BSJ Disease Treatment

[hilanilary]

Hi All,
I am new to the forum, but have spent several hours scouring through posts about BSJ Disease.
I know that they:

• need cool temperatures
• need sand to burrow
• are sensitive and easily stressed
• have probably been caught using questionable methods
• are picky eaters and prefer live meaty foods

Most of the posts where medications are listed (and most of these posts seem to be a few years old), it seems like people are guessing at what to use. Could someone direct me to forum links or share successful treatments for BSJ Disease? Hopefully with more people having dealt with it in the last 3-4 years we have a better idea for a cure.

Out of the last 6 BSJ I have ordered, 5 of them have arrived with BSJ Disease (my supplier denies they were sick and has no response when I ask them about care and treatment). Only 3 are currently alive, and I would like to keep them that way for my clients to enjoy.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[Nina51]

i have no idea what BSJ is.

 

[GTR]

I'm guessing blue spot jawfish. What are the symptoms?

 

[Deinonych]

Unfortunately, there isn't a lot of literature about the disease...only anecdotes that it may be bacterial in nature. In what temperature are you keeping the fish? They come from very cool waters - 50s to 60s Fahrenheit - and there is some speculation that keeping them at warmer temperatures correlates to the disease.

http://www.tfhmagazine.com/details/...sh-opistognathus-rosenblatti-full-article.htm

 

[GTR]

We'd have 30-50 comes in and it would be great or real bad. Nothing I tried seemed make much difference. I've seen similar symptoms in Mandarin gobies. It does look bacterial.

 

[hilanilary]

Pictures and previous treatment

Pictures and previous treatment

Deinonych- the ones at the office are in QT around 71, but most of our clients tanks are not that cool. Thanks so much for the link!

I have attached 2 pictures of the Disease. Most start out with a few spots that look like peeling skin after a sunburn, and progress to large patches all over the whole body. Some cases I have seen loss of parts of the dorsal fin and most of the caudal fin.

The 2 in QT came in with the disease and have survived of all the ones who have gotten infected. In the mornings I treat with aquatan. In the afternoons I do a water change followed by Triple Sulfa Powder. The QT have an air stone and several pieces of PVC pipe for them to hide in.

So far the combination of what I'm using has worked the best but here's a list of what I have tried in the past:
Metronidazole, Erythromycin, and Oxytetracycline.

 

[ginpang]

If you tried everything available and if it seems to be a bacterial infection maybe you could try the only anti-biotic that ever worked for us when we received fish from Singapore that showed signs of tuberculosis : ampicillin... But I think you need a vet to prescribe
it.
Also when I caught it [emoji20] in my middle finger , for 5 months I was on ciprofloxacine and rifampicin .... I don't know if those have ever been used in aquaria though.

 

[ginpang]

Any news or improvement?