Fish injured in pump intake--please advise

[Nina51]

long term use of garlic is not good for fish and should only be used to stimulate appetite. since he's eating well, i would stop the garlic and switch to selcon or vita-chem or get both and alternate. soak the food in it for 15 or 20 minutes. good stuff!!

 

[nuxx]

long term use of garlic is not good for fish and should only be used to stimulate appetite. since he's eating well, i would stop the garlic and switch to selcon or vita-chem or get both and alternate. soak the food in it for 15 or 20 minutes. good stuff!!

I use garlic to try to help get fish eating in QT, selcon for everything else.

 

[kelp47]

Thanks, I was actually wondering about long-term use of garlic. I definitely need to hold off then!

 

[ThRoewer]

... I am amazed at how quickly his dorsal fin is healing back up. I figured that would take quite a while. But it's been one week and it's nearly full again.

The fin tissue regrows quickly and as long as the bones (hard fin rays) are not damaged fins will heal fast.
I have two clowns with damaged hard dorsal fin rays and that takes forever too regrow.

 

[Code4]

Great chance he will make a full recovery. I have seen fish much worse make one.

Shelley

 

[kelp47]

The injured fish is looking great! Thanks for the encouragement.

However, I still need to get rid of the white, stringy feces. I gave Metro on Monday, Wednesday and Friday of last week. I didn't see any white stringy feces on Saturday and Sunday (all food-color), but then it came back after I fed them this morning. I was planning on giving them a few more doses just to be sure, but I thought I'd give them a short break from the treatment before starting back today. So should continue treating them with Metro, or do I need to try another med?

Sorry, I know this is veering off the original topic a bit, but it's still appropriate for the forum...

 

[kelp47]

To add to my last post... I guess my question is: Does it sounds like the metro was working, and I just needed to dose more? Or does it sound like it wasn't doing the job to begin with?

 

[ThRoewer]

The medication that worked well for my percula was API General Cure.
It's a combination of Praziquantel and Metronidazole. After two doses the white poo was gone.

 

[kelp47]

Thanks! I just ordered some.

 

[kelp47]

For anyone who ends up on this thread after a search for a similar fish injury, I'm officially signing off on my fish's recovery. It's been 2.5 weeks, and there is very little evidence that anything happened to him. I expect there to be no sign whatsoever in a week or less.

(I'm still dealing with possible internal parasites, but I've moving that to another thread, as it is unrelated to the original issue.)

 

[ThRoewer]

If your fish has white stringy poo and prazipro didn't help try API General Cure - that worked well for one of my percula.

 

[kelp47]

I did... and you'll probably see this in another thread, but...

Last week I gave them two doses (one treatment) of API General Cure. I dosed on Wednesday and Friday, and did 25% a water change on Sunday as instructed. I tried to give it to them with frozen mysis the first time, but they weren't interested, so the next time, I just put it in the water (which the directions actually state should be done). Each pack treats 10 gallons. I have a 10 gallon QT, but I only have about 7 gallons of water in it, so I had to kind of guess at how much to put in.

Do you think it's safe to try another treatment this week? Or should I even do this?

 

[ThRoewer]

I have the same QT size and dumped the whole pack in, a little overdose is OK
If it wasn't effective I would try again.

 

[kelp47]

Ah, okay good to know. After the water change, I put a new carbon filter in, so it should be cleared of old meds by now. I'll start the new treatment tonight. I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks!

 

[kelp47]

I started with the second round of API General Cure on Monday evening, so they are due for the second dose tonight. But I noticed today that they are acting a bit strange, mostly the small one.

I have seen the small one scratch against something a few times, and every now and then he swims a bit erratically. Also, he is spending a lot of time in front of where the water returns from the HOB filter.

The larger one had an episode earlier where she looked like she was trying to dig something out of the corner, and darted a few times. But I haven't noticed anything strange about her this afternoon.

The smaller one didn't eat as well this morning, but both of them ate well this afternoon. I don't see any other symptoms.

So... could the medicine be stressing them, or does this sound like something that they need to be treated for? I had to head to work after seeing these things this morning, but I did throw in a carbon filter just in case it is the medicine.

One thing to note is that I do have a small handful of rock rubble (Matrix) in my HOB filter that was seeded by my display. This has helped cut down on the amount of water I've had to change in the QT. Could this have soaked up some meds and caused it to build up over time? Or maybe I just started the second round to soon, and the 25% water change and carbon filter didn't get enough meds out of the system before starting a second round. Maybe it's just too much medicine.

Or they may have something else entirely, but I don't know where it would come from. I've had them in QT for four weeks now and have only noticed the white poo until today. Some top off/change water has come from my display, but I've never had a sick fish in the display.

Any ideas?

 

[kelp47]

Continued...
When I got home later this evening, the clowns were acting fine. I watched them for a good 20 minutes and didn't notice any flashing, darting, etc. The smaller of the two did spend a little time under the flow, but not the whole time.

It may be that I'm just paranoid because I am SO close to getting them healthy and in my display. I lost a pair of clowns a few months back, to brook, I believe (One of them hung out under the flow a lot, so that's why that behavior catches my attention.)

Also, I notice the female is not picking on the male as much, so maybe the strange behavior is just more weirdness of the clown bonding process. As I type, the female is in the flower pot, and the male is hanging around beside it. So they still haven't fully bonded yet.

One thing that I'll have to check closer in the morning... it kind of looked like the smaller fish had a light dusting on him, which really scared me. But I could only see it when I shined an LED flashlight over them, and of course, that didn't last long because they immediately hid. I won't be convinced of this until I get a better look.

Hopefully they will be free of white poop and other strange symptoms by tomorrow!

 

[ThRoewer]

Watch how they breathe. If it's significantly elevated and the scratching continues I would stop the general cure treatment and switch to CP to combat a possible velvet or brook infection. You should see improvement within a day or two. If not I would try formalin dips.
Before doing any treatment I would also check the water quality to see if that is the cause.
A complete water change can sometimes fix the problem if it isn't an infection.

 

[ThRoewer]

Good that they are ok.
They sometime like swimming in the flow as kind of exercise - some people have a similar system in their pools for the same purpose
My first percula pair does it sometimes. They are in my SPS tank which has a killer flow (it's a 25g cube with pumps that are rated for 100g and up).

 

[kelp47]

Thanks, ThRoewer.
I did check their breathing earlier, and both were fine.

The water quality should be fine. I didn't test ammonia with a kit, but the badge says I'm in the clear. I did test PH, which was 8.0--what I normally run. There is a little "dust" on the bottom, but I imagine that's normal for a QT running 4 weeks. I also remove all visible waste before each feeding, and all uneaten food after each feeding.

I'll check on them in the morning to be sure there is no dusting on them, and to be sure they aren't scratching. I'm working at home the first half of the day, so I'll be able to watch them a little closer. I also have some saltwater on hand in case I need to do a water change earlier than the API General Cure recommends.

Is CP short for cupramine? Sorry, I'm still building up my med artillery, so I don't know them all just yet. I don't have that on hand but I'm sure my LFS has it if I need it. However, I do have Paraguard, which my LFS recommended for external parasites.

Thanks, again for all the advice! Maybe I can return the favor some day when I have more experience under my belt

 

[ThRoewer]

CP is short for Chloroquine Phosphate which is also the single ingredient of New Life Spectrum Ick Shield Powder (you get it at Amazon.com). I
t's the most effective medication against velvet.
It also kills Ich and Uronema.
And there are also reports that it works against brook, though against that one I would also keep formalin on hand, just in case.