10 Days of Treatment on Blue Gig ... Still Not Cured

[Mirror Pond]

A very good LFS near me brought in a blue gigantea that was not was not doing well so the owner let me bring it home to treat it with antibiotics. I set up a 20 gallon treatment tank with 10 gallons of water and started treatment with half a pill of Bactrim DS. I have been changing 5 gallons of water both morning and night and dosing with half a pill each time. It has definitely shown improvement but it continues to expel quite a bit of brown "rabbit pellets" throughout the day and night. Some days it looks extremely inflated and hardly expels anything and then the next day it only inflates half as much with a lot of pellets. It never has completely closed its mouth and tonight it is looking as bad as it has since about the second day. Should I stay the course or should I look at changing meds to Cipro or something else. Any advice is gladly accepted. I currently have a two year old gig that I initially treated the same way that doing fantastic so I thought that this would go a little better. Thanks.

 

[Daniel62]

I say go with the cipro.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

I agree with using Cipro, with the success rate of Cipro why use anything else.

 

[OrionN]

Treatment with Septra is failing, I would change antibiotic. Best of luck.

 

[addictedreefer]

Classic. IME, gigs respond to meds far less frequently than mags. To me, this is one of the biggest mysteries of the hobby.

You can try Cipro and hope for the best.

 

[D-Nak]

Classic. IME, gigs respond to meds far less frequently than mags. To me, this is one of the biggest mysteries of the hobby.

You can try Cipro and hope for the best.

+1. My success rate with saving gigs is about 50%. I used to think I could save all of them with antibiotics, but I now realize that some of them are just too far gone to be saved. Of the ones that made it, Cipro was the only medication used.

I haven't had any success with Septra. I've used it after trying Cipro and the nem would appear to improve, then would die suddenly. My guess is that Septra has a tipping point with gigs, where too much may lethal.

 

[m0nkie]

+1. My success rate with saving gigs is about 50%. I used to think I could save all of them with antibiotics, but I now realize that some of them are just too far gone to be saved. Of the ones that made it, Cipro was the only medication used.

I haven't had any success with Septra. I've used it after trying Cipro and the nem would appear to improve, then would die suddenly. My guess is that Septra has a tipping point with gigs, where too much may lethal.

that's scary... I'm treating my BTA wth Cipro and no improvements after 3 days.. switched to Septra last night and it looks "better". fingers crossed

 

[D-Nak]

that's scary... I'm treating my BTA wth Cipro and no improvements after 3 days.. switched to Septra last night and it looks "better". fingers crossed

I wouldn't be too concerned. BTAs seem to be a lot more resilient than gigs when it comes to treatment, and even general recovery from abuse or accidents (like getting stuck in a powerhead).

 

[Mirror Pond]

Thanks for the advice everyone. I'll switch to Cipro and hope for the best.