Cyanided Fish

[fishfreak2009]

Anybody have any treatments for reversing damage done by cyanide collection? I lost a beautiful regal angelfish today to what the veterinarian and I believed to be damage caused by cyanide. It was a 5" long female from Bali who came into the LFS on Thanksgiving night. I picked her up in a black Friday sale. She never ate the entire time I had her. Upon necropsy, her liver had multiple abscesses, as did her spleen and intestinal tract. The stomach was full of bloody pus, and it as well as the intestines were severely atrophied. This fish had gone through a freshwater/formalin bath upon arrival at home (prophylactic for flukes/velvet) and 2 weeks of copper sulfate/praziquantel (also prophylactic for flukes/ich/velvet). The fish lived in hyposaline (S.G. 1.009) conditions until it died today. Also received two baths in methylene blue about 48 hours apart last week (since I suspected cyanide poisoning). Also received treatment for 10 days with erythromycin starting the second week of quarantine, as one of the other fish in quarantine was showing symptoms of a bacterial infection (which quickly cleared up with 10 days of antibiotics). It was forcefed starting December 1st, as the fish was losing weight fast.

So anybody have any suggestions as to what to do different next time?

 

[Sense of nature]

So sad to hear this is still going on.
I have never heard of any reversing method, I would be very curious & hope maybe there is.

 

[ThRoewer]

To my knowledge there is nothing that can reverse the damage of a lethal dose, for sure not after the cyanide damaged the liver.

Methelyne blue might help if the fish goes into the bath immediately after exposure to cyanide, but I seriously doubt that it helps much at a later point in time.

BTW, did you test the liver for cyanide residues?
Not eating is not necessarily an indicator of cyanide damage.
I had a Sumatra Regal that was eating quite well, but lost body mass nevertheless and ultimately died.
That fits definitely the symptoms of cyanide damage to the liver.

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[snorvich]

To my knowledge there is nothing that can reverse the damage of a lethal dose, for sure not after the cyanide damaged the liver.

This. Seeing a fish eat at the LFS will prevent.

 

[ThRoewer]

This. Seeing a fish eat at the LFS will prevent.

Actually, a fish that was caught with cyanide and got too high of a dose may still eat OK. But the liver damage will kill it slowly.

There is really no definitive way to tell if a fish was caught with beyond running a chemical analysis for cyanide derivatives.

The only way would be to avoid fish from counties where cyanide fishing is still practiced, most notably Indonesia and Philippines. Though the Philippines are right now on a vicious campaign to finally end cyanide fishing.
Unfortunately Indonesia is one of the largest sources for reef fish and therefore hard to avoid completely.

Fish from the Caribbean, Africa, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Hawaii, Australia, Solomon Islands, Fiji, Marshall Islands, Vanautu and most other places should be caught without cyanide.

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