Jennie
August 14th 03, 07:37 PM
I haven't posted here for a while, but I remember the place
having some well educated residents. I'm hoping someone can give me some
helpful advice just now.
One of my weather loaches, Torquemada, jumped out of his tank
today. Fortunately, his fall was broken by a carrier bag and he didn't
suffer any spine damage nor (apparent) brain damage (though there's minor
swelling around his left eye). He crawled across the carpet until he was
seen, and in the process acquired skin abrasions. We quickly put him in an
isolation tank and cleaned him up as much as we could without risking
exacerbating this damage. We determined that he had also sustained
bruising around his mouth; his right barbels are limp and look badly
crushed. Minor swelling and awkward movement suggests badly bruised or
broken ribs, all on his left side - two near his head, one lower down.
However, he perked up again quite well, and he's swimming fairly normally.
His fins are all fully intact.
Because he was doing well, and because the other fish in the
tank (two more loaches, two golden orfe and two carp) were becoming
increasingly distressed at his absence, we returned him to the main tank.
Everything went well at first, and then the larger of the orfe, Phoecea,
began chasing and nipping at him. She was generally stressed and was also
a bit snappy toward other fish who got in her way. Despite her size
advantage, this is out of character. She's previously been very patient
with a fish who swam awkwardly after a stroke, so it was unlikely she was
aggravated by oddities in his movement. We decided to place her in the (since
cleaned) isolation tank, where she quickly calmed down. In her absence,
the other fish also relaxed.
My first consideration was that Torquemada might smell peculiar
because he had been on the floor. Looking more closely, I determined that
there were patches on his skin which might be damage from his adventure
(and clinging fluff) or might be fungus. I noticed a very small patch of
what might be fungus on another of the loaches, Erasmus. It has been a lot
hotter than usual here recently and I know loaches have a tendency to
become stressed in hot weather, so my contention is that this stress
resulted in a minor fungus outbreak, the disease disturbed Phoecea, and as
a result she drove Torquemada to climb out of the tank (with the way the
lid is arranged, he couldn't just have jumped out, but we've had this
problem with loaches in the past; we've now put net over the gaps). This
would tally with Phoecea calming down once she was away from him. However,
none of the other fish seem concerned.
My big problem is this: by the time I noticed the possible
fungus problem, I'd already added an anti-internal bacteria treatment to
the tank, attempting thereby to head off any opportunistic infections
which might attack Torquemada's wounds. On account of this, it would be
unsafe for me to use a methylene blue treatment until Thursday next week.
Is there anything else I could do in the meantime to protect my fish
against fungus? I've already added a teaspoonful of salt to the tank,
which contains approximately fourteen (UK) gallons of water. The weather
has been getting a little cooler, so I'm hoping that'll help.
Any ideas?
Jennie
--
Jennie Kermode
http://www.triffid.demon.co.uk/jennie
having some well educated residents. I'm hoping someone can give me some
helpful advice just now.
One of my weather loaches, Torquemada, jumped out of his tank
today. Fortunately, his fall was broken by a carrier bag and he didn't
suffer any spine damage nor (apparent) brain damage (though there's minor
swelling around his left eye). He crawled across the carpet until he was
seen, and in the process acquired skin abrasions. We quickly put him in an
isolation tank and cleaned him up as much as we could without risking
exacerbating this damage. We determined that he had also sustained
bruising around his mouth; his right barbels are limp and look badly
crushed. Minor swelling and awkward movement suggests badly bruised or
broken ribs, all on his left side - two near his head, one lower down.
However, he perked up again quite well, and he's swimming fairly normally.
His fins are all fully intact.
Because he was doing well, and because the other fish in the
tank (two more loaches, two golden orfe and two carp) were becoming
increasingly distressed at his absence, we returned him to the main tank.
Everything went well at first, and then the larger of the orfe, Phoecea,
began chasing and nipping at him. She was generally stressed and was also
a bit snappy toward other fish who got in her way. Despite her size
advantage, this is out of character. She's previously been very patient
with a fish who swam awkwardly after a stroke, so it was unlikely she was
aggravated by oddities in his movement. We decided to place her in the (since
cleaned) isolation tank, where she quickly calmed down. In her absence,
the other fish also relaxed.
My first consideration was that Torquemada might smell peculiar
because he had been on the floor. Looking more closely, I determined that
there were patches on his skin which might be damage from his adventure
(and clinging fluff) or might be fungus. I noticed a very small patch of
what might be fungus on another of the loaches, Erasmus. It has been a lot
hotter than usual here recently and I know loaches have a tendency to
become stressed in hot weather, so my contention is that this stress
resulted in a minor fungus outbreak, the disease disturbed Phoecea, and as
a result she drove Torquemada to climb out of the tank (with the way the
lid is arranged, he couldn't just have jumped out, but we've had this
problem with loaches in the past; we've now put net over the gaps). This
would tally with Phoecea calming down once she was away from him. However,
none of the other fish seem concerned.
My big problem is this: by the time I noticed the possible
fungus problem, I'd already added an anti-internal bacteria treatment to
the tank, attempting thereby to head off any opportunistic infections
which might attack Torquemada's wounds. On account of this, it would be
unsafe for me to use a methylene blue treatment until Thursday next week.
Is there anything else I could do in the meantime to protect my fish
against fungus? I've already added a teaspoonful of salt to the tank,
which contains approximately fourteen (UK) gallons of water. The weather
has been getting a little cooler, so I'm hoping that'll help.
Any ideas?
Jennie
--
Jennie Kermode
http://www.triffid.demon.co.uk/jennie