Gargoyle

I have a swordtail with either ich or another type of parasite that I am trying to treat right now... I will list what I have done and welcome all suggestions..

I added the dissolving tabs for treating ich from Jungle labs. I waited the 24 hours and saw little to no change in the infection.

So I was thinking that 24 hours seems like a small amount of time for a treatment to take effect. So I raised the temp a bit, added salt to the tank, after I changed about 30 to 35% of the water. I have aeration on full blast and this morning the sword looks and acts better, still has signs of infection, and now my Danios do not want to eat.. LOL!!

So anyway this is what I have done so far. Any suggestions ??

Thanks!!

COBettaCouple

That's the best course for ich - to raise the temp as high as is good & safe for your fish and give it a couple weeks.. maybe less with the ich meds. I'm not sure you need to do the salt & it's probably better to leave that out of things. I hope the Danio's start eating soon.

Gargoyle

Well right now one of the meds I am using has a main ingredient of "salt" so that's gotta happen for the fungus aspect of things. The Quick Cure was added later today as both meds can run concurrently without issue..

The Danios got back to normal once the temp was dropped to less than 80. It's at 78 right now and they are acting normal again. I have aeration at full tilt right now and no carbon in the filter. The "salt" meds are a once every 6 days type of thing with large water changes needed in between each dosage. The Quick Cure I can run once every 24 hours up to three times before a water change is needed.

So right now the Sword is looking more active which is good and the Danios are back to being themselves. So I will do the Quick Cure at least one more time before I consider stopping treatment. So far the infection is still clearly visible on the Sword so I am hoping for the best.

Any other suggestions feel free to share them. I will keep updates on the progress and what seems to work the best.

Goldfishcare

Your doing well, just make sure that the aeration dose not disterb the fish and keep the tempreture comfortable and put the lights on. If the treatment isn't helping then I say that you add the meds every 24 H for 3 days. You should also keep close watch of your other fish as they can get it too, the best way to prevent this from happening is to get him into a Q- tank as quick (If you have that) but still add once more to the normal tank the med.. so that any ich can get killed. And keep up with the water changes.


Good Luck.

Gargoyle

UPDATE:

The Sword is still showing signs of some sort of infection. I can see white stuff on his fins (2 of them). I am about ready to do the second treatment of Quick Cure. So far we are on day 3 of treatments for pretty much everything I can think of that involves white stuff on fish..

Overall Health:

The Sword seems a lot better than he was before as well as the other live bearers in the tank with him. Although the Danios are swimming around and acting normal they do not appear to want to eat like they have in the past. But they still look very energetic and happy. The temp of the tank is around 79-80 degrees right now, Aeration has been turned down a bit today and I am going to see if that changes anything. I have an 18 inch bubble wall and a small air stone delivering aeration at the moment.

The plants seem fine and the water is still very clear.

jayfl234

I have used and still use Quick Cure suppose to clear up ich in 2 days I had it on one of my black mollies and it cured it in a day. Just go by what the directions say and it works awsome can be found at lfs with red cap on the front of bottle says quick cure got mine at petsmart.

COBettaCouple

You're probably going to want to leave the air at or above normal while you have the temp. higher than usual. Higher temps mean less oxygen in the water and a greater need for the air bubbles.

The white stuff on the sword's fins - is it spotty like ich or does it seem more cottony? Has it changed any since your last post?

Gargoyle

I have stopped the ICH treatment and put the carbon back in to filter out any remaining chemicals. The Swords "white spot" on his fin seems to be getting a bit bigger... Or at least it's more white.. As far as cottony it is hard to tell as it looks to be on the inside area of his fin and he doesn't use it much.

When we got him from the LFS his fins were in bad shape. He is a long fin sword... VERY long fins... And they are VERY ragged right now. The other white spots are gone but this one is still there... I believe I may have a secondary infection from his damaged fins. It does not look like fin rot as the edges are clean with no white stuff. But I could be wrong and I was thinking of getting some of the API medication to treat fin rot and other outside the body infections / parasites.

What do you think ??

P.S. Aeration is still very high... Thanks for the reply jayfl234 I picked some up at chain store as my old bottle was over 20 years old or so..

