you have a true expert see the sick fish in person.

[Graham]

quick cure contains malachite green, formalin, a hush medicine for parasites.
might as well as just kill that poor fish with fin rot with a knife or sth.
we'll see.
"experts" should stop giving advice , including me. from my experience:
there's not once I took "expert" advice and cured a fish.
one way to suceed is read to find the cause and browse to find a safe and effective medicine. unless you have a true expert see the sick fish in person.



Kevin I'm not sure what experience you have, but I haven't seen much of it with some of the advice that you've given out.......I'm not sure what you meant by ''hush medicine'' but Formalin and Malachite Green in combination, is an excellent chemical compound for killing a wide range of parasites....it's a good shotgun chem. It is quite safe for the fish when used as directed on the package.

Any fish that is weak and has been bombarded with an assortment of drugs or chems is quite capable of succumbing to one more treatment and that may be the case here. That the treatment is F&MG isn't relevant.

Unfortunately when someone asks for advice on any of the fourms it's usually after that problem has been well established and they've just been dumping meds and chems at it trying to ''fix'' it. If they could have figured out what the actual problem was in the first place using microscopes and really good books and pics then they wouldn't need the advice...would they!

Then the symptoms that they list may apply to anyone of a number of pathogens, so it can be difficult to ID what's being presented.

When I give advice it's based on years (48) of keeping fish and having taken seminars, wet labs and short courses from Vets and researchers on fish health and husbandry.

Graham

[sophie68]

quick cure contains malachite green, formalin, a hush medicine for parasites.
might as well as just kill that poor fish with fin rot with a knife or sth.
we'll see.
"experts" should stop giving advice , including me. from my experience:
there's not once I took "expert" advice and cured a fish.
one way to suceed is read to find the cause and browse to find a safe and effective medicine. unless you have a true expert see the sick fish in person.

I have had discus WAY sicker than this poor leopard come back to full health....
Graham knows what he is talking about here....believe me....Fin rot is not such a big deal. It's nowhere near as bad as columnaris for instance. If it really does not work, then it's time to let the fish go. We are just trying to help!:) Happyniu is in EXCELLENT hands here. No need to worry!!!!!

Sophie

[Kindredspirit]

Kenny called and told me to put him on QuickCure.


I agree.:)

[happyniu]

:D:D every one's help is appraciated~~~ it's on quickcure now~

wish me luck~~~~~~~~~~~~

PS, no fighting~~:D:D

[KimR]

Good luck Happy, wishing everything works out for you.

[happyniu]

Thank you every one! i will update with pictures once there's some improvement!~~:D