LM
February 25th 06, 09:04 PM
Hi all,
well, I have 4 gouramis, 1 of which showed signs that resembled
hole-in-the-head disease few months ago (patches of scales starting to
turn white, and periodically peeling off in flakes). So I have been
cleaning tanks, changing water, etc, and also medicating with drugs
containing metronidazole. At one point, it seemed like the fish beat
the infection especially after now discontinued antibacterial drug,
Spectrogram and metronidazole. but in recent weeks, things started to
deteriorate again, and the fish is starting to look pretty bad.
in addition now it seems like one other gourami is showing signs of
HITH disease.. but this one, instead of patches of discolored scales,
it looked like white salt grain embedded in its head where the hole is
starting. This prompted me to think it might be velvet, and not HITH
disease. other gouramis do sort of look dull in color.. so.. I've
seen ick, and this does not look like ick.
so I switched medication to something that contains medicine that
supposedly work for velvet (metronidazole and copper sulfate, etc).
Until now, they were medicated using 125mg/10gal rate of metronidazole.
yesterday I switched to "General Cure" medication mix made by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals (mix of metronidazole, copper sulfate and trichlorfon)
which seem to target velvet as well as hexamita.
the tank water chemistry is still clean: zero ammonium, zero nitrite,
10ppm nitrate, gH/kh=2 or so. the tank is heavily planted, with UGF
and a canister filter. I'm doing 50% water change every week or every
other week for now when not medicating (more often with 25% change
after medication treatment course), with a very thorough gravel vac.
tank is also full of loaches, so I don't want to use anything that may
kill them.
there obviously is something happening to my tank, but whatever I'm
doing, isn't helping. I'm starting to feel helpless!!
should I get a UV sterilizer to aid in eradicating this parasite? what
else can I do? The most ill gourami looks bad, but he seems quite
happy. all are eating, and isn't really showing signs of distress.
So far no other species is showing any signs of distress or disease
other than the gouramis. but at this point, i'm medicating the whole
tank.
any suggestions?
linda
well, I have 4 gouramis, 1 of which showed signs that resembled
hole-in-the-head disease few months ago (patches of scales starting to
turn white, and periodically peeling off in flakes). So I have been
cleaning tanks, changing water, etc, and also medicating with drugs
containing metronidazole. At one point, it seemed like the fish beat
the infection especially after now discontinued antibacterial drug,
Spectrogram and metronidazole. but in recent weeks, things started to
deteriorate again, and the fish is starting to look pretty bad.
in addition now it seems like one other gourami is showing signs of
HITH disease.. but this one, instead of patches of discolored scales,
it looked like white salt grain embedded in its head where the hole is
starting. This prompted me to think it might be velvet, and not HITH
disease. other gouramis do sort of look dull in color.. so.. I've
seen ick, and this does not look like ick.
so I switched medication to something that contains medicine that
supposedly work for velvet (metronidazole and copper sulfate, etc).
Until now, they were medicated using 125mg/10gal rate of metronidazole.
yesterday I switched to "General Cure" medication mix made by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals (mix of metronidazole, copper sulfate and trichlorfon)
which seem to target velvet as well as hexamita.
the tank water chemistry is still clean: zero ammonium, zero nitrite,
10ppm nitrate, gH/kh=2 or so. the tank is heavily planted, with UGF
and a canister filter. I'm doing 50% water change every week or every
other week for now when not medicating (more often with 25% change
after medication treatment course), with a very thorough gravel vac.
tank is also full of loaches, so I don't want to use anything that may
kill them.
there obviously is something happening to my tank, but whatever I'm
doing, isn't helping. I'm starting to feel helpless!!
should I get a UV sterilizer to aid in eradicating this parasite? what
else can I do? The most ill gourami looks bad, but he seems quite
happy. all are eating, and isn't really showing signs of distress.
So far no other species is showing any signs of distress or disease
other than the gouramis. but at this point, i'm medicating the whole
tank.
any suggestions?
linda