Comet Has Blood In The Caudal Fin...

[Lupin 11]

I'm glad to hear the fish is doing better now. Looks like the lips are improving already and tail has improved so far!

[CountryLovah 56]

Whoops!!! Fish TANK!!! lololol

Oh well... At least I got to share my story lolololol

Your fish is totally looking better to me!!!!!!!!!!!! YAYAYAY! Both the tail and mouth seem sooo much better to me!! EXCELLENT NEWS!!! I love photo updates!!! Its so cool to actually SEE the changes! :-)

[austinado16 19]

This morning is the final treatment of Maracyn Two. I'll start the Praziquental either tomorrow, or the day after. Might do a 24hr period with the activate carbon in the filter.

His lip is looking much better this morning. The tail has a vein in each area (upper and lower part of the V) that's red w/ blood and goes from the base of the tail, all the way out to the nearly the white tip. Is that still an indication of an internal infection??

Now I just need to find someone up near Wilkes Barre, PA to pick up that fish tank. Got any friends up that way?

[CountryLovah 56]

This morning is the final treatment of Maracyn Two. I'll start the Praziquental either tomorrow, or the day after. Might do a 24hr period with the activate carbon in the filter.

I like that idea! Good thinking! Just remember to remove it again b4 the prazi...

His lip is looking much better this morning. The tail has a vein in each area (upper and lower part of the V) that's red w/ blood and goes from the base of the tail, all the way out to the nearly the white tip. Is that still an indication of an internal infection??

Great news about the lip.. I wouldn't be tooo concerned with the red streaks unless something else accompanies it. It's normal for the streaks to take a long time to clear up.. Like I said, they can show up any time the fish is stressed.. I have a few fish where once the red streaks occured it took FOREVER to completely go away.. (months!). As long as the fish is behaving normally, eating normally, etc.. then I wouldn't be too concerned with it..

Now I just need to find someone up near Wilkes Barre, PA to pick up that fish tank. Got any friends up that way?

Not that I can think of..... lol Sorry... I USED to know someone but I haven't spoken to them in 12 years.. "Hey! How ya been? Wanna pick me up a fish tank".. lolol Not that I even have their number anymore anyway lol

Good luck finding someone to help you out! :-)

Still so happy to hear about the improvements!!!!! This makes my day!!!!

[austinado16 19]

Quick question. Should I use a bottle of Smart Start tomorrow morning to help get the biofilter going and get the tank cycling faster? Or would that be unhealthy at this point in my efforts to get my Comet healthy?

[Lupin 11]

I'm not normally a fan of "cycle" solutions however I do not see any reason why you cannot give that a shot.

[austinado16 19]

Well, this is new.......

He is now flashing and rubbing himself on the bottom of the tank, in the gravel.

They got the last dose of Maracyn Two this morning following a 19gal water change (17 in the tank and 2 in the filter).

Should I:

1) Wait 'til morning, do a 50% water change and put in the Prazi

2) Just put in the Prazi right now

3) Do a 50% water change right now and put in the Prazi

4) Something else

[Lupin 11]

What are the water parameters right now? Post before doing another water change (if recommended).

Did you add the Smart Start at all?

Did this flashing occur before or after you added Smart Start (of you already did)?

Have you observed yawning, clamped fins, listlessness, heavy gasping?

Prazi is a very gentle med. What you need to do now is post first your water parameters, answer above questions for observations, then do a water change as necessary (regardless of the results of water parameters) and start prazi dosing.

Do you have the dosing schedule for prazi already?

[austinado16 19]

Using an API test kit:

Ammonia = .25ppm

Nitrite = between zero and .25ppm

Nitrate = zero

No. I did not put in the start-up bacteria

The all yawn once in a while, not very often, and this remains unchanged.

No gasping, no trips to the top for air other than the occasional, which they all seem to do.

No listlessness, he's swimming around just like the other 2, picking at the gravel for real finally, pulling up plants, etc.

Fins seem normal. Just when I think he's clamping he puts them back up/out and it's about the same as the others, depending on what they're doing at the moment.

The flashing was pretty isolated and it's not occured since. As soon as he was done, he went right back to being normal.

[Lupin 11]

Okay. I'd do a big water change until ammonia and nitrite are positively zero and start dosing prazi right away as a precaution since you haven't done this before (is this correct?).