COBettaCouple

Did you check: http://www.klsnet.com/files/fishchart.htm to see if it's Columnaris or a fungus? If it's a fungus you could try another Jungle Labs product: Fungus Clear.. we've had good luck with that in clearing fin rot up, but it is supposed to be effective on various types of fungus. It sounds like what your swordtail needs since there's a bit of unknown with what type of thing he has, but you can see if more experienced members recommend going with a course of fungus clear or going with something like maracyn & maracyn-2.

If you do go with fungus clear, take out any decor you don't want stained when you take the carbon out and do a partial water change before starting it. If your water parameters are off some, you could add some Prime or NovAqua+ before starting the fungus clear. Best of luck with the little guy and I hope he'll be cleared up soon.

Gargoyle

Well yesterday I put the carbon back in and let it run for 24 hours. I also did a lot of research on his exact "visual" symptoms and decided he has a case of unchecked fin rot with a secondary fungal infection due to the fin rot. So I got to thinking and figured since API makes such a good water test kit that I would try some of their other products...

So I picked up a couple of all natural medications made by API. They are Pimafix and Melafix. They can be used together and are all natural. One treats the fin rot and encourages re growth and the other treats the fungal / bacterial infection. I am supposed to treat once a day for 7 days then perform a water change after the 7th day of treatment.

So that is were I am at right now. I think the salt based medication helped a lot because ever since I added it the Sword has been much more active and eating better. But the fin rot and fungus looking thing persist.

Thank you so much for your advice thus far and I will do my best to keep you updated.

P.S. So through all of this my wife and I have gotten kind of attached to this Sword and have decided to call him Pops... There is a story behind that but I just wanted to share.

COBettaCouple

I believe the Pimafix & Melafix will work in your tank. It looks like you have no Labyrinth fishes in the tank - those 2 products are deadly to Bettas & other Labyrinth fishes. Good luck with it & i hope to hear that it worked like a charm in your tank.

Gargoyle

Well today everyone is happy. The large white spots on the Swords fins are 90% gone.. I really have to look to see them now where as before it was like a black eye.

I must comment on the aroma from the medications... One smells like Vapo-Rub and the other like a super strong peppermint. Also the initial dose foamed the water big time. The second dose did not and I am getting used to the smell. So I guess about 5 more days of this and a water change and all should be great!!

Oh I gave them a little blood worm treat today... They liked that..

Now this Labyrinth fish thing.... The bottles say it's safe for ALL fresh and salt water fish. So I am curious about this one... Thanks!!

COBettaCouple

These 2 posts explain the danger to labyrinth fish from those 2 meds:
http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/32-bet...-danger.0.html
http://www.fishlore.com/Forum/32-bet...pimafix.0.html

They should have a warning for labyrinth fish owners, but chose not to. It does seem safe for all other fish, but kills fish with the air labyrinth organ.

Good to hear that your fish are on the mend.

Gargoyle

Thanks for the links... I checked into a couple of the concerns and from the information that I gathered today I would say that you are right about the labyrinth fish. One of the concerns brought up on one of those threads you linked to is really a non-issue from my research into the contents of the meds.

But being that I am only on day 3 of treatment I will stay the course and report results as best I can...

What I can say at this point is nothing but good in the appearance and health of my fish. They are all very active, eating very well, and acting very normal for their specific species. This is an improvement over their reaction to the other meds I was giving them.

So far so good... I also need to do research on how fry are effected by this medication. So I will be contacting a couple of my friends "in the biz" and see what they have to say about it..

Thanks!!

COBettaCouple

I'd be interested to how fry react to it.. it would seem to be a product that would be ok for them if they're not labrynith fry because it is a good product for other fish.

Gargoyle

So far so good...

Will start on the tank with fry over the weekend and post results...

COBettaCouple

Great, we looking forward to hearing how it goes for our non-Betta fish.

Gargoyle

I guess these meds will effect more than betta's and more than just Labyrinth fish as well... Some species react very badly to the meds as well as a few inverts. I will try to post a list for you all so you know whether or not it is good for your fish or not at full dosage...

I did find a few people that have used the meds with bettas but they used 1/3rd the recommended dosage with good results.