FWmom
Aquarium Advice Apprentice
- Joined
- Mar 24, 2012
- Messages
- 32
I have a few different tanks, from a 5.5g nano sw fowlr, 45g sw fowlr, 5g java moss, feeder snails & shrimp, 65g African Cichlids and a 10g freshwater nano community. All contain inverts and/or scaleless cats, cories or botia. So treatments for illness have been scary for one reason or another. Melafix, Quickfix, aquarium salt and those fizzy tabs from Jungle(?) have been used with varying levels of success and loss. Also a Green Machine UV filter as directed, in the two large tanks.
I just wanted to share my surprising success with Seachem Paraguard in my ‘mixed cichlid’ tank, which also houses a good sized pictus catfish. The product is intended for both freshwater and saltwater use.
Known for being territorial, the latest dominance battle between cichlids resulted in a badly deteriorated tail, and body scale damage on one particular fish. Separated in an acrylic basket in the tank, I started dosing the entire tank with
daily 15% water changes before each dose. To my surprise, one old alpha suffering unhealed facial scars put himself right under the blue liquid flowing from the measuring spoon until it dissipated every day. The three scars began to change, and one is now gone after the recommended 14 daily doses. Meanwhile, the other fish’s scales healed in three days, and the tail is slowly regaining its length and shape! It’s my understanding that the new growth is fragile, so I plan to keep him separate until it looks more full and sturdy. In the second photo, you’ll see two terrible scars from bitings. Inbetween the two, a third smaller scar has healed over almost completely. The protruding pink seems to be a result of the new tissue growth along the edges, pushing away the scar tissue. It gets uglier before the blue skin heals over. I never expected that fish to survive the fights, but these scars have lingered for over a year and he’s six years old. Wish I had known about this treatment at the onset of both issues.
I just wanted to share my surprising success with Seachem Paraguard in my ‘mixed cichlid’ tank, which also houses a good sized pictus catfish. The product is intended for both freshwater and saltwater use.
Known for being territorial, the latest dominance battle between cichlids resulted in a badly deteriorated tail, and body scale damage on one particular fish. Separated in an acrylic basket in the tank, I started dosing the entire tank with
daily 15% water changes before each dose. To my surprise, one old alpha suffering unhealed facial scars put himself right under the blue liquid flowing from the measuring spoon until it dissipated every day. The three scars began to change, and one is now gone after the recommended 14 daily doses. Meanwhile, the other fish’s scales healed in three days, and the tail is slowly regaining its length and shape! It’s my understanding that the new growth is fragile, so I plan to keep him separate until it looks more full and sturdy. In the second photo, you’ll see two terrible scars from bitings. Inbetween the two, a third smaller scar has healed over almost completely. The protruding pink seems to be a result of the new tissue growth along the edges, pushing away the scar tissue. It gets uglier before the blue skin heals over. I never expected that fish to survive the fights, but these scars have lingered for over a year and he’s six years old. Wish I had known about this treatment at the onset of both issues.
