FishProfiles.com Message Forums

Does anyone know what the symptons of septicemia is??? My green severum hasn't been eating for the last four days. He had really bad fin rot that popped up overnight so I treated him with strong fungus pills for four days, and for the last two days I've been treating him with melafix. His finrot is showing great improvement, but he's been swimming with a slight head-up orientation and not eating. He doesn't show any interest to food (he's normally very greedy). I gave his tank a really good cleaning after he showed the fungus symptoms. I'm not really sure what to do (apart from keep treating him) so any help would be appreciated.
Thanks

Last edited by Dragonchild at 06-Oct-2004 13:13

Any chance you can provide us with ammonia nitrIte, nitrAte numbers, as well as more description of the tank. Melafix can help once the fin rot has been delt with effectivly with stronger meds, by itself it's not stong enough to work for finrot ...IME anway.

Septicimia is a rather serious problem, not something that's easily cured...it's more a result of poor tank conditions....

^_^
*Proud member of the Committee for Sig Line Restoration*

Are their any red streaks in the tail, that is septicmia

Last edited by kitty163 at 06-Oct-2004 13:31

Septicemia (blood poisoning) often follows fin and tail rot...

Red streaks on the body are the telltale signs.

Antibiotic food is the only way to treat the malady that will kill a fish if not quickly administered.

--garyroland.



Last edited by garyroland at 06-Oct-2004 14:46

with septicaemia, the fish will also get very sick very fast. Septicaemia is blood poisoning/infection, and normally causes organ failure, which can lead to dropsy/ pop-eye. By the time the fish has swollen up from dropsy, it is normally beyond help.

In my experience, tetracycline works very well, but is not photostable, so lights must be turned off during medication. It also causes photosensitivity in humans, so if you've ever had a reaction to it, or any other of the "cycline" drugs, wear latex gloves when edealing with it. I didnt - it hurts!!

If the fish pulls through septicaemia, good supportive nursing is important, the fish will need high protein food when it starts eating again as well as perfect water quality.

(and Gary - again, septicaemia from the greek root, so *actually* it is septicaemia!!)

-------------------------------------------------
I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Leave the Greek "roots" out of this, Tiny...

I knew a Greek girl once that had black roots.

And, as I mentioned but you apparently missed, water dosed antibiotics are useless in treating Septicemia (blood poisoning).

Internal application of antibiotics is the only way to go.

--garyroland.

I was assuming that if you dose tetracycline, it has to be done through food.

-------------------------------------------------
I like to think that whoever designed marine life was thinking of it as basically an entertainment medium. That would explain some of the things down there, some of the unearthly biological contraptions

Well so far my severum has recovered from his fin rot (the fungus is gone and his fin is regrowing), but he still has fungus on his sides with quite a lot on one side of his body, and just a tiny bit on the other. Right now I'm treating his septicemia and fungus with both melafix and KanaPlex, which is apparently absorbed by the fish and very effective. Though my blasted heater turned off sometime today and the tank temerature dropped a few degrees (I'm getting a new heater tomorrow, this one has a frictionless knob that sometimes gets knocked the wrong way), so now I'm slowly heating it up again. I've also subdued the lighting. I think my fish may pull through, he has a lot of spirit and I don't think that he'll give up very easily.

You've got to get the trop to the point of feeding again...

When that happens you can be sure it's on the road to recovering. If the trop continues to refuse food it will waste away, unable to fight off the fungus infection.

--garyroland.

--Vero Beach, Florida.

He ate!!! Well sort of. Today before I medicated his tank my green severum actually looked interested in his yellow can of food, so I gave him a few flakes, and he tried to eat them twice, though he spit most of it out again. But its a big improvement!!! Although I'm concerned about his fungus. It looks as though it's eating awaying at his scales, all of the saclls that are infected are white and are a little bit elevated (he has a larger infection - about 1/3 of his body - on the center of the right side of his body, the left side has a very small amount). Also what is left of his tail has got a whitish tinge along the edge of it and a small white bubble on the tip of the top fin ray. His septicemia seems to be receding a bit. I'm still treating him with both melafix and KanaPlex.