prairielilly

I've got a 'mystery illness' going on in my two new cherry barbs that I got on Feb 14. They've been in QT for the last 2 weeks while I've been trying to get them all better with (so far) zero progress. For some history, see here.

A lot of forum members have recommended I use Mardel's Maracyn and Maracyn-2, for gram positive and gram negative bacteria respectively. I was unable to find Maracyn-2 at the time and ended up ordering API's Furan-2, a broad-spectrum antibiotic for both gram positive and gram negative bacteria. As I have not yet seen mention of this med on FishLore, I thought I'd document my experience with it.

The two cherry barbs have been through a course of Maracyn and a course of Jungle's Anti-Parasite fizz tabs, both with no result. I ran black carbon and did large water changes in between each med. Currently they are depressed, not eating, have clamped dorsal fins, very poor colour, they hide among the plants and have bright red swollen gills. When they do move about they are flicking off objects in the tank. The water was tested recently and has ammonia 0, nitrite 0, and (bc of all the wc's) nitrates 0-5. So it isn't ammonia poisoning, and as Jungle's stuff didn't help it isn't gill fluke. It is however exactly the same set of symptoms exhibited by all the fish in my 20g last November, before I found FishLore. They all died. At the experience level I had at that time it never occurred to me to consider 'bacterial gill disease' and try a broad-spectrum antibiotic - their symptoms fit parasitism very well, although meds for that had no effect. Here's hoping I have better luck this time. I will say that these particular fish are NOT going into the 20g until I know for extra-certain-sure that they are healthy and this sickness is kaputsky!

Active ingredients in Furan-2: 60 mg Nitrofurazone and 25 mg Furazolidone per packet (each packet treats 10 g). I am to dose the tank once a day for 2 days, do a 25% WC, repeat for a total of 4 doses; treatment may be repeated. It will NOT harm the biofilter, as stated on the package. This med cost me $11.99 CAD for 10 packets (which means I've spent nearly $30 so far on meds for my two $1.50 fish I really hope this works).

First dose went in this morning about 45 minutes ago. First thing I noticed is the powder is brilliant yellow. I thought from the name it might be an iron compound, but apparently we have sulfur going on - this is good, I remember sulfur is pretty effective against bacteria. The next thing is that the powder is noticably coarser than Mardel's stuff. Oh well big deal, in it goes. It doesn't dissolve very quickly because of the coarseness, and there are small clumps of it throughout the tank. I use a piece of dowelling to stir these up a bit and they dissolve readily. Interestingly, where a clump fell onto a brown-algae covered silk plant leaf, when I remove the clump the leaf is now clean in that spot. Scary?

The water is YELLOW. Really yellow. I'm a little concerned by this as I would have preferred to verify the 'won't harm the biofilter' claim with water testing, and well if my tests give me results in shades of yellow and the water's yellow to begin with, that's not going to work. I'll have to do it the old fashioned way - watch the fish.

Twenty minutes after first dose - we have movement! The female is cruising around the tank and picking at the gravel! Whoohoo! I hope that lasts. The male moves only slightly - closer to the heater - then starts hovering again. Hopefully he makes it through this, third course of meds has got to be stressful for him.

5g Furan-2 1st day.JPG <--- Pic of the tank. I don't think the yellow colouring is showing up too well though.

male cherry furan-2 1st day.JPG <--- Pic of the male cherry (as good as I could get anyways).

It's only day 1, so we'll see how this goes.

agabr123

good luck!

prairielilly

Thanks Alex - I need it

This is sort of a last-ditch effort as I've now medicated them for everything possible, so if they don't get better it will have to just be TLC for as long as they have. If this doesn't work I figure it's one of three things:

1) it's viral and no meds were ever going to work anyway
2) they were too far gone and it was too late
3) the fish gods are mad at me.

...or some combination thereof.

Here's hoping this all works out...I'll know in a week or so.

