[chatnoire3]

Tank: 65G tall tank with tanganyikan rock-dwellers

Event: Saturday/Sunday power outage and possible power surger fried the heater and caused it to heat my tank to 90+ degrees. All fish died except 4.

Aftermath: I was out of town when this happened. Roommate realized that there was a major problem, unplugged the %#@ heater, scooped out all of the dead fish, took out many rocks to get all dead fish out, changed some water, and got temperature down (thank you roommate!)

Since the temperature surge, I've been observing the progress of an injury on my Altolamprologus calvus male. I thought that perhaps he banged himself up when roommate was rearranging rocks, but the injury has changed on a daily basis and appears to be getting larger. It is now a bare patch of flesh above his eye in a location that might make me think hole-in-head disease, however there is no pitting and it is more ulcerated and pinkish than the typical white patch. No visible strings or tufts of material around the site, but the first day there might have been one ich-like nodule that went away. Fish seems in good spirits - eating and swimming and fins are up. No darting, flashing or scratching on rocks. Nothing visible on the rest of his body. However, size of injury seems to be increasing daily so I think I need to treat this with something besides aquarium salt.

I have an assortment of meds and I'm going to put together a quarentine tank (I haven't had a disease in over 3 years). Any suggestions for what medicine to start with?

Edited to add that I have Binox, CopperSafe, Maracyn, Maracyn-Two and Melafix (expired 2009).

Got him in a 10-gallon. Arrows indicate lesions.

 

[Robin]

Hi,

first sorry for the loss of your fish. And good thing you had a room-mate who knew what to do.

That looks like an infection and it may get worse without some immediate action. Maybe he bumped up against the heater?

I would treat using both Maracyn and Maracyn-two--just make sure they're not past their shelf life. Keep his water perfect. And keep the heat around 76. Some bacteria grow in warmer water. You can also add aquarium salt at the rate of 1 tablespoon per five gallons. Dissolve it first and add it gradually. The salt may help prevent bacteria from adhering to the fish's skin.

Robin

 

[chatnoire3]

Thanks for the reply! The little nodule on the first day looked kind of like the little bumps that they get when they lose scales. Clearly it has progressed beyond that. I got some Maracyn in there and realized that my box of Maracyn-Two was empty.

I hate aquarium disasters. It would have been easier had they all died - I could just dismantle the tank and enjoy my 125 Front tank and lower electricity bill for a while. Now I have 4 fish and that guilty feeling that I must make a solid effort to treat my poor calvus.

 

[chatnoire3]

Another question - the pump that I used to use to rig up a sponge filter is in use in another tank. Can I put some Purigen in a panty hose and use that to keep the water clean, or will it absorb the medicine?

 

[chatnoire3]

***Update*** One week later.

After 5 days of Maracyn and Maracyn-Two and 7 days of melafix, my calvus looks to be fully recovered. I can still see the outlines of his injuries, so I'm going to keep him in the hospital tank for a few more days, but he looks great and is happily eating / sitting with fins up in his rock cave.

 

[Robin]

he looks great and is happily eating / sitting with fins up in his rock cave

Well you gotta feel great about that.

Thanks for the update

Robin