Bloated dwarf angel and quarantine

[Jay Hemdal]

I was thinking: would it be reasonable to think that if an infection is to blame for the kidney and or liver failure that treatment with general cure early in the quarantine process might help prevent it? I know it’s kind of asking what came first whether the chicken or the egg but I’m wondering if adding general cure at the beginning with hyposalinity might help. Is this possible? Adding general cure at the same time as fish are in hypo?

Thanks Jay for all the information you provide on a regular basis. I am learning a lot from you and this will hopefully translate into being a better fish parent.

No - General Cure is specific against protozoan and metazoan parasites, and this would be a bacterial infection.

There is another issue though - this fish went through hyposalinity? How long and at what level? Genicanthus are one species that I've had issues with in hypo - they are deep water fish, and overall, those types of fish don't handle hypo well. If the fish has some impairment of kidney function, and you expose them to hypo, they can bloat up due to osmosis. Similarly, if you expose such a fish to more saline water, their tissues will dehydrate.

Jay

 

[crazyfishmom]

No - General Cure is specific against protozoan and metazoan parasites, and this would be a bacterial infection.

There is another issue though - this fish went through hyposalinity? How long and at what level? Genicanthus are one species that I've had issues with in hypo - they are deep water fish, and overall, those types of fish don't handle hypo well. If the fish has some impairment of kidney function, and you expose them to hypo, they can bloat up due to osmosis. Similarly, if you expose such a fish to more saline water, their tissues will dehydrate.

Jay

Would an antibiotic help instead? Just trying to understand where to go from here when I get another one of these guys.

Yes, I use hyposalinity as my form of quarantine. I guess I won’t be able to do that for this type of angel in the future. Good to know. Again, thank you for all the great information!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Would an antibiotic help instead? Just trying to understand where to go from here when I get another one of these guys.

Yes, I use hyposalinity as my form of quarantine. I guess I won’t be able to do that for this type of angel in the future. Good to know. Again, thank you for all the great information!

Yes - an antibiotic would be the best course of action. However, internal bacterial infections are not easily treated. Bath treatments work best of external bacteria. Oral medications require careful dosing, and the fish must still be eating. Injectable meds are best. Also, most external bacterial infections of fish are gram negative types. Some internal infections are gram positive, so you would need to use antibiotics effective against both types.