Need Help Asap!!!! Sick bleeding heart tetra

[platytetrafan]

Ok I have had this bleeding heart tetra for three years that last survivor of the last school I had and was planning to build up the school. See my sig for rest of fish in 36 gallon. All the fish that are in this tank were QT'd slowly for a month each with no problems until I notice tonight my adult bleeding heart tetra with ragged fins and a couple of white spots on it's body is hard to tell but also looks like reddenned areas on the body and the fish are picking on him as if they know he's sick. I just recently added 3 new bleeding heart tetras to the tank they just got off QT and are healthy.

I am so upset all the fish have been fine until tonight. My question is obviously gotta get this fish out of the main tank tonight. I have a makeshift bucket approx 10 gallons that I can use as another QT for this sick fish or should I use the 3.5 L container? Right now my regular 10 g all glass aquarium is being used to QT a male gouramie he was to be the last fish to add and then I would be done. Am so angry right now. It is only one fish affected I have a heater I can use and a bubbler meds I can use that I have in the house aquarisol, pimafix and fungus cure. I also have aquarium salt. Need help on what to do can anyone help? I tried to take some pics but you can't really see the white spots in the pic they are very faint the fish is not covered with them I can only see two. The fish is active so that is one good thing just need advise for treatment and what container to use since only one fish is affected. Please need answer ASAP! Thanks!:nilly: Water parameters are fine just did a wc recently due for another one this Sunday.

 

[platytetrafan]

Ok fish is in makeshift QT tank is a large hard plastic ice bucket with heater on. I added aquarium salt when I was acclimating the fish to the new tank I snapped some pics of him in the plastic bag. Is hard to see but the caudal and fin under the body of the fish are ragged and I don't see the white spots now but did see them when the fish was in the 36g main tank. I also noticed some reddenned areas on the body of the fish could this be bacterial? I have the heater on and bubbler and the fish seems calmer and is active he seemed stressed out in the main tank primarily due to the other fish picking on him. Now what to medicate the fish with if anything I am not sure if this is ich since the spots are not all over the fish and I could barely see them in the plastic bag. I really hate when this happens because I suck at diagnosing fish disease and suck even more at treating it. Here are the best pics I could take any help is appreciated. Thanks!

 

[nguyendetecting]

sorry to hear about your troubles, I'm sure he'll pull through they're pretty hardy. I would keep doing 50% water changes daily and make sure he's eating well. As far as meds I don't really medicate much so others will have to advise you on that. clean water and good food will go a long way. If he gets better up your school of bleeding hearts and don't add him back with the fish that attacked him.

good luck I have 2 bleeding hearts that were rehomed to me. they're awesome fish

 

[platytetrafan]

Is weird because I don't know what happenned all the fish that have been in that tank have been in there with him for a long time this happenned after I added the 3 other bleedind heart tetras to school with him he has been the lone bleeding heart for a long time I couldn't find bleeding hearts in any of the LFS and then a month ago there they were. They are younger and he is the adult fish could this have stressed him out? The other fish never bothered him just noticed this tonight.

 

[mel_20_20]

I was working on a post here, but my laptop battery died before I could submit it.
I was looking at the photos on my laptop and in the third or fourth photo it looks to me that your tetra has fin rot and septicemia. The caudal fin is ragged and red near it's base and there is a chunk missing (could have been nipped), and there is redness at the base of the caudal fin and in the peduncle. I think I can see other areas of redness in the tetra's body.

You could watch him closely for a few hours, keep his water pristine through big daily water changes, and this migh be all he needs.

If you see worsening of symptoms you might consider antibiotics. Kanaplex is one I've had success with, and I have used maracyn, which is supposed to be an improved erythromycin.

I'm so sorry you're having this problem. Please keep us posted.

 

[mel_20_20]

Back on my computer.

I was in the middle of making a post when my laptop went dead as a door knob and I was already in bed and didn't want to wake up my husband by going for the power cord. (Geeeze... I can sure go on with unnecessary details, lol)

Anyway...the above post was from my iPhone and I didn't have the photo that I was going to attach here, but now I can attach it:



You can see the caudal fin looks pretty bad, though it may have also had a fish take a chunk out of it.

Also, the redness there at the base of the fin and on the peduncle looks like septicemia. I saw what appears to be reddened areas in the tetra's body in other places.