Edit: forgot about 4) drug-resistant strain of bacteria....

prairielilly

Well it's now day 3. Yesterday I was pretty convinced the male fish would be dead when I got home - he's gotten so very skinny, and he's so pale he's nearly white with red fins. He was just sort of drifting around the tank with the current. The female looks normal except for very red gills. And the water is still as yellow as some of these smilie's

They were still alive yesterday evening (!!!) and got dose #2. Both fish are swimming around the tank now - positive! although I wouldn't say it's a healthy swimming, pretty jerky, but at least they're both consistently moving. Still not eating though.

My biggest concern atm is that their symptoms are so very similar to whatever it was that wiped out my tank in November. What on earth is this thing is anything effective against it? how do I not buy more fish with this??

Tonight they'll get a wc and dose #3. I'm going to repeat the treatment as well so eight days total - I want no chance of introducing this to my main tank, everyone there's healthy atm even the cory who just got over fin rot. I hope these guys make it.

prairielilly

Well the treatment's all done and I'm not sure what to say, it's hard to tell if it's been a success or not. Both fish look and act pretty much the same now as they did when I first got them as they did after each course of treatment. Yes, that doesn't make sense, and I don't know what else to say about that. Because of it though I've decided to NOT repeat the Furan-2 at this time but rather just let them detox for a while. I changed out 50% of the water last night, added some carbon and gave them some stress coat and vita chem. I've got a wonderful pic of the water I removed that I'll post later - I use a clear plastic wastebasket (bought new) for small wc jobs like this, and it looks like one giant API ammonia test with a 'good' result!

The female looks normal, her gills are a normal shade I think (hard to tell in a species that has naturally reddish gill covers, but they aren't as bright glaring red as before), and she's still swimming a little jerkily but not glancing - I think. She's also eating occasionally. The male is skin and bones, very pale and has a clamped dorsal fin. He doesn't eat and rarely moves. The only real improvement I can see in him is his gill movement is more normal now, whereas before it was very rapid.

What I'm hoping is that this present depression is just a result of having been medicated for three weeks straight, and some time in simple, good clean water will work its wonders. Because if it doesn't, I'm at a loss as to what else I can do for these poor bibbies.

My present plan is: if they get to 'normal' and stay healthy for two weeks straight, they can go into my main tank. If not, I'm not getting more cherrys to add to the 20g, it can stay slightly understocked.

I tried. Maybe I tried too hard?

DSC00543.JPGEdit: this is the what the water removed for a wc looks like....

prairielilly

Just thought I'd stick in a mention that it's now a few days post-treatment and...the female is acting like a normal fish! good colour, swimming about, eating, whoohoo! The male however...well right now he looks exactly the same as he did the day I started the first treatment let alone this one. He's still alive though! although I really have no clue how to make him all better. They're both just going to get good clean water and lots of TLC and I'll see how it goes....

ray_sj

How are your fish, prarielilly? Hopefully better.

My guppies currently have the exact same symptoms. My parameters were also perfect at 0/0/10. Tried water changes, and that didn't help. Then, I had treated with Coppersafe since the symptoms implied parasites, but that didn't seem to help much either. I'm trying Maracyn now..

prairielilly

Good luck with the Maracyn ray

The female cherry barb is acting like a normal fish, she looks and acts just like the healthy ones in my 20g community. The male however is the skinniest example of a fish I have ever seen - I've had them 2 days shy of a month and I have yet to see him eat. He's also very pale, doesn't swim around at all and often just drifts around in the current. I don't know that I can do anything else for him other than keep him warm and comfortable for as long as he has. Still no idea what they had, but the Furan-2 did make the female better so I guess it was bacterial, and possibly the male was just too far gone.

ray_sj

One of my guppies didn't make it, but I'm now sure they have velvet disease. Turns out the life cycle is long (10-14 days) and if they have it in the gills, it may be very difficult to spot. After some more treatment with Coppersafe and turning off the lights, the remaining fish seem better.

I don't know if Parasite Clear is effective for velvet, or if you had considered that already. Just thought I'd pass it on in case it helps you too.