Help--mandarin with open sore, growing

[Canarygirl]

Hi

My mandarin showed up with an open sore on his neck the day before yesterday. I thought I remembered seeing a small white spec on him in that spot, but thought that it was a piece of sand stuck on his slime coat. (He had a couple of these in the LFS and the owner said it was sand stuck on his slime coat). I've had him 2-4 weeks.

Anyway, open sore all of a sudden. By the next morning it was bigger with red area in the middle that looked like raw meat (white fuzzy edges), whole thing 2-3 mm across. I put him in QT and started to give erythromicin.

Today the sore does not have a red spot in it anymore, but the entire thing is growing. It is ~4-5 mm across now, gettting close to his eye. He's had 2 doses of antibiotic now.

What is this and what should I do? I tried to follow the link on 'white cotton stuff' in the FAQ section but the search function was disabled.

Your help would be much appreciated.

 

[kevin2000]

A picture might help.

Not sure what the problem is but your approach appears reasonable ... not sure what caused the open wound but antibiotic will help any related infection.

Sounds like your using maracyn which is generally not considered a good antibiotic for SW .. you should consider switching to Maracyn 2 (minocycline) and use twice the recommended dosage. There are better antibiotics out there but most are hard to find at your LFS.

 

[Canarygirl]

True, I looked for maracyn 2 in 3 local stores and could not find it.

This is not maracyn it is erythromycin. "Open red sores" is listed on label but mine is like I said, bright white and fuzzy looking.

 

[kevin2000]

Maracyn is erythromycin.

In the old days Maracyn 2 was carried by just about everyone including Petco and Petsmart. Better antibiotics would include Kanamycin and neomycin (sold by Seachem as Kanaplex and Neoplex I think).

I am unsure about the "white fuzzy" .. a picture would help. The white cotton link you mentioned deals with lymphocytis which is a wart like problem that some fish have ... doesn't seem to apply here.

Hope this helps

 

[Canarygirl]

oh...I didn't realize that was myacin.

This is a crap photo but I don't know how to take decent pictures of fish where you can actually see something.

 

[Sk8r]

There's gram negative and gram positive bacteria. I believe that maracyn is a broad-spectrum designed to get either, or both.

 

[kevin2000]

No photo?

Here a link which discusses some of the better antibiotics .. might help.

http://www.marineaquariumadvice.com/Treatment-of-Choice.htm

 

[Canarygirl]

sorry still struggling to post my crappy photo

well the photo is essentially useless and I see that you can't double click to make it bigger...

anyway, just imagine a chewed up looking area, pure white but it looks like the flesh is decaying...it's all raggedy looking.

Let's try this

http://reefcentral.com/gallery/data/500/146146mandarin__740_x_555_.jpg

 

[tetra-tag]

Might the 'white fuzzy' (cottony?) description suggest a fungus? I don't know what the appropriate treatment for that would be, Maroxy or perhaps Melafix/Pimafix.

(This thread discusses some issues surrounding the use of Melafix/Pimafix: http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=843901)