- Joined
- Jul 3, 2016
- Messages
- 6,797
- Reaction score
- 8,652
Have you ever had to treat a lionfish for a bacterial infection? Mine has come down with a pretty bad one and I’m curious as to what your thoughts are on what action to take, if any.
Yes, in my early days of keeping lions, I followed the protocol of what most advised. Here is some of experiences, then I'll follow with my current philosophy.
Bactetrial infections seem to be somewhat common with lions, I'd say almost 50/50 at times. I've used kanaplex, furan-2, and paraguard. All to varying degrees of success and in the end, the fish always died a few months to a year or barely over a year after treatment. I'm convinced that antibiotic treatment was a factor in the shortened lifespan.
This is what I practice today and although it is a risk, I believe it's the best chance for a long life. I have never had a lion develop a bacterial infection while in my care, other than immediately after arrival. So with this said I've never seen what I would call a severe infection, I've only seen mild infections that tend to be common among new arrivals.
So 1st off, pristine water conditions, I mean no more than 30ppm nitrates. 2nd a highly nutritious diet, I'm talking live foods. So with pristine water conditions and a rich healthy diet, I've seen a number of lions just clear on it's own, even more quickly than when I used antibiotics. If these conditions are met, it will likely clear on it's on.
Now if we are talking "bad", then that's obviously a different story. If you have let your water quality slip and decided to go with an all dead diet, then that could possibly be the root of cause. I would start with getting the water quality in check, I would feed live again. And if you find it necessary, the use of any of the 3 antibiotics I mentioned earlier would be as good as any others, your choice. Mind you, none of the lions I used these antibiotics on lived much more than a year after treatment. While some of my current crew is over 8 years with me.