You do need to be careful, and though i don't use them, gloves are a good idea. Many years ago I got a nasty infection in my thumb from a coral puncture wound that was spreading as red streaks into my hand. Never knew for sure what it's was, but a 4 week course of antibiotics was necessary to get rid of it. I'm very careful now to use tongs or a light grip.
The deadly Vibrio
- Thread starter Mrscribbled
- Start date
Well this looks awfully familiar
This regal went downhill very quickly too. I treated with antibiotics as soon as the redness started to appear (Furan-2 is what I had on hand) but it was just too late. I did a full treatment after the death of the regal on the QT tankmate, but I'm still a little nervous about that fish. If the fish isn't symptomatic, would you agree that it's safe? This just goes to show, no matter how reputable your source, quarantine is not optional!!
Yikes!
Rea17
New member
I made sure to use gloves when handling this fish, I have lots of qts and I'm anal about cross contaminating. For those interested, the infection appeared on the regal after 2 days in quarantine (new fish from LA), and after a week the fish died. She ate well until the day before she died, and the open wounds were preceded by redness, swelling, and shedding of scales.
Thanks for the reassurance, Josh. It sucks to do everything right and have things like this happen, I feel your pain. I will locate some stronger antibiotics in case I come across something like this again in the future. For reference, when you recommend the use of hydrogen peroxide, what is your procedure? How long do you keep the fish in contact with it/how long do you let it fizz? Is there a reason to rinse the fish in a bowl of qt water before putting it back in the tank?
Thanks for the reassurance, Josh. It sucks to do everything right and have things like this happen, I feel your pain. I will locate some stronger antibiotics in case I come across something like this again in the future. For reference, when you recommend the use of hydrogen peroxide, what is your procedure? How long do you keep the fish in contact with it/how long do you let it fizz? Is there a reason to rinse the fish in a bowl of qt water before putting it back in the tank?
Mrscribbled
Team RC
The kill time with hydrogen peroxide is 15-30 seconds, squirt directly on the fish. The key is to catch it early. Every twelve hours when using meds in the QT should be sufficient, but more won't hurt. A dip of methenyle blue before going back into QT wouldn't hurt either. Sadly I caught it too late on the flagfin.
OrionN
Moved on
IMO, as a physician, apply topical stuff on to wound does not penetrate deeply enough into the wound to make much different. Formaldehyde, Hydrogen peroxide, alcohol, iodine all kill indiscriminately. They essentially kill all living cell, or bacterial on contact. Of course the strength is concentration dependent.
What kill the fish is the systemic internal infection, not necessary the bacterial on the wound.
I would medicate the treatment tank with either ciprofloxacin (Cipro) or levofloxacin (Levaquin) at the dose of 250 mg per 10 gallons. Treatment must be done in hospital tank. These medication breakdown by light, the brighter the light the quicker is the break down of the medication so HT must be keep low light. Re-dose is likely not need if keep dark. Dose with water change daily. I would change at least 50% of water with added medication each day. These are broad spectrum antibiotic that should cover most of the human pathogen in salt water. I really don't know enough about fish pathogen in water to comment on this. It should cover Vibrio which is the likely pathogen here.
I do have some experiences with Cipro because I am using this to treat infected anemones, especially H. magnifica and S. gigantea with very good result. If you interested go over to Anemone and clownfish forum. There is a sticky thread on this subject there.
What kill the fish is the systemic internal infection, not necessary the bacterial on the wound.
I would medicate the treatment tank with either ciprofloxacin (Cipro) or levofloxacin (Levaquin) at the dose of 250 mg per 10 gallons. Treatment must be done in hospital tank. These medication breakdown by light, the brighter the light the quicker is the break down of the medication so HT must be keep low light. Re-dose is likely not need if keep dark. Dose with water change daily. I would change at least 50% of water with added medication each day. These are broad spectrum antibiotic that should cover most of the human pathogen in salt water. I really don't know enough about fish pathogen in water to comment on this. It should cover Vibrio which is the likely pathogen here.
I do have some experiences with Cipro because I am using this to treat infected anemones, especially H. magnifica and S. gigantea with very good result. If you interested go over to Anemone and clownfish forum. There is a sticky thread on this subject there.
Mrscribbled
Team RC
I've heard levoflaxin works well but have only been able to find it forsale by the Kilo.
OrionN
Moved on
Both levofloxacin and ciprofloxacin are fluoroquinolones antibiotics. They should works about the same and essentially the same spectrum. Levofloxacin is a newer antibiotic and generic are not available while ciprofloxacin is much cheaper. Cipro cost about 12-16 dollars for 40 tablets 250 mg.
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