Flesh Eating Disease

[Chavez187]

Has anyone ever had any unfortunate experience with flesh eating diesiese, I seem to have something more than meets the eye going on in my 75. My two rather large syndonotis eupterus (catfish) that seem to be getting bitten by my oscar, but the oscar bit the two ghost knives and there is a very different look to it (I have moved both Ghosties ) and the placing of these so-called bites are suspect aswell. The started in thr gill area by the base of the fins, then the back fin of one looked as if it was bitten (half moon bitten)
then the back near the anal fins started to look as if they were also being bitten at, but its so small an area and it's almost a-symetrical on both sides.
The Oscar does produce allot of waste and even though I do my weekly changes the tank gets Craped on so to speak. I have a 12" pleco aswell as two of the catfish with the Oscar who is only about 6-8". Has anyone heard or can recommend an avenue to take here...
Much Appreciated...
Chavez :duh::duh::duh::duh::duh::duh::duh::duh::duh::duh: :duh::duh::duh::duh::duh:

[Chavez187]

I will post pictures soon!

[thebrandon]

almost sounds like fin rot to me?

[BettaFishMommy]

if the tank is not an appropriate size for the stocking and the filtration is not amped up enough to handle the bioload, you could very well be seeing the effects of poor water quality (ammonia and such).

have you tested your water for ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates? that is the first thing i would do, then do a large water change daily for at least a week to see if the affected areas on the fish clear up. if so, yep, yucky water was the cause!

[Chavez187]

I have an xp3 and a marineland330 on the 75 gallon so I doubt it's the filtration but the pleco is a S$#t factory so between the oscar and the pleco maybe they have too much waste for the weekly water changes?
I think I am going to pull everything out except a few plants and one piece of wood, add a powerhead and try to increase the current too.
My ammo and nit/ rates/rites are all ok.
I will try the daily water changes also.
Thanks for the Help!
Chavez

[excuzzzeme]

I feel that you have too many fish for a 75. Just the pleco and Oscar alone are huge waste factories and feel that just the two of them max out a 75 as far as water goes. Since you have plants, they are helping to suck up the nitrogen and ammonia. Once the Oscar starts getting up around 10" (+/-) it may start ripping up the plants to redecorate. If the pleco is a common, it will uproot plants just thru swimming as they seem to bounce off everything including plants. I have seen them uproot plants when going after a bit of food.

[SubRosa]

Ulcers such as you describe are usually caused by bacteria of the genera Pseudomonas or Aeromonas. Both of these are gram negative bacteria so appropriate meds would include Furan or Sulfa based preparations. But always look to water quality first, because all the antibiotics in the world won't cure a fish that's swimming in a cesspool.

[blue2fyre]

It sounds like the same bacterial infection my mbuna tank had a few months ago. I used Maracyn I and Maracyn II to get rid of it. It worked really well.

[Chavez187]

OK so today there is a little more fleash eaten. I am going ahead and doing a large water change and will start dosing with meds. Should I stop one of the filters to make sure I don't have a bio-disaster if the meds kill my colonies.
P.S. Does anyone want a free pleco, hehe.

[Chavez187]

The water change done and the tank clean again, I will change and clean the xp3 tomorrow and HOPE!

[SubRosa]

It sounds like the same bacterial infection my mbuna tank had a few months ago. I used Maracyn I and Maracyn II to get rid of it. It worked really well.Maracyn II cured your fish. Maracyn I wasted your money.

[blue2fyre]

I used both in combination to cover any secondary infections. Since I didn't know exactly what the infection was I wanted to cover both gram negative and gram positive antibiotics. I would much rather be safe than sorry considering how fast it was killing my fish.