Need advice on treatment.

JMM744 · Sep 3, 2018

My butterflies have been doing quite well for the last month other then loosing my dot dash a week ago out of no where. As of this morning my raccoon has gone off food.
I have already done a freshwater dip for 5 min. Found nothing. Have added therapeutic level of ruby reed rally to the qt tank. That’s 1 oz. per 10 gallon. I see no signs of disease.
One thing to add is all fish are breathing rapidly. They have been doing this for weeks now. Actually I am not sure but that it’s not excitement and a result of feeding. Anyways, my plan was to get them all added to my 120 this week but wonder if that’s smart now. For now they continue to be housed in a 40 breeder with two power heads hitting the surface and two med. size hob filters running. Have been doing water changes over the last two weeks to get copper out of tank along with cuprisorb and charcoal. Was also thinking prazipro once they are in the 120. I would appreciate any advice.
Thanks ,
Jim

Big G · Sep 3, 2018

You could consider treating for internal and external parasites (worms & flukes) prophylactically with either General Cure (metro & prazi) or separately with Prazi & Metro.

JMM744 · Sep 3, 2018

I can do that. Question, can I dose prazipro with reef rally?

Big G · Sep 3, 2018

Not a big fan of mixing meds unless it is absolutely necessary and worth the risk. You just never know how individual fish or species of fish will react to mixed meds.

JMM744 · Sep 3, 2018

Ok, thanks Big G. Have yourself a great evening.
Jim

JMM744 · Sep 7, 2018

Bringing this back up. Situation, raccoon is still not eating and most of the time is just swimming hard around the tank. Tonight I noticed one white spot on its body. It also briefly went nose up in the discharge from the hob filter. To add to my confusion I am wondering, due to watching it for long stretches if it might be blind in one eye or loosing its vision.
Additionally, my sailfin seems to have a couple dark spots on one side. I imagine that’s infection. All fish seem to breath fast and it’s been that way for at least two weeks I think and I have never been sure it isn’t just excitement and then a result of feeding. . Most eat fine but the sailfin didn’t eat today . I have prazipro in the 5ank right now. I can’t help but think I might be facing ich or velvet yet again. I was about to add the fish to my 120 this weekend but I don’t want to dose copper again in the display tank since I have started adding rock. Could I please get some direction?
I am truly sorry to bring this up again, I really am.
Jim

Big G · Sep 7, 2018

Often when dosing copper, the fish's immune system is compromised to the point where bacterial infection becomes a real concern. What kind and how and to what level did you treat with copper?

With velvet, because of the shear number of parasites attacking the fish's skin, it's a good idea to dose antibiotics. The treatment with kanaplex or Furan2 are the recommended antibiotic treatment with copper. Here's Humblefish's Velvet treatment advisory for you to review. Note the antibiotic component.

The short version:

5 minute freshwater dip
Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

JMM744 · Sep 7, 2018

These fish have all been through copper twice . I followed the regiment described, fresh water dip, reefrally bath and then coppersafe at between 1.7 and 2.0 using Hanna copper checker. Did full 30 days. They had been in ngp for ten days just about two weeks back due to infection in racoon. I have tried very hard to treat these fish right. I have some difficult decisions to make I guess.
Thanks,
Jim

JMM744 · Sep 8, 2018

Update, the racoon can’t see. I cleaned the tank and it ran into my hand and I was able to catch it by hand. It gets excited when I add food but it can’t find it. Should I euthanize this fish?