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Hi all,
we have our bosemani rainbow in a hospital tank, 2 days into treatment, and looks to be getting worse not better.
My question.... would a salt bath help? If so, how would I go about it?
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

Hi,
Frankly, I would not add any salt to this fish's water.
It is already sick and under stress. Adding salt will
affect the metabolism and place the fish under additional
stress.

If you have correctly diagnosed the problem and are
treating it with the correct medication, time and
patience is all that is left to do. Sometimes we don't
catch a disease in time and no matter what we do, it is
not enough to save the fish.

Here is an interesting link on the fish. In essence, it
requires excellent water quality, and that quality must
be maintained.
http://madhunag.tripod.com/bosemanirainbow.html

Frank

-->>> The Confidence of Amateurs, is the Envy of Professionals <<<--

Thanks Frank, great resource! With the exception of our dwarf gourami, we are setting up a rainbow only tank with a few corys for bottom level excitement. Maybe an SAE too.
The Bosemani came from Wal-Mart..... It was there for almost 5 months, definately female, and my wife took pity! The only reason I went for it is our new Quarantine and Hosp. tanks.
IMHO it can only be either columnaris or saprolegnia, and am treating as such. But like you say, it may be too late. If ever there needed to be an I told you so for QT tanks, this is it! I am so happy that she didn't go into our display tank!
Wish her luck!
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

Salt or organic dyes such as malachite green should have seen some reaction from fungi in quite a short time, some dying off of threads at least, failing that assume its columnaris, dont muck about and reach straight for a furan based med or grab a vet for a suitable antibiotic.

Wanted Furanace, but LFS was out of it. My wife is a Veterinary Technician, and we have access to several vets, what antibiotic would work? They don't see many fish!
As far us the fungus, it would seem that she is coming around a bit, and it seems that there are some strands coming off as well.
If it were Columnaris, would it be progressing rapidly at this point even with the Malachite Green?
Thanks,
Dan

55G -5x Bosemani, 3x Emerald Cory,3x Red Rainbow, 3x Turquoise Rainbow. 20G-Empty. 10G -4x Danio 3x Cory Fry 1 Gold Mystery Snail. 10G- 1x CAE, 2x Tetra 1x ADF

Your correct in one sense, yes columnaris would be progressing quickly, but the external fluff is still killed by malachite green at fairly high doses, it tends to drop off, unfortunately it does nothing to kill the bacteria on the interior of the fish, the column bacteria penetrate inwards and progress unhindered, but it may appear as if the fish has been cured, that is until red patches and then finally serious lesions turn up, often then its just a couple of days and youve got a dead fish, and given the time it takes for antiobiotics to actually have a beneficial effect (and thats anything from 24 hours to 4 days, fish metabolism pending) you really have to move some on getting the treatment into the fish, so that leaves you with injection (obviously big fish only), gill absorbable (risky, fish OD this way perhaps the easiest and often get gill lamellae swelling and slime thickening issues and suffocation), or IMHO the best way which is to give antibiotics in food, it might take a day to work at least but its still the least risky way.

Resistance to the drug is common, but the tetracycline group meds may work, failing that, better ask a vet whats approved. I think romet b is worth a shot, although again resistance might be an issue, since their are romet b foods available with low active content levels available for permanent preventive antibiotic feeding. (HOW DUMB IS THAT? Have these people never heard of making bacteria and fungi resistant?)You can basically thank any number of fish breeders for using that particular product excessively and making the fish you keep and the bacterium your fighting both med resistant. They do it to make fish gain abnormal weight, much in the same way that beef farmers use hormones on cows, gets them on to size quickly and out in the market uber fast, its also the reason a lot of asian bred fish dont survive off the diet after export, no immune system left whatever. Stupid in a galactic way that particular practise, but a proper decent level dose used only when needed can shift quite a few common bacterial fish diseases.

Basically check for drugs with contents like Sulfadimethoxine,Ormetoprin, and oxytetracycline. For the best shot your likely to get, seeing as theres a vet on hand,ask her specifically for potentiated sulfa.Its basically a Trimethoprim added sulfa treatment, sometimes also call trimethoprim sulfa. Since theres no sign of dropsy, you could also try kanymycin, but be warned its very harsh on the renal system of fish.