Altum's finrot,broken feelers, Furan 2 treatment

[weary919]

Dear Fellow hobbyist

I had 5 pieces of altum from c328 recently(about 2 weeks ago). I noticed fin rot and velvet growth about 2 days after they reside in my 4ft tank together with 3 finger fish or bat fish(looks like angle without the feelers).

Added ocean free general treatment for finrot and see no improvement. I switch to Furan 2 and followed the instructions. At the same time, I added Blackwater to soften the water and salt and remove the 3 finger fish which have been pretty aggressive.

All these while the altum have been feeding well although the fin continues to rot away and the feeler got broken and trimmed to the very tip of what I believe it the base of the extension.

It has been the 5th day and I decided to stop Furan 2 treatment for a day as the finrot does not stop and the velvet growth is getting worst. I changed 40% water (with anti chlorine, blackwater and salt and may try to get more Furan 2 today depending on how the altum react to the new water change.

I am not sure if Furan 2 is too strong for the altum so much so that the altum are stressed by the dosage.

I have read in this forum that Furan 2 has been effective for most but the dosage seems abit stressful for the altum.

Please comment or advise if there are any other effective treatment or should I just try getting the tank back to stress free condition without medication and just salt and blackwater.

Aprreciate if anyone can share your wisdom

Cheers

[Interestor]

transfer it to a smaller tank for treatment for easy control. always practise basic quarantine pocess of newly added fishes.

furan 2 is good enough, just follow the dosage as instructed, do not add salt or mixed medication if you do not know the consequence, always use 1 type of medication once at a time.

do 50% water chnage the following day and re-dose again as instructed for 3 cycle.

CHeers..

[weary919]

Thanks Interestor for the kind advice. You are right about following the medication dosage. After I stopped for a day, one of the altum has now developed a patch on the body which looks like the skin has peeled off. It is now always near the water surface and the feelers are totally gone. The rest are still swimming well but with quite severe velvet and fin rot.

Actually another reason why I stopped for a day is because I couldn't get Furan 2 as c328 was closed on Sunday. Anyhow I have repeat dosage yesterday and continuing tonite with the part 2 of the 3rd dosage. Since it is antibiotics, I remember doctors always emphasizng that the course must be completed.

Hope for a more positive sight when I look at the tank this evening.

THANKS!

[Interestor]

please do 50% waterchange before next dosage.


CHeers..

[wllm33]

you may even need to lower the recommended dosage with wild fishes because they do not react to medicine well.
hope all goes well for your altums.

[AA24]

very sad situation.. hope it gets better..

in my experience.. the water quality is equally important..

I medicate my fish in pails.. this way I will always change out 100% of my water daily.. of course this is with tank water..

furan 2 is not bad..

[weary919]

Thanks for all the input. Last evening one of the altums succumbed to the disease. Skin peeled on part of the body and feelers gone. The remaining 4 still swimming fine and feeding ok but there is still massive velvet and there is also white matter like dead skin handging loosely on the fins. One of them looks shiny again without velvet but feelers are gohe. Hope they will grow back.

Changed water yesterday and add furan 2 again. Hoping for the best but preparing for the worst when I check on them again tonight.

Thanks

[Interestor]

if you can get hold of tectracycline will be good.


CHeers..

[weary919]

Hi Interestor

From API as well I guess?

How effective will this as compared to Furan 2? Safe to mix?

Thanks again!

[StanChung]

Salt at 1ppt is useful to get the fish it's protective slime coat back.

You need something like Hydrogen peroxide to 'peel' the velvet off as a short bath[I use KMnO4]. You have to sit there and watch your fish. Using a 30ppm [30ml per 40 liters] of water concentration of peroxide in a pail. Remove them as soon as you see them peeling.
Test have shown fish can stand 15ppm concentrations for as long as 4 days. However they are weak so you may need to reduce the dose a bit to be safe or test it on one fish first.

Then follow up with salt at 1ppt[100 grams per 100 liters] and Furan 2[recommended dose]. It's best you treat in bare tank.
It looks serious. This is the main reason altums have this reputation as difficult to QT.

[BT Lee]

Stan, I think you mean 1 ppt Salt & Furan 2 at recommended dose.

Cheers!

BT Lee

[StanChung]

Yup- spelling and grammar- thank for pointing it out.

[Spid]

if you can get hold of tectracycline will be good.


CHeers..

Hi Interestor

From API as well I guess?

How effective will this as compared to Furan 2? Safe to mix?

Thanks again!

Tetracycline is a form of anti-biotic where it able to treat both gram-positive and gram-negative bacterias.

Given the current situation, best to obtain the oxy-tetracycline as most fishes imported have already immune to tetracycline. However all these antibiotics are not easy to access unless you have lobang from friends who own farms.

Wearly919, if possible can update whats the PH for your water now?

To slow down bacteria attack, it would be good to lower your PH, at least you can buy some time for appropriate treatment. If not, once bacteria attack to the fullest, it might be not easy to save these fishes.

[weary919]

Thanks to all for the concern and advice. The PH should be quite low, as I have been constantly using blackwater for every 25% water change. Water is slight brownish due to that.

Thanks for the medication guide but I have decided to cut medication after completing the Furn 2 dosage of 4 cycles. Change the water and added soluyion to age the water. The altums are feeding very well now but I can still see velvet on 3 of them and one is completely cleared. I am soaking the bloodworms with multi vit solution with every feed to build up their immune system and hopefully encourage the growth of the dorsal fins. They have be swimming quite ok now and occassionally chasing each other during feeding time......I hope to keep it this way and under check....

Hoping for the best again......

[Interestor]

is not a good idea to stop treatment if fish is still not free from illness.


CHeers..

[weary919]

Hi Interestor

Thanks for the advice. I agree with you that the treatment should not stop if the fish is still sick. But there is no improvement after the full complete dosage which leads me to suspect there is other reasons. I aged the water with solution from C328 (cannot remember the brand) and so far the fish has more or less recovered (velvet coat is gone but the fins are still not fully recovered). I started with 5 pieces and left with 3 survivors. 2 perished during medication.

I have also added multivit with vit c to water and bloodworm and it seems to be doing good to the fish but over fretilising my ferns.....

Thanks all for the feedback and advice. All the best in keeping your pets healthy and well.

Cheers

[leslens]

i like to think its the batch quality

the c328 ones have a 100% death ratein my hands 20/20
the seaviews ones have a 100% survival rate in the same tank 15/15

reason: seaview quarrantines their altums first, have been in sg for a month already
u go see c328 saw plenty of deaths even in their tanks, their altums dont make it alive after they release them from the bags. having said this, some bros at arofanatics have good survival rates from c328. i think seaview is a much safer bet

[Interestor]

willing to buy good fish, must also be able to medicate the fish when sickness strike.
dont just follow trends, will be a waste of time and $$.


CHeers..