Early Signs of Disease from new pet store fish

[PK Tester]

Hey everyone, I just recently got 2 new female guppies from a new pet store in town, and they are both pregnant. They have these smooth looking white markes on their fins and one has a smooth mark on her back.

When I first started keeping fish, I always thought this was a sign of a fungus, but now I believe it may be some sort of bacteria. I was planning on feeding medicated food.

This is NOT ICH by at all, they aren't really bumps, just white marks on the fish. I know that guppies die of this and relatively quick, everytime I see this, I generaly lose the guppy.

I have them in a quarntee tank...Which I put some gravel in from my big 40 gallon tank...I know the water paramters are fine.

Is medicated food the best option? I do NOT want these fish to become steril :-/

I read this on a couple disease websites:

Feed medicated food containing oxytetracycline, tetracycline or kanamycin.

So I plan to find a food with one of those in it

Please, if you have any other ideas or advice on what to do, please post here.

P.S. The spots are honestly too hard to get a good picture of.

 

[An t-iasg]

You could use Kanaplex from Seachem in the water, since it's a QT tank, but you would have to do daily water changes and add more medicine back in for what you removed.

If you want to try medicated food, you could try Jungle Labs Anti-Bacterial food. My fish have eaten this food. None of my fish ever ate the Jungle Anti-Parasite food.

Or you could get kanamycin and soak some food in it. I have done this with the Seachem Kanaplex med. I put a few tablespoons of tank water in a plastic cup, added some Kanaplex powder, and soaked some freeze-dried bloodworms in the medicated water for about 10-15 minutes, then fed to the fish. It's hard to say how much kanamycin powder to mix in. I never measured the amount that I took out to see what the measurement was. I just opened the little jar and used about half the measuring spoon. My fish did eat the food medicated this way.

 

[PK Tester]

An , thank you so much for your advice...Im heading to the pet store now to see if i can find some stuff for this nasty disease... Wish me luck!

Edit:

ugh...my pet stores in town SUCK!

I ended up buying some pimafix, which says it treats fungus and external bacteria infections.

I have had a lot of luck with Melafix, and this Pimafix from the same compnay...I hope it works!

 

[An t-iasg]

I hope it works for you too! I know you have said you've seen this before on guppies and that it results in death, so if Pimafix works, it's something that is readily available and easy to keep on hand.

 

[PK Tester]

ahh welll...With a close look today, whatever it is...seems to be spreading...It hasn't spread MUCH at all yet...Im noticing a couple more spots...

Now...maybe I can attempt to describe this better and hopefully get a better idea of what this disease could be, before I lose these fish.

At first, whatever it is seemed to slow down with addition of the Pimafix and Melafix. This stuff is NOT fluffy or stringy, it looks very flat, as in it doesn't even raise up the scale or anything...

its white/milky color...it is found on the fin and body.

When I saw the disease before, the spots that turned white, would eventualy become a hole in the fish's fin. Once the disease hit the point of creating holes, the fish seemed to die, very quickly.

I added some aquarium salt last night, 1tbs per 5 gallons, so a total of 2 tbs. Salt never seemed to do much before, maybe prolong the life on the fish.

Now, the main question I have is this...

Does maracyn or maracyn 2 contain any good anti-botics that may help combating this? I have it ruled down to either its a fungus or a bacteria infection...Atleast, I do not know what else it could be!

Every Fancy guppy I have bought in this town...has either
1. came from the pet store with this disease, and I didn't noticted (Like the two I have now)
2. I was a newbie, and had bad tank water quality and the disease formed...I THINK I may have managed to cure this disease one time...with an antibotic I dropped into the water.

I was going to surf through some more fish disease websites and see if I could find anything more like this...

At one time someone told me they thought these could be ammonia burns, but...I'm almost postive they are not...there is no ammonia in the tank...I doubt the pet store had much ammonia in their tanks....

hmm...I think that I will change some water tonight too, and hope that something helps here.

 

[An t-iasg]

Here are two sites I found: (I did a search for columnaris - it's a bacterial infection)

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_10950-27387--,00.html
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/columnaris.htm

The first link seems to be game-fish related but it had a good descriptive paragraph. The second link is about aquarium fish. Both sites recommend a med called Tarramycin. I've never heard of this med. Do you know a veterinarian? You may try to find this med at a vet's office.

I would try Maracyn 1 and 2 together - give them at the same time. If you do find the Terramycin, you can always do a water change and use it. Both articles also say the Terramycin may be fed to the fish.

 

[PK Tester]

Here are two sites I found: (I did a search for columnaris - it's a bacterial infection)

http://www.michigan.gov/dnr/0,1607,7-153-10364_10950-27387--,00.html
http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/disease/p/columnaris.htm

The first link seems to be game-fish related but it had a good descriptive paragraph. The second link is about aquarium fish. Both sites recommend a med called Tarramycin. I've never heard of this med. Do you know a veterinarian? You may try to find this med at a vet's office.

