Dying dojo loach ?

[Aster]

Dying or not he is for sure very sick and im afraid he is not going to make it . Since ive trolled enough fish forums to know that i will get no answers till you all see these numbers here is what you want in the 55 gal planted community he is in the specs are 0 AM 0 nit 20 nitrates .

my tank has been fully cycles for 2 months and i do a 30 % water change every week on sunday , that being said i did 2 X 50 % water changes today after i found the 2 sick fish .

My poor dojo loach has a ring around his body behind his head and front fins that is white ( assuming fungal or bacterial infection ) also his front fins are very very red and inflamed this came on very suddenly , yesterday when i went to sleep he looked fine and today e looked like this .

Also there was one silver lyretail molly female who was swimming with her head down and she has a redish inflamed spot on the bottom fin just past the one you use to sex them .

Well sadly i did not notice these guys till i was headed to work so i had to have a friend get me the meds so i could use them when i got off work ( work 2nd shift ) i wanted maracyn but the local pet store does not carry it they only had the marcyn oxy so that is what was acquired for me .

I moved the molly into a 2 gallon hex tank i use for my prego livebearers and dosed her with an appropriate dose of melafix and the maracyn oxy i also added a half a teaspoon of aquarium salt for her . She is still alive last i checked but i dont have a lot of faith she is going to make it and if she is still swimming head down most of the time tomorrow im going to euthanize her .

The dojo loach i moved into a 2 gal square tank and dosed him with a appropriate dose of marcyn oxy and melafix ( i did NOT add salt to this guy ) he is also hanging in there but im afraid he isn't going to make it 'but i have my fingers crossed i love this little guy he is by far my favorite fish .

Im tempted to drive the hour tomorrow to the larger city north of me that actually has some variety of pet stores to see if i can find some marcyn 1 and 2 do you guys think i should do that ? Or Given the poor state this guy i in am i just cruelly postponing the inevitable and should i send him off to the peaceful nothing that awaits him ?

Here is a pic of him

You can see how red and inflamed his poor little fins are .

I truly love his fish as silly as that sounds but i would not want to be alive and suffering if there was no hope what do you guys think i should do ?

Also i read about a nasty bacterial infection starts with a C im thinking this is what they have but if anyone can give me a better diagnosis or a recommendation of a better course of treatment im down to try .

Also as a side note obviously neither of my hospital tanks are properly cycled as i would imagine is generally the case i will be doing daily 50 % water changes along with the dosing of the medicine untill these guys make a recovery or die . Also i put an extra bubbler stone in both hospital tanks .

 

[Aster]

my guy is still alive but he has been floating upside down for the last 6 or so hours . Some of the red inflammation in his fins has dissipated however there are now small red veins beginning to run through his tail fin . The whitish stuff on him is starting to get stringy and float away from his body in some places .

I changed 50 % of the water today and then dosed the tank again with melafix and the maracyn oxy , i also went back to the LFS and got some primafix wich say its for red inflamed fins and i dosed him with that as well since it said it would be ok to dose with the melafix .

I have not tried to feed him as i doubt he will eat and since the hospital tank is not cycled i want as little bioload that could be converted to ammonia as possible .

Does anyone have any idea what i could do ? none of the LFS sell maracyn 1 or 2 i could order it online but im afraid it will not arrive in time to help him , though i think im going to order it just to have it on hand the next time something like this happens .

My molly is swimming the right way now but she is still at the top of the tank and has labored breathing .

 

[JustOneMore20]

I'm not 100% sure what is wrong with your guy, but it does sound like a bacterial infection....possibly hemorrhagic septicemia. I would try to get some type if antibiotic treatment. Did any lfs have a similar antibiotic treatment? The Maracyn-oxy doesn't have any antibiotics in it, even though it says it treats bacterial infections.

I found this on another site:

Maracyn TC, Maracyn 2, Triple Sulfa, Trisulfa, TC Tabs, Metronidazole, Flagyl, Hexamit, Kanaplex, or similar gram negative effective drugs. Be sure to remove any activated carbon from the filter and if using Maracyn TC, TC Tabs, Maracyn 2 or any other tetracyclines, be sure to treat with the lights off, as these drugs degrade with exposure to light.

The fact that he is floating upside down doesn't sound good. I hope he pulls through for you though.

 

[Aster]

Ya the only options i have here locally are petco ( only carry the marcyn oxy ) and wal mart and they of course have nothing . I will go order some online now but i doubt it will get here in time , i think sadly that if my guy isnt looking better tomorrow then im going to euthanize him i dont want im to suffer and id imagine he is not feeling good atm .

It sucks he was a big healthy loach i think he must have been picked on as the only fish that got sick were him and my molly that had just given birth . Id imagine her immune system was weak from the birthing and that his immune system was weak from possibly being harassed though i did not see any harassment till i noticed he was sick and as getting the net and saw the gourami nip at his whitish area .

Thank you for the reply also i feel a it less alone now =).

 

[Aster]

He died last night after i went to sleep . I pretty much knew it was going to happen but you hold out hope even when you know there isnt really any . I also am going to euthanize the molly she has been breathing less and less and swimming with her head facing down and tail up for abought 15 hours now i cant see her pulling through and she must be suffering its time for that to end .

No new signs of infection in the main tank everyone looks healthy and the 5 molly fry i have in a basket are all still alive , they are only about 5 days old . Also the single molly fry i have that is in another basket that is almost 1 " long and about 3 weeks old shows no sign of any problem i would think it would claim the little ones lives first ?

Ive been doing a 25 % water change every day since i pulled out the 2 sick fish right now im at 0 am 0 nitrites 10 nitrates . What else can i do to help insure that nobody else gets sick ? Should i pull the carbon filters and dose the tank with pimafix and melafix maybe even the maracyn oxy or should i just wait and see . Im pretty sure that the loach was being picked on and the stress lead to his weakened immune system and then the infection and that the molly had just given birth and was stressed and also caught it anyone else think this is probably the case ?

If the above is true is there anything i can do anyway to remove this pathogen from my tank i read somewhere that these bacteria are always present and its not till the fish's immune system get weak from poor water quality or other stress that they finally catch them but ive also read horror stories of peoples entire tanks crashing to one of these bugs . So im really not sure what to do .