Hi everyone,
My 3 year old female pearl gourami has hemorrhagic septicemia.
Tank stats: 10 gallon
pH 7.0
ammonia, nil
nitrate, nil
kH, so low it doesn't register despite shells in the filter
Other fish are a male pearl gourami, five zebra danios and two cory cats. I do 30% water changes every week, with vacuuming, and am very careful about matching pH and temp. I think what brought on the disease was stress because of adding a new gourami, not water quality -- my female, Ma, became very territorial after her mate died, so I got her a new man hoping that would calm her back down, but it only made things worse -- we were in the process of getting a larger tank to solve the territoriality problem when she got sick.
She became sick last Wednesday 11pm, and initially I used Melafix on the advice of an LFS person, but she hated it when I'd put it in the water -- gasping, racing, etc. -- so I stopped after two days. On Saturday I dosed with Nala-Gram after reading what I could find on this disease. She's only been getting worse. What started out as redness at the base of her pectoral fins is now bloody streaks throughout her fins and feelers, and she sits resting on the bottom and sometimes leans on the glass as well. She does come up for the occassional breath and eats a little, though. The second and final dose of Nala-Gram is due tonight. The instructions say to then wait two days and do a 25% water change and re-introduce activated carbon.
If she isn't better in two days, should I skip the water change/putting in carbon and try another med? I read furazolidone and nitrofurazone are good for this disease (Furan-2). Should I try to give her medicated food as well? Should I try anything else right now? I'm afraid to wait because she's getting worse -- I feel like she's sitting there saying "help me" and I don't know what's the right thing to do. At the same time, I'm concerned about responsible use of antibiotics -- I don't want to create resistant bacterial strains by doing it wrong. Does anyone have experience with this disease? I really don't want my fish to die!
My 3 year old female pearl gourami has hemorrhagic septicemia.
Tank stats: 10 gallon
pH 7.0
ammonia, nil
nitrate, nil
kH, so low it doesn't register despite shells in the filter
Other fish are a male pearl gourami, five zebra danios and two cory cats. I do 30% water changes every week, with vacuuming, and am very careful about matching pH and temp. I think what brought on the disease was stress because of adding a new gourami, not water quality -- my female, Ma, became very territorial after her mate died, so I got her a new man hoping that would calm her back down, but it only made things worse -- we were in the process of getting a larger tank to solve the territoriality problem when she got sick.
She became sick last Wednesday 11pm, and initially I used Melafix on the advice of an LFS person, but she hated it when I'd put it in the water -- gasping, racing, etc. -- so I stopped after two days. On Saturday I dosed with Nala-Gram after reading what I could find on this disease. She's only been getting worse. What started out as redness at the base of her pectoral fins is now bloody streaks throughout her fins and feelers, and she sits resting on the bottom and sometimes leans on the glass as well. She does come up for the occassional breath and eats a little, though. The second and final dose of Nala-Gram is due tonight. The instructions say to then wait two days and do a 25% water change and re-introduce activated carbon.
If she isn't better in two days, should I skip the water change/putting in carbon and try another med? I read furazolidone and nitrofurazone are good for this disease (Furan-2). Should I try to give her medicated food as well? Should I try anything else right now? I'm afraid to wait because she's getting worse -- I feel like she's sitting there saying "help me" and I don't know what's the right thing to do. At the same time, I'm concerned about responsible use of antibiotics -- I don't want to create resistant bacterial strains by doing it wrong. Does anyone have experience with this disease? I really don't want my fish to die!