What is this?

[Penelope .R]

The silver dollars look worse, the one looks like his upper lip is being eaten away and it's redder today. Both are still active and eating readily, I'm taking that as a good sign.
I have Focus, Metroplex, and Kanaplex, will any of those work if I end up using medication in a few days? Metroplex and Kanaplex are labeled for treating bacterial infections but I just don't know, I will of course buy something better if they aren't the best course of action and I think I should give the salt a little more time.
Also, could I separate the silver dollars out and try the 4 tablespoons per 20 liters dose of salt? I haven't seen anything about silver dollars being salt sensitive. Can they be in say a plastic bin with just an air stone and a heater with daily water changes? I don't have an extra filter (I'm going to buy a third tank for isolating sick and new fish, just haven't yet).

As for a bit of good news, the white spot is almost gone. I know I need to continue treating with the heat to kill the free swiming parasites but the fish seem happier.
Now if I could just deal with the infections on my silver dollars.

 

[Colin_T]

I don't know what focus is or what's in it.

Metroplex is for internal problems and probably won't help.

Kanamycin should work on the mouth, which needs treating now if it's getting worse. Deanasue normally recommends using Furan 2 with Kanamycin for bacterial infections. We don't have those anti-biotics in Australia (not for fish use) these days so I can't recommend anything besides Furan 2 and Kanamycin.

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Silver dollars are characins (tetras) and are salt sensitive so don't use more than 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

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Yes you can put the silver dollar/s in a plastic bin or storage container and treat them there. Do big daily water changes using dechlorinated water and they should be fine for a couple of weeks.

Don't feed them too much while in the bucket without a filter.

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If you use anti-biotics on fish, use a bare container with no substrate, no wood and no rocks. You can have a couple of plastic plants in there if you like. Have an airstone and heater in the container.

When I treated fish with anti-biotics I simply wiped the inside of the container out each day and did a 100% water change each day before retreating the tank. Cleaning the inside of the container and doing a 100% water change gets rid of biofilm and spent anti-biotics. And you re-dose the tank with full strength anti-biotics so there is a full amount in clean water to treat the fish.

Treatment is normally done for 1 week (sometimes 2 weeks), and there should be a noticeable improvement after 24-48 hours. If there's no improvement after 48 hours, the medication probably isn't working on the infection and you might need something else.

 

[Penelope .R]

I don't know what focus is or what's in it.

Metroplex is for internal problems and probably won't help.

Kanamycin should work on the mouth, which needs treating now if it's getting worse. Deanasue normally recommends using Furan 2 with Kanamycin for bacterial infections. We don't have those anti-biotics in Australia (not for fish use) these days so I can't recommend anything besides Furan 2 and Kanamycin.

---------------------
Silver dollars are characins (tetras) and are salt sensitive so don't use more than 2 heaped tablespoons per 20 litres.

---------------------
Yes you can put the silver dollar/s in a plastic bin or storage container and treat them there. Do big daily water changes using dechlorinated water and they should be fine for a couple of weeks.

Don't feed them too much while in the bucket without a filter.

---------------------
If you use anti-biotics on fish, use a bare container with no substrate, no wood and no rocks. You can have a couple of plastic plants in there if you like. Have an airstone and heater in the container.

When I treated fish with anti-biotics I simply wiped the inside of the container out each day and did a 100% water change each day before retreating the tank. Cleaning the inside of the container and doing a 100% water change gets rid of biofilm and spent anti-biotics. And you re-dose the tank with full strength anti-biotics so there is a full amount in clean water to treat the fish.

Treatment is normally done for 1 week (sometimes 2 weeks), and there should be a noticeable improvement after 24-48 hours. If there's no improvement after 48 hours, the medication probably isn't working on the infection and you might need something else.

Okay so I separated the silver dollars into a five-ish gallon plastic bin, they have an air pump and a heater, although I'm keeping the temperature at 79 farenheit right now because I don't have a heater powerful enough to get to 86 without overheating such a small container.
I'm treating them with Kanaplex, the kanamycin based medication. Salt is still in the water at two tablespoons per five gallons, I figured I should change it out slowly with water changes over the next week, or if it will still help should I leave it in for the full two weeks?

I don't have Furan 2 and I can't find it in the stores near me, so I would need to order it. It would be at least two days before it arrives, should I order it anyway?
Anything else I should do while they're in isolation? I know I need to do daily water changes and keep a close eye on how much I feed them since they don't have a filter, and if they don't visibly improve after 24-48 hours the medicine is probably not working. Say that there's no improvement, what else should I try?

 

[Naughts]

Just lots of fresh clean (dechlorinated) water. All these treatments combined are likely to stress the fish so that they succumb to their ailments anyway.
These are fish that require a very large tank. If you are not providing the environment they require it will allow illnesses to take hold.

 

[Colin_T]

If you don't have Furan 2, don't bother getting it.

Keep the salt in there for at least 1 week. The salt and Kanamycin might get rid of the infection.

If there's no improvement after a couple of days with the Kanamycin there's probably not much more you can do. In which case run the Kanamycin for a week and then stop treatment.

 

[Penelope .R]

Just lots of fresh clean (dechlorinated) water. All these treatments combined are likely to stress the fish so that they succumb to their ailments anyway.
These are fish that require a very large tank. If you are not providing the environment they require it will allow illnesses to take hold.

Gotcha, I'm going to be doing two half changes daily while they're in isolation.
Their tank is a sixty gallon, they almost never get sick. September 2019 they had horrible fungus, the tank was someone else's responsibility then but I was sure they'd die, they looked horrible and just laid on their sides all day. I believe they were treated with Pimafix and lots of water changes and they survived, they've been alone in the tank ever since until I added the new ones. I wish I never got these new fish, the tank would probably still be healthy. I won't make the mistake of not isolating new additions ever again, I wish I knew before.

If you don't have Furan 2, don't bother getting it.

Keep the salt in there for at least 1 week. The salt and Kanamycin might get rid of the infection.

If there's no improvement after a couple of days with the Kanamycin there's probably not much more you can do. In which case run the Kanamycin for a week and then stop treatment.

Well then I really hope the Kanamycin works, they were someone else's fish before but they've lived with me for six years as of July 4th 2021. I've actually had them longer than any of my other pets.
Thanks everybody for all your help, your advice gave my fish a chance.

 

[Colin_T]

Gotcha, I'm going to be doing two half changes daily while they're in isolation.

Don't do two half water changes each day.

Once a day, just drain out most of the water, add some clean water and drain most of that out, then fill their container back up with clean dechlorinated water. After that, re-dose the medication at full strength.

Wipe the inside of the container down before changing the water each day.

 

[Penelope .R]

Thanks everybody for your help!
The fish are finally showing improvement, I was losing hope after two weeks of salt in the water with no change. The silver dollars are back in the sixty gallon. Their faces are still a bit messed up, but I think they're healing.
Thanks again!

 

[mcordelia]

Ohhh thank goodness!!! This is such good news! Nice work for staying the course and being methodical and pragmatic. I am happy for you