disease of caudal peduncle, please help! :( (w/pic)

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hitty

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Nov 14, 2003
Messages
14
Location
Melbourne, Australia
hi again guys...

about a week ago i lost my first fish for 3 months, a molly, to an infection towards the tail of the fish... even after medicating with anti biotics and doing 3 water changes i lost another 6 fish to this weird white patch which would grow on their caudal peduncle..

i woke up today to find my little brothers spiny eel looking like this

eel.jpg


the photo isnt the best... but you can see a paleness towards the tail.. there is also redness where the infection seems to have started...

the weird thing is... there has been no sign of infection for 2 days... and yesterday this guy was eating out of my hand... :(

i dont think there is much that can be done to save this guy.. but can someone at least point in the right direction as to what this thing is???

btw, my ph is 7.0 and nitrates & nitrites should be very low (massive filter and frequent water changes)



ps:
heres my rummy which died of the same disease...
http://members.iinet.net.au/~hitty/rummy.jpg
 
The red streaking and pale coloration are typical (though not exclusive to) bacterial (or, less likely, viral) hemorrhagic septicemia. High Nitrates can also cause similar conditions.

The difficulty you're going to have in treating the 'eel' is that it is a scaleless fish and will be more susceptible to adverse reactions to commonly used medications. Maracyn and Maracyn II are sometimes recommended for treating bacterial infections in these fish (though it is best to use them in a separate 'hospital' tank). Avoid any medications that are copper-based or based on Malachite Green. Some people also report some success using aquarium salt (1 teaspoon per 10 gallons of water).

Good luck!

-Joe
 
yep... i done an image search on hemorrhagic septicemia
and i found this...
http://aquariumhobbyist.com/guppies/hemm.jpg


thank you so much fruitbat... i've got a place to start now

the only other tank ive got is a 2 foot with a pair of kribs in it which i can stick back into the community tank...

although? wouldn't i be better off trying to treat the whole tank? becuase this thing has already killed so many fish so quickly?

either way, i think i'm taking a trip to the lfs to pick up some Maracyn or whatever equivalent we have here...

once again, thank you so much!!!
 
hitty...

Glad I could be of some assistance and I hope the 'eel' recovers.

The reason for not treating the whole tank is primarily because the antibiotic regimen will probably kill off your population of beneficial bacteria and cause problems with your nitrogen cycle. If you do not have an empty tank hanging about that you can use as a treatment tank and have to treat the main tank then there is no sense in removing any of the other fish.

-Joe
 
i'll just have to treat the whole tank.. as for the bacteria in the filter dying off... i can do their work manually by doing say 20%? water changes every day? think i might pick up a few test kits as well :)

thanks fruitbat!! :)
 
vhs

not necessarily ammonia burn. Many aquatic places will tell you this. Change the water a few times and treat for disease. Many lean on ammonia poisioning as it is the easiest thing to point too. If it seems to still spread after water changes and treatment it is most likely vhs (viral hemorrhagic septicemia). I attached some pictures of an algae eater with vhs. My other fish that died had very similar symptoms prior. You will see redness blotching in the gills usually and throughout the body and it gets worse. Possible deteroriation of gills, but not necessarily. It will spread to other fish no matter what you seem to do to to try to prevent it. My fish I treated with pills to get rid of disease very little result. The vhs seems highly resistant strain. Tested for ammonia many times, ammonia levels fine.
 

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