Day four of QT. I haven't lost any more damsels, since the first one. I believe my efforts are working. After such dismal luck dealing with Uronema, I'm tempted to call this a breakthrough, but let's wait and see.
In the meantime, here's what I've been doing to fight uronema:
First, I assume that all three of my quarantine tanks are infected with uronema, before the fish are even in there. Why? Because uronema does not need a fish host to survive. If you've had uronema before, your tank is still infected! So, for every new round of QT, the tanks get disinfected with bleach solution. This includes anything wet, so filters, heaters, everything gets the treatment. This starts you out with a clean slate. I wonder how many fish I infected before, just by not doing this first step!
Next, I get the QTs' salinity matched to the incoming water the fish are bagged in. This allows me to float the bags for 15 minutes or so, then release them right into the QTs, without dripping, or other acclimation techniques. This avoids the "Death in Bags" described in Sk8r's excellent thread. Again, I wonder how many fish I doomed, just by doing the previously 'recommended' acclimation technique!
Each QT got a dose of Stress Coat and API's General Cure. The active ingredients in General Cure are Metronizadole and Praziquantel. Metronizadole is the medication I found the most consensus on, as a uronema cure.
Since this parasite gets deep into the fish, internal treatment is needed as well. I used Metroplex combined with Focus and Garlic Guard mixed into frozen mysids and cyclops, for a medicated food. They seem to be eating it pretty well. So now, we're treating both the inside and outside of the fish. This seems to be important with uronema.
Since open sores are part of the symptoms, I'm also treating them with antibiotics. I have Erythromycin on-hand, so that's what I'm using. This requires two days of dosing, followed by a 25% water change, then repeat, for a total of four doses and two water changes. For replacement water I'm just using fresh water. This will get the salinity down to hypo salinity levels, which is an excellent treatment for ICH, and it eases the burden of osmoregulation for the fish, making their lives a little bit easier.
Today, I have one more dose of erythromycin to do, and a water change tomorrow. This will get me down to hypo level salinity. I'm probably going to continue with medicated food for a few more days to be safe. The suggested treatment is for five days or until symptoms disappear. Then I'll feed 'regular' food heavily, to fatten them up. Hypo salinity will continue until one week remaining in QT, then I'll start ramping salinity back up to display tank levels, for introduction.
The cost is considerable. Cost for five fish was $63. Medication was $70 (not including the Stress coat, Garlich Guard and Erythromycin, which I already had). With the one fish lost, that brings the price per fish up to $33.25 - for damsels! This is probably the main reason Uronema has gotten so bad in the industry. Curing cheap fish isn't cost effective. So the problem persists, with no end in sight.
As for me, I'll be thrilled if I can keep the remaining four happy and healthy. Having six of these beauties in my tank will make it all worth it!
