Are cory sensitive to acriflavine?

Byron

I used Maracyn 2 on a bout of columnaris (at least, that's what I deduced it to be, although not absolutely certain it was) but it cleared up. It was on the three Panda corys ironically. The visible blotches were gone on day 4 (treatment was days 1, 3 and 5) but I did the treatment on day 5 just to be sure. The corys did well, no obvious sign of discomfort which amazed me because they are very sensitive to almost anything. As you now know TM, sad to say.

One thing with Maracyn 2, it does affect some plants. The pygmy chain swords melted, as did the red leaf large swords; the others didn't seem as bad. All recovered after a few weeks of regular partial water changes.

When one has a large and planted tank with some obvious disease/parasite, it is sometimes hard to know if the best course is to treat the entire tank or remove the infected fish. I prefer the latter, but rarely do it for two reasons. First, if it is contagious (and so many things are, or could be if I'm not sure what it even is), I want to eradicate it in the tank. Second, trying to catch the infected fish in a thickly-planted tank is no easy matter, if it can still navigate well. The fish will be severely stressed being chased around, and so with others in the tank--end result, more stress that will likely exacerbate the disease and make it necessary to remove yet more fish. So I treat the whole tank. Assuming I am fairly confident as to what it is. Sometimes if the problem is a mystery and is clearly worsening and only on the one fish, I will eventually just net it out (during the next pwc when the water is down works better) and destroy it. One fish loss is preferable to risking the entire tank with treatments, given I wouldn't know where to start.

Byron.

Twistersmom

Thanks Byron,
Still trying to remove the acriflavine from the 65 gal. I have done 4 or 5 water changes of 50% and still a green tent to the water. Lost two of the albino Cory today and one more on its way out. That leaves me with two Cory if they can pull through.

My Bolivian rams are still in the 65 gal, they have not ate in a couple days, hoping enough of the meds are removed that they will recover. Thought about moving them in the 20 gal qt with the cory and snails, afraid the two rams may not get along so well in the 20.

Some more bad news, two more of the rainbows are showing signs of disease. Yet another with cloudy eyes and another with a fuzzy looking mouth. So that makes 5 sick rainbows out of 6. These are Boesman's and Parkinson rainbows. If I move all 6 into the 20 gal qt, it will be a tight fit.

I use to see Maracyn and Maracyn-Two for sale on line in bulk. The little packets are to expensive to treat the 65 gal, and with 10 days use of the med combo, I did not see any improvement. What to do?

The other fish in the 65 gal now, besides the rainbows is the 2 rams, female bettas, and 2 peacock eels. The rainbows, eels, and bettas are all still eating. Have not seen any signs of disease in any of the fish, but the rainbows.

Also, the tank is not planted except for some anubias, the eels are not plant friendly.

Any where that still sells Maracyn in bulk? Any meds that are less expensive, but fish friendly to treat the 65 with? Think a 20 gal is to small to treat just the rainbows? The thought has crossed my mind to just euthanize the rainbows, but to be honest I am just not up to it. It would be the easiest way out.

Byron

The Maracyn I used was Mardel's Maracyn Plus Antibacteria. It is liquid, biospheres, certainly cleared the columnaris (if that's what it was). Someone on here recommended maracyn which is why I tried it. An 8-oz (236 ml) bottle treats 230 gallons, and you treat it 3 times, so that's enough for a 75g tank full treatment. It is said to be a broad spectrum antibiotic effective against a wide range of bacterial diseases. Good luck.

Byron.

Twistersmom

Thanks Byron! I forgot all about the bottled Maracyn Plus stuff. I will give that a shot.
What had me stumped, the first sick fish had just what looked like an infected scratch, then latter one with cloudy eyes, not till the 3rd fish did I see any fuzzy white areas. Did not read any where that cloudy eyes are a sign of columnaris, so still not a positive I.D.
Thinking I should not put any new meds in till the acriflavine is completely removed. I guess if I change enough of the water out and change the carbon out enough times it will eventually have to get removed. Believe me, the thought of a complete tear down came across my mind today, but I will stick with daily 50% water changes till the water looks clear.

Twistersmom

Update, still doing daily water change on the 65 to remove the acriflavine. Water is still not clear. Thinking about a complete tear down this weekend to remove the meds, but not touch the filter, so I can go back to a Maracyn treatment.

Today my female bolivian ram developed a white fuzzy area that looks like a bacterial infection.

One of the cory that I placed in the 20 gal QT, away from meds, appear to have a little tail rot and some red streaking near the fin.

Ahhh, think I am going to go cry!