How to treat the infected fish

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Posted: Thu Nov 30, 2006 5:51 pm Post subject: How to treat the infected fish

Hi !
One of the fish in my tank has developed some strange disease, its belly is protruding, the scales specially on the belly are arched and I notice that even the eyes are a bit protruded, I am not sure what infection it has caught. Can any one help out and suggest a treatment that can be given to the fish. the water temperature at the moment in my tank is 25 degree Celcius and other parameters too are normal, I would prefer to treat the fish in the tank itself as I do not have a hospital tank,or a separate heater to treat the fish in a bucket, however, I am afraid in adminstering any medicine in the tank may effect the other healthy fishes.......please help...

Regards

Hey Mitra!
Your post almost confirms that your fish is suffering from abdominal dropsy. I am afraid from your discription it seems to be a hard job to revive it but, you could do one thing go to the nearest chemist and acquire a medication called Nitrofurantoin (100mgs) add one capsule or tablet to 40 ltrs of aquarium water. (when I say add I mean make a stock solution by crushing the tablet or if in capsule form by opening the capsule and emptying it in a 1 ltr. bottle of aquarium water and than pouring the stock solution in the tank). Treat it thrice with a interval of two days and a partial water change before each medication.
HTH

hi aquascapes,
really nice of you to spend time helping ppl out...me like many other ppl might not be able to thank you enough...but your great work here, am sure is woth taking note off...thanks once again for your timely advice...
happy fish keeping ,
regards,

naveen

Nitrofurantoin

What other diseases does this treat ?Is it only for dropsy?

-V!nay

I think Joy's tank is a planted tank.... Will this medicine affect the plants?

@ V!nay,
IMO it can also be used for external bacterial infections like fin-rot, cloudy eyes etc.
@Gokul,
treatment method (for any disease or disorder) strictly stresses the point of a seperate qurantine/hospital tank even a make shift water storing tank or something should be considered. If however, Joy cannot arrange for a hospital tank and has to consider other options for treating the fish............you can also mix three tablets of the medication = 300mgs. to about 300grams of BHM or other fresh or frozen food and feed it twice a day subject to the limitation that the fish is still eating food.
IMO, if the fish is still accepting food it is better to mix the same dose as above i.e. 300mgs of sulfathiazole into 200gms of feed and fed twice a day for a three to four day period.
Actually, it all depends upon many factors:
#1 which fish?
#2 what is the tank like?
#3 volume of water?
#4 filtration used?
#5 do other fish show any signs of illness? What?
#6 when did you notice it and how long is the fish suffering from the disease or disorder?
It is difficult to help if proper information is not mentioned on the fish in question or the tank to be treated.
regards,

Hi Joy

My two paisa worth of thoughts.

Nitrofurantoin or NFT as some of my colleagues (and sometimes I too) call it is an antibiotic related to a group of antibiotics called fluoroquinolones. This includes a wide range of widely abused broad spectrum antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin, ofloxacin, etc.

These are active against a very wide range of bacteria, both gram positive and gram negative. NFT however is used more often for gram negative bacteria. Although I havent read anything specific about the effect of NFT on nitrobacter I would draw attention to the fact that it is a BROAD spectrum antibiotic active against gram negative bacteria. I dont know if somebody has studied effect of NFT on plants but I should think there is no great effect.

Bacterial DNA is copied into RNA. RNA binds to ribosomes. Ribosomes then join together amino acids as per the instruction in the RNA. This forms proteins. NFT binds to bacterial ribosomes and stops production of essential proteins thereby killing bacteria. Since this binding is to bacterial ribosomes only, plants should be safe.

I personally would not give NFT. I am generally against abusing antibiotics like this but then that is a personal choice. Different strokes for different folks.

Deepesh

Deepesh, Antibiotic abuse is of two types. One of course, is when you administer an antibiotic when there is no need- and the other is when you DONT administer it when there is a clear indication that it should be administered. In this case the description clearly points to dropsy which if left untreated is usually fatal. In this case there is no harm in administering an antibiotic in the recommended manner i.e; quarantine tank and proper dosing schedule. Accurate diagnosis and the selection of the proper treatment with guidance from experienced aquarists on forums such as this one and the vast amount of information on the web would be the best way to go about it.
regards
Gopi

sorry-double post

Is there really such a strong case for antibiotics in dropsy?

Deepesh

Did you know dropsy is an old english word for the accumulation of water in patients with renal failure

No there is no certified case for the use of antibiotics in fish dropsy. But may I point you to this article ?

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html

And yes, Dropsy is an archaic term for edema of renal origin and is a shortened form of Hydropsy. Are you cognizant of the term Emperical treatment ? In medicine it means that where the diagnosis is not certain but the symptoms and signs seem to point to a probable diagnosis then treatment with an agent that has proved to be effective in similar cases is justified.

Quote from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Empirical_treatment

" Empirical treatment is medical treatment (usually antibiotics) started before a diagnosis is confirmed. The most common reason is because investigations needed to confirm the diagnosis will take a long time or are delayed, and because delay in treatment will harm the patient."

Joy
I agree with Nauzur on antibiotic treatment.
However I would be more comfortable if you can arrange a hospital tank. it need not be a glass tank, I have sucessfully treated by black moor in a 25 lt plastic bucket with aeration & heater.
Antibiotics are to be used as a last resort and treating main tank is like using a cannon but is essential in some cases.
I don't think there is any known sure treatment for dropsy but if it is a normal stomach infection, anitbiotics will help.
Remove any acitvated carbon, it will simply absorb all medicine. Maintain good aeration and be regular with water changes as you can expect ammonia surges with antibiotic treatment.
I normally keep an spare sponge filter running in my tanks. This is simply trf to hospital tank along with water form main tank, and you have a working tank complete with biological filteration.

Hi gopigpp

I am aware of the meaning of the term empirical treatment. <grin>

Hi aquascape

I agree, accumulation of visible amount of water in a fish, or for that matter any animal indicates that something is really wrong, often a terminal event. This is usually a result of (rather than the cause of) liver or kidney failure.

Sorry guys, like I said it is a personal preference. I am not against empirical treatment. Aquarists regularly depend on empirical treatment. Water changes are just that, even if we are not adding any active medication.

As for the discussion on antibiotics... can we just shift it to a new thread? If we all agree we can start a thread on the use of antibiotics in aquaria. The reason is this that this discussion can be prolonged. And the thread appears to be veering off Joy's original post.

At the moment for this particular thread lets ask Joy how his fish is.

Gopigpp, aquascapes. Shall we start the thread? We can pool in all that we know and come to a consensus. Perhaps even some sort of guidelines for diseased fish.

Deepesh

Joy are you still there?