EDIT: I posted too late, lol.
Regarding your above post - I do worry about exposure to your other fish. Isolation is one of the first things we think about in the case of illness, but as you state, the others may be alreay infected, certainly they've been exposed and it is probably a good idea to treat the whole tank now.
I worry about Tommy, having gone through the one illness that you were able to successfully treat.
Lymphocystis was a good guess, but I don't think this looks like that at all.
I think, making my best guess... I would go ahead and treat the whole tank as you suggest. However, if you see any signs that the bumps appear about to rupture I would get the Rainbow out of the main tank and isolate.
Regarding the earlier posts between Cerianthus and myself:
I agree that distilled or bottled spring water
would be good to use; I used tank water because I was treating in a 5 gallon hospital tank and doing 90% water changes every day, so I felt the tank water was pretty clean.
Aged tap is good as long as your municipal water system doesn't use chloramine.
As for ingesting the water, if the fish is or has been eating flake, or any other prepared fishfood, by the time it's dropped into the water and the fish gets to it... it will have absorbed some of the tank water and ingested some of it anyway, but I agree that distilled or even bottled spring water would be a good choice.
As for refridgerating it, freezing may be better, but in the short term refrigerating the medicated food will adequately preserve the efficacy of the antibiotic for several days.
I think the difficulty of mixing up tiny doses daily may be more of a problem than mixing up a few days worth.
I used the tiny scoop(dose for 5 or 10 gallon tank, If memory serves) that came with the bottle of Metro in 2 tablespoons of water knowing that the fish is going to just nibble a little bit on the food.
I think it would have certainly been an overdose if the fish gulped down huge quantities, but the fish, as I expected, ate little bits of the medicated food. Therefore, although my method was imprecise shot-in-the-dark dosing, I must have hit on a good forumla; it didn't hurt my Brochis, and on another ocassion some Otos, and they all recovered fully.
Since reading the following article, in the future I will have some dosage guidlines to follow in the future.
Here's an excerpt from a paper by by a professer at the University of Florida, regarding treating with Metronidazole medicated food. I've included her dosing information and a food recipe that can be prepared with Metro and frozen. (This article was pertaining to fish infected with Hexamita specifically, but I thought the information regarding the dosing and preparation of medicated food with Metronidazole could be helpful here.)
Here's the excerpt:
"Metronidazole can be administered orally at a dosage of 50 mg/kg body weight (or 10 mg/gm food) for 5 consecutive days. A recipe for a gelatinized food is shown in Table 1 .
The medication can also be mixed with dry food using fish oil as a binding agent. One teaspoon of metronidazole weighs approximately 2.25 gm; therefore 2 tsp. should be added to each pound of food. The drug should be added when the gelatinized mixture has cooled, but has not yet set. The medicated food can then be frozen for storage. During the 5 day treatment regime feed only the medicated food to the fish."
Table 1.
Table 1. Recipe for gelatinized food which can be used to deliver oral medication to ornamental fish.
Ingredients:
6 oz
Can of shrimp
2 oz
Frozen spinach
1 oz
Grated carrots
3 tbsp
Baby cereal (dry)
2 tbsp
Brewer's yeast
2 oz
Unflavored gelatin
15 oz
Water
Optional ingredient:
1 tsp
Liquid vitamins
Procedure:
1.Blend 5 oz of water with shrimp, spinach, carrots, baby cereal, brewer's yeast and vitamins.
2.Boil remaining 10 oz of water.
3.Add boiling water to gelatin in a bowl.
4.Cool until gelatin mixture is hot but doesn't burn.
5.Add contents of blender to partially cooled gelatin mixture, mix thoroughly.
6.Add medication to cooled mixture.
7.Pour into flat pan and refrigerate.
8.Cut gelatinized mixture into cubes for feeding and store in freezer.
Dr. Ruth Francis-Floyd, assistant professor of aquaculture and fisheries; Peggy Reed, biological scientist; Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences and Department of Fisheries and Aquaculture; Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, 32611.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/vm053
Having said all that, Fabio, I'm wondering how your little Rainbow is faring?
All this info about Metronidazole may be for naught if you are unable to get it, in that case I would try to treat your Rainbow as you did Lucy, your Gourami, with the Interpet product/s that
are available to you there in the UK.
And, as always, first priority: Pristine water, stable and stress free conditions and environment; these things are a must to give her the best chance to recover.
Let us know how things are going. Best wishes to you in your efforts.
