Cottonmouth on my rainbow fish?

[Fishfunn]

How long should I t



How long should I treat the tank then if it appears to be fine?

The treatment doses and length should be in the instructions on the bottle.

 

[Chiguy]

Usually I treat fin rot and columnaris with Seachem Kanaplex antibiotic and Ich-X for Ich. But you should not mix the two treatments together for the safety of the fish.

Paraguard was the only medication I found that will treat both at the same time. Please read its instructions carefully and know what fish and invertebrates are safe with it.

I am treating the hospital tank with Paraguard, that’s what I bought based on everything I read it seemed like the best and safest option compared to the others, and it seems fine with everything I have as far as I can tell. There’s plecos, Cory cats, a ghost knife, a pink shark, a betta, a blue ram, snails and live plants. Does any of that sound problematic to you? From what I can find they’re all fine with it.

According to the bottle there doesn’t seem to be a set treatment time really, so are there any recommendations on how long to treat the main 55gallon without visible issues?

 

[Fishfunn]

I am treating the hospital tank with Paraguard, that’s what I bought based on everything I read it seemed like the best and safest option compared to the others, and it seems fine with everything I have as far as I can tell. There’s plecos, Cory cats, a ghost knife, a pink shark, a betta, a blue ram, snails and live plants. Does any of that sound problematic to you? From what I can find they’re all fine with it.

According to the bottle there doesn’t seem to be a set treatment time really, so are there any recommendations on how long to treat the main 55gallon without visible issues?

Seachem instuctions say: 'Quarantine times vary, but we generally recommend 2 weeks of treatment with ParaGuard™ to clear out any possible external infections.'

http://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115000999233-Info-Seachem-ParaGuard-Dosing-Instructions

 

[Chiguy]

Usually I treat fin rot and columnaris with Seachem Kanaplex antibiotic and Ich-X for Ich. But you should not mix the two treatments together for the safety of the fish.

Paraguard was the only medication I found that will treat both at the same time. Please read its instructions carefully and know what fish and invertebrates are safe with it.

So I believe my mystery snails and Bertie snails might need to be removed but some people say they had no issues?

Also, loaches seem to be sensitive to it but I have three kuhli loaches—I don’t think I’ve got any shot of getting them out without tearing the whole tank up.

Does anyone have any experience with these two using paraguard? Id really hate to hurt those little guys but if I need to treat the tank for everything’s safety I don’t have much of a choice?

Lastly, plants—I have a good number in there that are doing well and I really don’t wanna take them out, I don’t know what I can do with them for two week. Does anyone have any suggestions?

 

[CassCats]

I think Paraguard is your best option.

An idea for you, since loaches, plecos, and cories are all scaleless fish, is to treat that tank at a half dose, while dosing a full dose on the hospital tank that has the rainbowfish. Most meds need to be half dosed for scaleless fish.

 

[fishorama]

I have a slightly different thought than CassCats on dosing "scaleless" fish. I've done a half dose on day 1 & 2. Then, another 1/2 then early the next day & another half at night. If the fish seem OK after that, ramp up dosing to full w/ large water changes & vacuuming daily...but be ready to do a BIG water change if they seem stressed. IMO, half dosing means at least double the treatment time in most cases. You want to make sure you treat long enough...or ich & bacteria (like columnaris) can come back. You want it over!

A side note, columnaris is 1 of those bacteria, like some algae, that are always present in our tanks & may recur if tank parameters are ideal for them. Ich is a parasite that can & should be killed completely. It doesn't just "magically" appear or you didn't kill it with a long enough effective treatment. It comes in with new fish, plants, or lfs water. THIS is why quarantine a tank is important!!

I don't know how inverts react to Paraguard. I would move them to a small holding tank if you can. Snails & shrimp are not susceptible to ich or as far as I know, columnaris either. Protect them if you can.

 

[Chiguy]

Quick update everyone:

I believe I see a couple tiny white specs on my blue ram, as well as my royal Pleco, so I don’t think I’m completely out of the weeds. I have elected to not treat the main tank with medication at all though. Rather, I am going to raise the temperature to 87° for around the next week to attempt a more holistic approach that does not require poison to be put into the main tank filled with plants, loaches, snails, etc. this seems to have gotten pretty good outcomes from people I have spoken to and things I have read online from people who take more holistic approaches.

Wish me luck, I hope everything survives.

 

[CassCats]

Make absolute sure that you increase aeration as plecos are heavily reliant on oxygen and hotter temperatures will use more oxygen in the tank.

 

[Chiguy]

Make absolute sure that you increase aeration as plecos are heavily reliant on oxygen and hotter temperatures will use more oxygen in the tank.

Thanks for the input. I have two sponges in there, one large and one small, as well as a hang on back filter that creates a lot of surface agitation, but do you think I should swap in an air stone instead of Olathe small sponge to generate smaller bubbles?

 

[fishorama]

I hate to be negative, but there are heat resistant forms of ich these days. Raising the temp will speed up the ich lifecycle, but likely not kill it completely at 87F. & it also will stress the fish just due to the high temp. I would strongly suggest using a drug too...& lots of water changes before redosing. Ich is beatable, but don't goof around about it, it can kill you fish if you don't do enough early on when it matters most.

 

[CassCats]

There are heat resistant ones, yeah.

And there's also a similar looking epistylis that can be fatal with heat.

I would say if you are set on heat treatment, definitely monitor and be prepared to address issues.

 

[Colin_T]

The fish does not have cotton mouth (Columnairs). It has a fat lip caused by swimming into the glass. It happens to just about every rainbowfish when they are put into a new tank and especially when the tank is clean and has no algae on the sides. Bare glass tanks are hell on rainbowfish and they swim into the glass and damage their mouth. Clean water and salt normally treat it.
Use 1 heaped tablespoon of rock salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of tank water. Keep the salt in there for 2 weeks.

White spot can be treated with Malachite Green. Don't overdose medications with rainbowfish in the tank because you will kill them.

 

[Chiguy]

Quick update here for anyone interested:

The heat combined with daily water changes has cleared up suspected dots in the main tank on the pleco and I moved the blue ram to the medicated hospital tank. The hospital tank seems to be recovering, and the white spots have been greatly reduced from the ParaGard combined with 87° water. No fish have died yet.

We will see how the hospital tank does longer term, but the main tank seems to be out of the weeds at least so I intend to hold the heat up at 87 for the remainder of the week, making a total of about eight days at the high temp then gradually reduce it back to 79 degrees. The hospital tank I intend to continue treating for a full two week period of time and hopefully all the fish make it through.