# red sores?



## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

I'm having some problems finding out what is wrong with my fish. I've tried searching and haven't found anything that matches the symptoms exactly. Some of the fish show no symptoms at all other than being dead. Others have a single red sore on one side only of their body right behind the pectoral fin. Others get thin and waste. The sick fish continue to eat but are lazy, spending a lot of time resting on the bottom. It is occurring in two of my tanks but I have only had losses in one of them. In the 125 gallon I have some yellow labs that showed the red marks but no deaths have occured and the marks have gone away but they are not as active as before and I am concerned that the symptoms will return. The tank where the deaths occured is a 75 gallon that I am using as a fry growout.

Here's some stats.
Temp. 78 degrees F.
Ph 8.2
GH 150
KH 180
Amonia is zero
Nitrite zero
Nitrate zero
I do weekly water changes of about 75 percent on both tanks. Filtration for the 75 gallon is One AC 110 and one air driven hydrosponge. Filtration for the 125 is two AC 110's and one air driven hydrosponge and one power head driven hydrosponge. I stir the sand every two weeks and rinse filters in a bucket full of tankwater on alternating weeks and never clean more than half of the filters at once.

Stocking
75 gallon has 9 yellow labs, four Astatotilapia nubila, two juvinile Syn. multipunctatus, two albino zebras and one S. fryeri. None of the fish in this tank are over two inches with most of them being around one inch. I'm guessing I lost about 40 to 50 fry in this tank over the past 3 months.
125 gallon has 8 yellow labs, 4 white tailed acei, 7 albino Lab. trewavasae, 4 S. fryeri, 2 Nimbochromis linni, 2 red empress, 2 Ps. Flavus, 9 cobue afras, and one bushynose pleco. All fish are subadults or young adults from 2 inches to 5 inches. Those that are old enough spawn on a regular basis with the exception of the yellow labs which spawn much less frequently and typically have small broods of 6 to 12 fish.
I believe that the problem came in with with the yellow labs who contracted it while they were being taken care of by a family member about 2 years ago. I think all the fish in the two tanks are carrying the disease but it seems to only attack the younger and weaker fish or those that are stressed. I've started to euthanise every fish that has shown symptoms for the past month. I've also treated with clout and metro with no improvement. I am very concerned about this spreading to the rest of my tanks and if I'm unable to cure this I will be forced to euthanise the remaining fish in the two tanks. I don't have any photos right now but will take some the next time I find an affected fish. I don't know what this is or how to treat it.
please help.


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## lotsofish (Feb 28, 2008)

I'm afraid your problems sounds like mycobaceriousis. See this link:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/VM055

Since you won't be able to get a confirmed diagnosis without labwork, before going to the extreme of destroying all your stock and sanitizing everything, you might try Furan 2 and adding UV systems to your tanks. I wouldn't sell or give away fish until you are sure you won't be spreading the disease.


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## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

Thanks for the reply and the link. At this point I'm sure that it is confined to only two of my 7 tanks and I'm not taking any chances of it spreading to the other tanks. I wouldn't dream of letting this get into anyone elses fish. A good reputation takes years to build but can be destroyed by a single poor decision.

After reading the article It sounds like this might be the problem but I sure hope it is not. I will treat both tanks with furan 2 and pray that it works. If symptoms persist I will be forced to destroy the fish in both tanks and do a complete tear down and disinfection with bleach. According to the article Mycobateriosis is transferable to humans so I will be wearing gloves when working on these tanks from now on. This is real bad.


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## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

I went to the LFS to get the medication but they didn't have any Furan 2. What they did have was erythromycin so I picked up a box of it. It was 14 dollars for enough to treat 100 gallons 1 time. The instructions say that I will need to do a total for four treatments. I'm wondering if I can give the medication to my fish orally by mixing it with some pellet food. Will this be effective? Also can melafix be used at the same time? I can't afford to run the full treatment right now but I will do it as soon as I am able if that is the only option.


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## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

I've been medicating since Saturday and haven't noticed any change yet. How long should it take to show some improvement if it's a treatable bacterial infection?


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## bossfish (Jun 1, 2005)

I medicated from Saturday to Wednesday and there were no new symptoms in any of my fish! There was one small yellow lab that was thin before I started treatment that didn't seem to be responding so I euthanised it before it died and the others ate it. I'm going to do waterchanges and watch closely for a couple of days. I tested my water this morning and it apears that my biological filtration was not negatively affected. I"ll probably hit them with another four day treatment just to be on the safe side. In addition to being concerned about my fish I really hate the smell of melafix and will be glad when this is over.


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