Edited January 29, 2010 by Lupin

[austinado16 19]

Correct. I have not used Prazi yet because the guy at the company told me not to mix it with the antibiotics.

Can I put a few drops of Prazi on some algae crisps and feed 'em prior to the water change and dosing the water?

[Lupin 11]

Of course, you can. Dose 2.5mg per liter for waterborne method. What's your planned dosing schedule?

[austinado16 19]

Okay, 17 gallons have been replaced and gravel vac'd. Salt's back to .3%. They ate algae crisps soaked in Prazi and the tank's been dose w/ the recommended 5ml/20gal.

The Prazi bottle says one application should do it, and not to treat more often than 3-5 days, so I was gooing to follow that? But I'm thinking about putting more in the food for tomorrow morning, and then doing another PWC and water treatment on Sunday.

Just tried to inspect all of them with about 10x magnificaction, and I don't see anything externally. The scales are all beautiful, edges of gills and mouths are perfect. The mouth on Comet looks much better than yesterday...as in, almost perfect.

Lemme know what you think...

[Lupin 11]

I'm so glad the mouth is nearly 100% recovered.

10x magnification from a camera? You wouldn't be able to see flukes anyway without a microscope.

Prazi fades away after 3 days so if I were you, treat with prazi on three intervals and redose every 2-3 days. If you opt to do water changes daily, then consider redosing the prazi per water volume replaced. Yes, you can change the water in the middle of treatment provided the concentration is maintained to keep it effective against invisible parasites.

[austinado16 19]

Stacked up 3 pair of 2.75 power reading glasses and then held them apart from each other 'til stuff got really big. Then I could just sit there and watch. I'm sure the fish got a kick out of what that looked like.

I think the salt really helped that lip tissue mend. He's back rooting around in the smooth gravel pebbles just like the rest of 'em, so it must not hurt any more. All the sluffing skin is gone now too, so it's just a little bit of fresh pink looking lip.

I've been reading a little about UV sterilizers. I've got too much pump output to run one on the return side, but then I thought maybe I could T in, and put a gate valve in after the T so I could turn down the flow going into the sterilizer. Don't really want to go with a "hang-in-tank" model due to the space they take up and I'm not big on hanging electrical stuff under water in the tank if I don't have to.

Thoughts?

[Lupin 11]

UV sterilizer is effective if and only if the microbes pass through the system. I don't personally use that myself, Todd. I can afford one but I don't feel the need to invest in one myself. It's your choice though. I'd personally save the money instead. Even if you have a UV, it's not 100% guaranteed you won't encounter any health issues.

[austinado16 19]

Good advice. Read some favorable comments on them, regarding how much cleaner/clearer the water was, even for people that did regular PWC's, but I have no experience with them so I wanted to ask.

[austinado16 19]

Everybody is doing ok. We were gone to the happiest place on earth for 2 days, so the Prazi has had 3 days to "cook."

Came home to find quite a bit of re-landscaping done inside the tank and about half of the plants floating :-)

The Comet's caudal fin looks 99% perfect now, with just a couple of veins still read, but no more streaks in the clear tail fin area. The lip appears to be 100% and he's back to roughly rooting around in the substrate, just like he's always done.

Getting ready to test the water just for kicks and then do 50% or so change, and put back the Prazi per how much I remove.

[Lupin 11]

I'm so glad your fish recovered completely.

LOL..They are such lawn mowers eh?

[austinado16 19]

LOL..They are such lawn mowers eh?

One day I sloped all of the substrate so it was low in the front of the tank, and maybe 2" deep at the back. By the next morning, they had it all level again. We could hear them during the night.........what a bunch of grave diggers. They get the plants out usually by just removing all the substrate around the plants and shoving on the base of the plants until they come out. Or they'll grab a leaf, ring the engine room for 'full reverse' and drag them out.

[Lupin 11]

Same here. See why very few are successful enough to combine both goldfish and plants.lol You could always use floating plants and plop them on a floating basket. They'll help with water quality control while they are shielded from being eaten by the fish.

[austinado16 19]

Well.....I put all of the plants back this morning and then told the fish to knock it off. That should take care of it.

[Lupin 11]

Have you tried pinning down the bases with rocks?

[austinado16 19]

Have you tried pinning down the bases with rocks?

Yes, but it appears to cause the fins to bleed inside.

[Lupin 11]

Huh? No smooth white pebbles as your option?