| Jim North asked me to look over your pics... if you correlate the body wounds with the damage to the gills in the second picture, we can reasonably beleive this to be flukes (gills flukes, most likely). But the granular dispostion of the damage in the first photo is a bit strange and inconsistent with gill fluke damage. Also, after closer examination, I noted the curled ends of the gill filaments in the second picture.. and it makes me think that this might be chemical as well. I would not rule out costia here, either.
So, I have some questions:
1. It sounds like you added the pH buffer after the other fish died. Is this correct?
2. What was the pH buffer? By any chance was this a "pH down" type of product??? If so, this is acidic and really should not be used under any circumstances with fish in the water.
Regardless of the what the proximate cause is, now we have all the potential for bacterial gill disease as the gill tissue has been compromised and is open for infection. Here is what I would do:
1. Scrape and scope the fish and the gills to see what parasites we are dealing with. This is critically important because with the gills damaged to the extent they are, selecting a med/chem for treatment is going to be a trick. Our usual chems for parasites, including ProForm C and PP will (not might) exasberate the already bad situation with the gills.
2. Get some Chloramine T/BDGX. This is the med for gill bacterial infections. We are going to need it.
3. Get the fish in warm (78 deg F), prisitine, water salted to .3% with lots of aeration. This temp is where the immune system is at its peak and we need all the help we can get.
Let me emphasize that any chem added to the water, except for things like Amquel, Prime, and salt have the potential to cause further damage to the fish so do not be indiscriminate with your med/chem use.
Let me know about the previous deaths and the condition of their gills.
Good luck
REC |