Sick fish, still can't find a solution after trying two medications. Any help?!?

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coolfishguy12

Aquarium Advice Regular
Joined
Nov 11, 2014
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My German Blue Ram has had a cloudy eye and protruding white mass for some time now (see pictures). Two weeks ago I posted asking for help on the issue and decided to treat with herbal tonics (pimafix and melafix by API). After the recommended dosing I saw no change so I purchased some erythomycin antibiotic. The pictures below are from today after a full treatment of erythomycin, as you can see I still see no change. During this time I lost a female German blue ram to what I believe was dropsy, although the male doesn't show any signs of this.

Id really like to keep him but really don't know where to turn. The water parameters have been 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrite, and normal levels of nitrates between water changes (10-30ppm). I've got him as well as two Amano shrimp in a 10 gallon tank. We moved three months ago and I think the issues have stemmed from stress caused by the move.

Any help or suggestions for treatment would be appreciated!!!!!

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He has had bumps before that went away but nothing this large, also not sure about his cloudy eye. I'm assuming it's bacterial because of the fish I lost to dropsy last week.


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There were two white bumps near his mouth at one point but they subsided. I think I'm going to try Kanaplex for the eyes but if that doesn't work I don't know where to turn.


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Could be a type of parasite that's working its way through its body, literally. Have you tried anybody strong parasitic meds?
 
Haven't tried any parasitic meds, my original research on the white bumps on his mouth lead me to believe they were benign cysts. The bumps on his body are bigger and as you can see in the photo it looks like they're causing his scales to pop out.

Any recommendations on parasitic meds?


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I would suggest a gram negative anitbiotic if the gram positive antibiotic failed. They say its usually caused by strepocaccus, but ovbiously they were wrong.
IF hes worth the money to you, i don't know how much these fish cost, maybe just euthanize him and buy anohter one... that lesion on his side looks pretty bad, he may not make it
I use terramycin, its a good Strong/cheap and safe Gram + and - antibiotic. you can order it at kensfish.com under medicated feed.
 
Yeah you used a gram positive antibiotic. Those tumours look pretty bad. they could disappear on their own but yeah definitely treat for parasites and bacteria for the eye and internally. Broad spectrum. Kanaplex is a good choice as it gets inside the fish. Like I tell everyone though. If you come furan 2 and kanaplex you get a much better result.

And like i've said on so many posts. Try tetra parasite guard for the parasite side of it. It's amazing stuff.
 
Ok, I've been doing partial water changes every day until the Kanaplex arrived. It came in the mail yesterday, so I added the first dose last night.
 
Cool, use it for longer than the container says. It won't get parasites though. Put some salt in the water 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon and do 30 sec salt dips in sea water (actual seawater) to frizZle external parasites off the fish as it they are common especially in fish with low immune systems which it will have now.


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Cool, use it for longer than the container says. It won't get parasites though. Put some salt in the water 1 tablespoon per 5 gallon and do 30 sec salt dips in sea water (actual seawater) to frizZle external parasites off the fish as it they are common especially in fish with low immune systems which it will have now.


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Just wondering what you meant by actual seawater? I have aquarium salt, I'm pretty far from the coast though lol so I don't have access to the real deal.
 
Just wondering what you meant by actual seawater? I have aquarium salt, I'm pretty far from the coast though lol so I don't have access to the real deal.

You can buy bags of marine salt for like 10-20 bucks.
Im sincerly sorry i gave you bad advice on the Gram + antibiotic
I just looked at the first picture and saw his eye and did not even notice the giant lesion on his side.
Your fish likely would not make it so he should probably be culled. You can still use some of the antibiotic for the other fish in there. I found a good site to order medicated feed. Its always better to administer thru feed than dump a powder into a tank because it gets into the fish directly. Fish Flake Food
That has every med you will ever need, cheap too. They even got cheap Kanamycin and Terramycin antibiotics, the kanamycin flake is hard to find esp that cheap!
 
Just wondering what you meant by actual seawater? I have aquarium salt, I'm pretty far from the coast though lol so I don't have access to the real deal.

Sorry I keep forgetting some people are far away from the beach. I'm in NZ so seawater is always close by:)

So with aquarium salt for a 3% salt solution you need 20 Tablespoons of salt per 10 Litres. Heaps I know. Anyway you just leave the fish in till it turns over. Which could be almost straight away! Even so that doesn't matter it's better than nothing as the osmotic shock causes the parasites to frizzle and die or even better explode.

I've done a tiny bit of research for you and those big nodular things appearing on the fish are no doubt parasitic if they are not tumours. Especially if they grew quickly! They are cysts under the skin containing many thousands of tiny parasitic spores. Similar to the disease that causes neon tetra disease.

There is no reliable treatment. Just quarantine infected fish and treat with internal parasite treatment, like I said before "Tetra Parasite Guard". Other than that if it doesn't get better then you either way and see what happens or painless euthanise the fish:( I have never been able to do this personally as I'm a wimp and just keep hoping it might come right.
 
Jesse, what are the ingredients of parasite guard? JW......
Had i seen the skin lesions, i would have reccomended a gram - antibiotic, but typically popeye is Staphocaccus which is gram positive
My bad. I would not waste any more money on meds at this point and just put him to sleep if the lesions are that big he will not recover.
 
Jesse, what are the ingredients of parasite guard? JW......
Had i seen the skin lesions, i would have reccomended a gram - antibiotic, but typically popeye is Staphocaccus which is gram positive
My bad. I would not waste any more money on meds at this point and just put him to sleep if the lesions are that big he will not recover.

Hey

Tetra Parasite Guard. metronidazole, Praziquantel, acriflavine and diflubenzuron

Obviously the metro is going to help with any secondary bacterial infections of mostly gram positive nature. But Metro an also treat some gram negative infections.

With the cloudy eye thing I think it seems to accompany most fish that are sick. It's like they are sick and their eyes go cloudy at the same time. I am unsure what antibiotics it needs to heal it. No doubt you are correct with what it is most commonly however I think a broad spectrum antibiotics would be best to treat popeye and cloudy as you don't really know 100% what bacteria is causing it or whether it's just fungus.

I currently have a fish suffering from cloudy eye with it only slightly popping out. It doesn't look serious but nothing seems to be working on healing it up. Otherwise the fish is healthy. Long boring recovery though. I believe it happened when I decided to try DIY Co2. Never again will I attempt such stupidity as it no doubt caused the PH to fluctuate and leeched baking soda and citric acid into the tank too.
 
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