purple_drazi
Fishaholic
I lost my blue girl yesterday after a 2 month struggle against a bacterial infection. It started with her getting a cloudy eye, so I separated her from the other girls, put bettamax in her tank and it cleared up. As soon as I put her back in with the others her eye went cloudy again though so I put her back in her separate medicated tank and her eye cleared up again. I didn't want her to get sick again so I kept her separated & in Bettamax but soon after I noticed that although her eye was fine, she had a sore on her back by her tail. Sometimes it seemed as if it was going away, but slowly over the course of two weeks I could see that it was getting the upper hand even though she was in the bettamax so we went to tetracycline. For two weeks I followed the directions on the box but the sore just got worse and worse, deeper & deeper, it was eating away at her. She wasn't eating and she was getting weaker but clever girl, she would rest on the upper leaves of the plastic plant just under the surface of the water so she could breathe easily. In desperation I went to the net and found that the med loses it's effectiveness after 24hrs so I went to making up a fresh batch every day and daily water changes. It didn't work and in fact instead of just a sore, now there was a chunk out of her side and it was fuzzy as well - columnaris. I went out and found Maracyn & Maracyn-Two and tried that, making up a fresh batch every day. She was so weak that I put her in a chinese rice bowl of water, deep enough that she could move around but shallow enough that she didn't have to swim up to get a breath because she didn't have the strength to do it anymore. After the first day a big clot of guck came off of her and I thought that even though she was really weak we were going to make it. On the second day there was still fuzz on her though, and on the third & fourth days it wasn't getting any better. Back I went to the fish store where they suggested NeoPlex, a neomycin sulfate, so I tried her in that....and we ran out of time.
What a fighter she was. The girl at the store said how happy she was that I wasn't giving up on her - but how could I when she was fighting so hard & for so long herself?
Sometime today do me a favour, raise your glass and drink to a great fish, a great fighter and a cutie to boot, my little blue girl.
What a fighter she was. The girl at the store said how happy she was that I wasn't giving up on her - but how could I when she was fighting so hard & for so long herself?
Sometime today do me a favour, raise your glass and drink to a great fish, a great fighter and a cutie to boot, my little blue girl.
