Baby ranchu sick

[terryl]

My baby ranchu have some problems which I have no idea of. They look like having a short and very small thread-like stuff hanging down from their body, mostly in the head and mouth area. It looks like external parasite (definitely not anchor worm as I knew it quite well). I am guessing it may be mucus or some other external parasite / disease. The fish otherwise don't have other obvious symptoms, except a little bit inactive. They are not dieing (not yet) or grasping for air. So, I don't know what I am frighting against.

Treatment: started from yesterday, I graduately added salt to the tank to a concentration of 1 table spoong to 1 gallon. I also added formalin at 1ml / gallon. I am waiting for the parasite clear from Jungle to arrive (on Saturday).

What will you do:
Nothing?
Contineu the Salt and Formulin bath?
Big water change and contune the salt bath?
Parasite clear?
Other medication.

Any advise will be much appreciated.

Terry

[bekko]

Salt and formalin both work by making the mucus and parasites slough off. It is not a good idea to use them together because you could burn the skin.

If you are young, your eyes may be good enough to see flukes. They would appear as a short beard on the chin.

Make sure you have the new Parasite Clear which has praziquantel. Praziquantel will get rid of flukes. Parasite Clear also has a bunch of other stuff which you do not need. You would have been better off using praziquantel only.

-steve

[King_oF_Ranchu]

I believe i am still very young and have a good eyes. But i can't see flukes!
Only with microscope will help me to see them.

[terryl]

Thanks Steve, short beards on the chin are exactly what I saw. A few fish now also show fin rot, either the result of fomalin + salt, or bacteria infection. For safety, I added antibiotic. The are still eating. I hope the treatment work, rather then killing the fish. The quality of this spawn is quite high.

Terry

[johnatoranchu]

Hi Terry
This sounds like ammonia burning the gill membranes to me, in which case the fish will gradually die off through suffocation. Don't bombard them with treatment (and never mix formalin and salt). What is your water changing schedule? Change the water (100%) immediately and, preferably every 4 (and certainly no longer than 7) days thereafter.
John

[terryl]

Thanks John and everyone.

Here is the update:

I just finish the treatment cycle: First, I added salt at 1 table spoon per gallon and keep it at that level for a few days - not much improvement. I also added formalin in the first day, but then stopped the formalin treatment as per advise from here. Some fish also showed fin rot (burn?) on Friday last week, so, I started anti-biotic treatment right the day to prevent secondary infection. My parasite clear arrived on Sat and I started the treatment right the way. so, in the last few days, they are in both antibiotic and parasite clear treatment.

As of today, I just finished the antibiotic treatment and added my last round of parasite clear. i also increased water change to about 50% per day.

So far, I only lost a few weak fish. All the rest recovered very well. They are eating BBS and blood worm like pigs. I guess I can put this challenge behine me.

Again, thanks for all the help.