Treating fish - potential mouth rot...

[jalexst]

Hi everyone,


I bought a few boesmani rainbow fish a few weeks ago, and when I got them home I noticed that one had, what looked like, very small white fluff on its lip. Having researched I came to the conclusion that this may be mouth rot.

I quarantined the fish and dosed with Waterlife Myazin for five days (a five day dose as recomended) and a couple of days later reintoduced him to my tank, still with evidence of the mouth rot...

Researching medication proved quite confusing, and the instructions always seem so vague for what is essentially a very important process. I am wondering the following...

1. Is it best to quarantine the fish and treat, or to treat the whole tank?

2. if i quarantine, do I need to wait for all symptoms to dissapear before reintroducing to the tank?

3. If I treat the whole tank, will the meds dye anything in the tank (the liquid is very blue)

The "white fluff" on the lips of my rainbow has not changed. it hasn't spread and I haven't seen signs of it clearing up either. Maybe I was to eager to get him back in the tank, and removed him from the treated water too soon.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Also I have read on this forum about Melafix which seems to have quite a good reputation. Will this be any good for me?

Many thanks in advance

 

[jalexst]

Oh yeah, one more thing....

Will it be OK to add to a tank with Shrimp?

Some meds say don't. Some meds say it's OK. and some say neither...

Cheers.

 

[mitchelllawson]

Is there copper in the meds? If so do NOT add it to a shrimp tank. It will kill everything, copper to shrimp is like drinking some fluorosulfuric acid.

 

[awtong]

I would always try and quarantine and treat just the fish with the symptoms rather than the whole tank. Keep a close eye on the rest of the stock in case of further outbreaks on the other rainbow fish.

I would remove the fish again and not return to the main tank until the symptoms have gone away.

Good luck hope it gets better.

Andy

 

[jalexst]

Thanks Andy,

it is so hard to know what to do sometimes because the meds instuctions are so vague...

I think I will do the 5 day treatment and wait to see what happens... although I am not sure what to do next if it doesn't go away. guess I will take it as it comes..

Cheers mate.

 

[awtong]

As said further up a lot of meds have copper or other agents in them which will kill shrimp and fish such as loach's.

I do agree that the instructions can be very vague so be careful when dosing. If you did dose wrong at least if you have a quarantine tank it will not affect the healthy fish!

Does the medication have a repeat procedure? Most meds are dose for a number of days then do a water change, then repeat again if necessary and symptoms persist. It should say in the instructions somewhere.

A lot of LFS and P@H stock Melafix and Pimafix which treat different bacterial and fungal infections. You could try and get a picture and take it to LFS for advice on diagnosis and treatment as a wrong diagnosis and treatment can be fatal.

Hope that helps.

Andy

 

[jalexst]

thanks Andy,

There are no repeat procedure instructions. It literally says:

Measure the correct dose.

Frequency of treatment:

Use on days 1,2,3,4 & 5.

that's it.

I think I will pop to my local shop and see what they say, just to be sure. Maybe I'll use one of the treatments that you have mentioned. The seem to keep coming up when I am checking the internet. Seems like they are the more trusted treatments...

Jack