Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 I have no idea what is wrong with my P dovii. I have never seen anything quite like it. About 2 weeks ago, my male dovii 10" look like it had two scales missing on it's back, I figured no big deal probably just injured himself chasing around other fish. The next day the spot looked a bit red, i fgured ah it will be ok. The third day the spot on the fishes back looked worse. So i removed the fish and treated with a dose of anti fungal medication because that's what i thought it was. It just keopt getting worse. It's now two weeks later, and a spot on the dovii's back is completely scalesss and you can actually see th fishes muscle, the condition has spread to its dorsal fin aswell. I have no idea what it is. The closest comparison I can make is some sort of flesh eating virus? any ideas? water parameters are fine... o other fish are affect, thanks god. obviously quite nasty and painful looking! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 this looks nasty, i have a similar but not as severe problem with one of my devils, it turned out to be fry nibbling on his side, id be looking for an aggressor here, keep us posted Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Author Share Posted November 20, 2004 That male is the top dog in the tank, I doubt anything was attacking him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
r.d.m Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 is there any way you can isolate him just to make sure , eggcrate maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Author Share Posted November 20, 2004 He is already isolated. For treatment in a smaller tank. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 are you treating him with melafix or a higher salt concentration or anything in this other tank? I'm just curious as to how you'd tackle something that bad Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Author Share Posted November 20, 2004 I did a week course of Melafix, with no results. I also used melachite green in the beginning when I thought it was some sort of 'fungus', I gave him a high concentration salt bath. Now all im treating with is salt. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ash Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 has it gotten worse/better since the isolation? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Author Share Posted November 20, 2004 Slightly worse. But it now isn't getting worse which is good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter_Gun_Riff Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 i have no idea have you tryed contacting some of the american guys jeff rapps etc he might know what it is as his experience is alot lot more then ours. id say he will be scared for life after though Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeW Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Very strange. Could also be a bacterium of some kind. Regardless: keep up the salt (1tsp/5L of water) that kind of wound puts a massive strain on the fishes osmotic regulatory systems. If it continues to deteriorate *as you know Alex* you'll need to do the most humane thing. Not nice - sorry for your troubles Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alex Posted November 20, 2004 Author Share Posted November 20, 2004 Thanks for the advice Dave. If he gets much worse I will euthanise him, but not before I have a good crack at curing him. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ducksta Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Hmmm, thats awful, really sorry to see it and to think what you must be going through Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MikeWs Fish Posted November 20, 2004 Share Posted November 20, 2004 Mate im no expert on medication, but does anyone think it could be similar to hole in the head? Maybe some atibiotics could be used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mtchye Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Quite a while ago I had an outbreak of a similar disease which affected the fins and body like yours. They were angelfish and it was quite a virulent bacterium. It may not be the same as yours but in my case the tri sulfa meds available in LFS worked wonders and turned it around in days. Since its external as a last resort you could also try potassium permanganate. Permanganate kills off a lot of external stuff and is cheap to use. You have to be careful with the dosing. In addition both permanganate and the trisulfas may affect filter bacteria also - conflicting reports about that though. I usually bypass the filter for treatments if possible with plenty of aeration. Permanganate is dosed at 2ppm and depending on the organic load of the water will stay purple for a certain amount of time. You need to adjust the dose so that it stays purple for at least four hours. Have a bottle of hydrogen peroxide handy to reverse the permanganate instantly in case of O/D. Lastly it does not look like hole in the head, but metronidazole is active against many gram negative bacteria also, and can pass the blood brain barrier and thus is useful added just to the water. A short half life means most ppl try to dose 6ppm for 3 consecutive days with a water change on 5th day. Some other ppl dose double that for the first dose to keep concentrations up. Its a pretty non-toxic antibiotic so if you are going to go that route, higher doses are better than lower - and finish the course, don't shorten it. Good luck dude. Vincent Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Subgirl Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Hmmm, never seen anything like that on any of my americans Alex, deffinatley looks like some kind of skin eating bacteria......or something like that. The way the scales to the front of the wound are still intact tells me it aint another fish, and i doubt it's a fungus. Other than that i'm lost. Keep up the salt. Best of luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
anchar Posted November 22, 2004 Share Posted November 22, 2004 Hi Alex, Very nasty looking...I agree with subgirl's comments, though it does look a little hopeless IMHO merjo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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