I would try Maracyn 1 and 2 together - give them at the same time. If you do find the Terramycin, you can always do a water change and use it. Both articles also say the Terramycin may be fed to the fish.

Thanks again An, I bought both Maracyn 1 and 2, but I was wondering should I do a water change to remove some of the pimaflex and melaflex?

I was considering doing a water change anyhow...to make sure that the water will stay good for the next 5 days of dosing here.

Since im going to do a water change, and then do these 2 anti-botics, should I continue use of the pimaflix and melafix?

Thank you so much for all of your advice!

Oh and as far as taramycin, I could only find it online and I had a feeling it would be way too late...its rather cheap even...but the maracy and maracyn II claim they will treat coulnaris...which is what I suspect it to be too, but to be honest im not 100% sure what the damn disease is :-/ . I was going to try and post a picture, because I'm sure ill run into this disease in the future.

I really hope these antibiotics, do not make my fish sterile :-/

 

[An t-iasg]

Yes, a water change is a good idea, especially when fish are sick. Nice clean water can ease the stress on sick fish. Just be sure to match temperatures and pH. You could fill some water jugs now (I use empty bottled-water gallon jugs) to make sure they are well-aged as you need them. My tap pH changes a bit with aging, or sitting out for about 12 hours.

I would not use Melafix and Pimafix along with the Maracyn 1 and 2. I would just use the Maracyn 1 and 2. The directions on one of the boxes will tell you how to use them together. I think the duration of treatment is 5 days. After 5 days, you can also do a second course of treatment for 5 days. You may need to in your case, so be prepared for that. Do a water change in between treatments.

I think that using Melafix and Pimafix with the Maracyns will be stressful for the fish, and I think the Maracyns will wipe out the disease better too.

 

[PK Tester]

Thanks again An, I added them both tonight...I really hope this works...I read in the directions that mardel claims you can use these 2 antibotics with maracide...and maracide is mainly for parasites, so if worse comes to worse, I can attempt to dose with that also, but i don't like it, as it is that dumb melachie blue stuff, which causes cancer in humans and what not...so that will be my LAST resort.

I really hope these mardel products kick this...These fish were only 3 dollars a piece...and look at me...spending $20 to save them haha...I hate seeing fish die :-/

Oh and I remember now...this is why I gave up on fancy guppies the first time around...The fish stores around here are terrible about getting quality fish...there all sick at the damn pet store :-/

**Edit:
Woah...The fish are eating little pieces of the anti-botics that are floating around in the tank...Is that uhm...normal? Lol.

 

[PK Tester]

Ugh...the stuff spread a little more today...even with the anti-botics...AND GUESS WHAT I SAW TODAY!

ICH!!

The one fish, who is not doing the best, is the one with ICH...

Im going to do a combination treatment...of Salt, which is already in the tank, heat, and maracide...THe maracide will help kill this damn fungus...which now I think it may be a fungus...I honestly and kinda like guessing here as to what this may or may not be...no medications seem to be stopping it from spreading.

apon further inspection of the maracide bottle, it acctualy doesn't treat fungus...its the one antibiotic the claims to treat body fungus...

Now if this was REALLY a fungus wouldn't it not be flat? and it would be like...cotton like?

I mean this stuff is FLAT...

As far as medicine...I MAY go get some Maroxy if this stuff looks like is spread at all tomorrow...

I really doubt this is a fungus though...it is so flat...

Ill stick to the mardel line wich says all of this can be used together.

**EDIT:

Even though a new spot of this fungus/Bacteria appeared on one of the fish...The tail of that fish has cleared up...Maybe this is a bacteria infection...but we do now have the ICH to deal with.

I have had great succues with maracide before, and it never killed anyone...so hopefully it works...I plan to slowly rase the heat of these next two days too..

Tomorrow Im going to run another water quality test...this meds could be screwing with the water.

Should I consider the maroxy, or wait and see? As I said if I think it spread anymore...I may just go buy it...I never used maraoxy before and maybe that is why I have lost guppies to this same disease before!

 

[An t-iasg]

I'm sorry to hear this. Raise the heat to treat the ich but try to adjust the filter so that the water "splashes" and agitates in the tank. The agitation will help to put more oxygen in the water. Warmer water holds less oxygen. Keep using the salt, which would help the ich and may help the gills function in times of stress.

I don't know what to think about the Maroxy...I had a lfs guy once tell me it wasn't any better than just adding untreated tap water to the tank since it is chlorine oxides. But it could work for your case - if nothing seems to work, and you can find it, go ahead. With all these meds, and heat, you'll have to watch the fish for signs of stress.

I don't think Maracide would be of too much help, unless you think these flat spots are some kind of worm? Good luck - I hope you can find a combination that works.

My fish have always nibbled at the Maracyn 1 or 2 pill as I dropped it in. I could never figure out how to stop them from doing that!