I don't know why your fish got sick; it sounds like you did everything right and I know that you take care of water quality. Sometimes a fish does get an infection when their immune system takes a hit due to stress, and it is possible that the new Tetra's were pestering him and stressed him.

Whatever the reason, having him isolated is good and keeping his water pristine is vital. Often all a fish needs is removal from the stressor and pristine water to heal from finrot, but I'm worried that this looks like the infection has gotten into his bloodstream - septicemia.

You might watch him closely for a few more hours to see if there is improvement, but you may want to go ahead and start antibiotic treatment.

Here are some choices that I, and/or others, have had good success with in cases of Septicemia and advanced finrot.

Kanaplex is a good broad spectrum antibiotic that is absorbed through the skin and can help whith septicemia. Kanaplex and Furan 2 are a good combo that give an ever better punch.

Maracyn is Erythromycin and, supposedly, has been tweaked to perform better than just plan ol' EM. Flaringshutter had good results using that in one of her threads. I've used Maracyn with success in Septicemia, too.

One of our AC member vendors here used plain old Erythromycin with great success on some fish that came in with serious septicemia. I think the antibiotic was both in the water and also in an Erythromycin medicated flake food used, which I think is important and probably why it worked so well.

In one case I had a Brochis that I successfully treated using Jungle Labs Fungus Clear, which is easily obtainable and cheap. It actually treats bacterial infection, and fungus, though it's called Fungus Clear. A Jungle Lab rep told me they call it that because often the hobbiest sees lesions that they mistakenly believe to be fungus.

If you could do the internal and external dosing with Erythromycin I would go with that, having seen the great success our AC vendor/member had.

If you can't do that then I think I'd go with Kanaplex or the Kanaplex/Furan2 combo. I have had good success with Kanaplex alone, and also with the combo in other cases.

Third choice, if you can't find the other ones I mentioned, would be Jungle Labs Fungus Clear, simply because it is so readily available, usually, and time is a factor here.

If you do decide to go ahead and do antibiotic treatment:

I'd do daily huge water changes, leaving just enough to cover his back in the QT, then dose the tank.

Every 24 hours water change and then dose.

I'd do that for 10 days to be sure you wipe out all traces of infection. (I've had replapse in treating for fewer days)

I know that most of the antibiotics packaging say to do otherwise, but the antibiotic breaks down in several hours and becomes unavailable anyway,
and by doing the huge (90% is what I do) water changes you keep the water free of traces of ammonia and other harmful compounds.

Careful, temperature matched, conditioned water is important. I love Prime and use that to help detoxify any traces of ammonia and nitrite.

Some here disagree with the daily water change/dosing protocol, but many others, mods and other very experienced fish keepers here included, advocate doing this.

It's up to you, however, and we all will support your efforts in any way we can. I hope your little sickie pulls through.

Hopefully more of our members will offer input regarding the diagnosis, and I would hope that I'm wrong, but it sure looks like septicemia to me.

Keep us posted. I know we are all pulling for you and your little guy.

 

[platytetrafan]

Well thankyou so much for your post and advise but unfortunately my tetra died about an hour ago. Am so sad he was one of the original tetras I had from the beginning had him since 2007. He never got sick so I guess this was his time. I did isolate him the moment I saw the ragged fins and redness and changing his water in the makeshift QT I made up added salt but to no avail. I noticed he wasn't eating either the last few days saw alot of the food at the bottom. This is a mystery since my other fish are doing fine including the 3 new young bleeding hearts I just added this past week. I guess I will look on Wed to see if Petland Discounts gets in some more and will QT them in my 10 g to make the school a bit larger need atleast one more. It's just sad when you know you did everything right to avoid getting your other fish sick and when this happens you feel like a failure especially when this is a fish you had for a long time. Never got to treat him with the antibiotics this came on so fast never saw it coming. Thanks again so much!

 

[BrainLady]

Sorry about your fish, I love the Bleeding Heart Tetras. Looks like you tried really hard.

 

[platytetrafan]

I did but the fish must have been really sick and I really stink at diagnosing disease but this came on very fast and I knew I had to isolate him really fast. What frustrates me is I was almost done restocking I had some fish die over a year ago from unknown reasons could never figure out why but I QT'd all the fish in my 36g each school for a month and was almost done. Now it may be another month before I can actually break down this QT has been up for almost a year. Hopefully I can find more bleeding heart tetras for a long time my LFS didn't have them if they don't then these three will have to do. The last to be added will be a male and female pearl gouramie. Thanks again for your help was much appreciated.