Hey folks,
I have a GSP that seems to have developed a nasty infection in the side of his mouth. Half his face is swollen to the point that he can't eat.We noticed it about five days ago and I have been trying to treat him with Maracyn Plus and Melafix with limited success.
The tank has been up and running for 2+ years and the water parameters have been normal (ammonia at 0, nitrite at 0, and nitrates at 0). SG is at 1.025 and I've been keeping up with regular water changes. I have noticed that my pH has been fluctuating recently (after I started the Maracyn) but I have been adding buffer to keep it up around 8.3. The tank is 75 gallons.
Any thoughts on what I can do to make this infection go away? Can anyone recommend a better antibiotic? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks,
Dan
GSP with nasty infection
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Read this before posting!!
Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.
1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.
2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.
3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)
4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.
5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.
We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.
While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.
Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
-
t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:10 am
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Re: GSP with nasty infection
have you got anything else in there with the GSP?
Does it look like it's his teeth causing the problem, have they grown too long?
Does it look like it's his teeth causing the problem, have they grown too long?
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
Re: GSP with nasty infection
Sorry... I have a porc in the tank with the GSP. The GSP's teeth look normal, so I don't think that's the problem. From what I can tell, it looks like he had a small cut inside his mouth that got infected (there are no obvious cuts on the outside, but it looks like there might be one inside his mouth). Any thoughts?
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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Re: GSP with nasty infection
I'd try antibiotic baths - ten times the dose of antibiotic, but twice a day for an hour each. Make up a new bath every day, since light and moisture degrade the antibiotics. If you know a qualified vet, an injection would be much more effective.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
Re: GSP with nasty infection
Will give it a try. Is there a particular antibiotic I should get?
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
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- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
- Contact:
Re: GSP with nasty infection
Furan might work, as might something with erthythromycin. You can try feeding him in the bath, but you say he won't eat.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
Re: GSP with nasty infection
Thanks Nick. I quarantined him tonight and dosed him with furan-2. It doesn't look promising though... his color looks really bad and he is hardly moving. In addition, the swelling has gotten so bad that he can't eat (he can only push the food around).
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Nick
- Former Staff Member
- Posts: 3231
- Joined: Sun Oct 22, 2006 8:47 pm
- My Puffers: Mine:
GSPs - Shakespeare and Jillybean
F8 - Velvet
My fiance:
DP - Emma Goldman
Narrow Lined Puffer - Ulrike - Location (country): Northeastern USA
- Location: Middletown, CT
- Contact:
Re: GSP with nasty infection
Just make sure each bath isn't much more than an hour. Small baths with lots of dissolved antiboiotic have low o2 to begin with, so ammonia can take the fish out very quickly.
No matter how magnificent your successes or devastating your failures, the worlds' approximately 5 billion impoverished people could not possibly care less.
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Corvus
- Mentor
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Re: GSP with nasty infection
Can you post a picture?
This almost sounds like the snout ulcer disease, a disease very common among subtropical tiger puffers.
Antibiotics just as Nick described would have been my choice, too, but if it really is this disease, it cannot be healed, yet.
I'd aerate the antibiotic baths.
This almost sounds like the snout ulcer disease, a disease very common among subtropical tiger puffers.
Antibiotics just as Nick described would have been my choice, too, but if it really is this disease, it cannot be healed, yet.
I'd aerate the antibiotic baths.
Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Give a fish a man, and he'll eat for weeks.
Re: GSP with nasty infection
George the Puffer passed away last night, sometime between 2 and 6am. 
Dan
Dan
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t1gerbee
- Fahaka Puffer
- Posts: 831
- Joined: Mon Sep 17, 2007 5:10 am
- My Puffers: 1 x Ceylon + 1 x GSP + 1 x stars and stripes (juv) -Marine
(Non puffs-)
4 x clowns
1 x Oscar-Tropical
3 x Convicts-Tropical
1 x Map Turtle-tropical
2 x Plecs-Tropical
2 x goldfish - Location: london
Re: GSP with nasty infection
poor puff. 
1 x 90G Juv stars and stripes puffer, Ceylon Puffer + GSP + 2 black clowns
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish
1 x 30G LPS Reef
1 x 30G 1 x Blind goldfish