Newbie with a fungus problem? Q FOR RAY
Hello Deb, As mentioned in my previous post, I intended on doing a follow-up, but wanted to get that info to you ASAP. I did want to address this post of yours from late (11:20PM) Saturday night, which I saw yesterday/Sunday morning. I have not replied to any of your more recent messages between when I posted to you last, around noon on Friday, and this message of yours directed at me as you were directing your messages elsewhere and being assisted accordingly (I don’t like to meddle). When I did see your message, I wrote you a long detailed reply to all matters of it, and I was about 2 seconds away from sending it when my power went out — the storm here was pretty intense. Always my luck though when attempting to send something I spent a lot of time on, but this time I can’t blame my lousy ‘putor (which any other time is the usual cause).
I doubt I’ll remember all I wanted to advise you of, as that’s normally what happens in these instances (nothing new to me!), but I’ll try. For starters, I wanted to mention that it never hurts to feed pea meat, as you’ve been doing, in hopes that might correct any constipation issues (and hopefully might be the root cause of the problem), even though that’s doesn’t appear to be the problem here.
It’s encouraging to note that CB is acting a bit better, which indicates he still has reserve strength (always a good sign). On the salt issue, I noticed on 12/18 (Thursday) that the salt content was at 2.75 tsp per Gallon, and after you did the PWC around Noon that day, it was at 2.29 tsp/G. At that time you stated you intended on holding the salt at around 2 tsp/G. I hadn’t seen anything on any PWC you may have done on 12/19 (nothing posted on any PWC’s that day).
Your next post seems somewhat conflicting and a bit confusing when your mention of a PWC on Saturday 12/20 stated that you REPLACED 1 tsp of salt per Gallon, yet the salt level DECREASED to 2.08 Tsp/Gallon. Looks like you were adding salt, but then the measurement comes out to be less — I have to assume you decided not to add any salt. You did state you intended to hold the salt a 2 tsp/G., which I was about to suggest, but I see you made another PWC since then, dropping the salt content to 1.73 tsp/G at 11:00 PM Saturday night. I would have told you not to reduce it any less than that (maybe even get it back up to 2 tsp/G), but I had no power here. I see since then, you did another PWC yesterday, reducing the salt even further, to 1.2 tsp/G; I hope you have not taken out any more salt than this.
For any slight fungus issues that might remain, you can use the Acriflavin (API’s Fungus Cure) I recommended, which is extremely mild and will not add any stress of being “over-medicated.” I hope all fungal issues are cleared up at this time though. On the post of mine on salt (message # 34503 — 12/17/08 1:20PM) which you were unsure of, you might want to refer back to that, especially as it contained other info. I did say that — if you still see some fungus, you could give them another treatment of Fungus Clear if it looked threatening, while you waited for the PraziPro (which might get to you today or tomorrow). At this same time though, I said the salt can be reduced. Adding to this, the fish would enjoy a day of clean water (the salt can remain at its present level, but the previous meds should be eliminated) before treating with the PraziPro.
The last thing I wanted to mention was that there is no other medication you could use in place of the PraziPro — at least nothing near as good that would help with their type of internal parasite issue. Even if there were (which there isn’t), it wouldn’t pay to start messing with all kinds of other meds and then still use PraziPro on top of it all. that’s about all for now. You will have to now definitely do larger PWC’s to reduce your ammonia and nitrite (while keeping up your salt content), as you can’t have these levels remaining the same, at around 0.25 ppm. The longer these nitrogenous wastes stay at this level, the more toxic they will become to your fish — which is why they’re starting to get septicemia (right, you can’t use an ammonia absorbing zeolite if you have salt in the tank). Do several PWC’s per day if necessary to get these levels down. Ray
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
