Pacu Mouth Disease; Please Help!

[Nalgene123]

Hi,

Last week I saw a beat-up pacu at my LFS with mouth injured. I decided to heal him so I brought him home for medication. I used both melafix and primafix daily trying to get him improve. The water temperature is around 83 degrees. In the first 3 days, he still ate, but since the fourth day, he has been swimming around the tank restlessly and sometimes even spinning when swimming. He also has stopped eating since then. I think it's because the mouth injury could be worsened. I did a 30% water change after medicating him for 6 days.

Can you please help? I'm very worried. Below are the pictures of him (first is when he first got home, and the second is the one I took this morning).

 

[Rocksor]

Looks like a bacterial infection which neither melafix nor pima fix will help. Both are pretty weak. You need to test the water for both ammonia and nitrite using a liquid test. If you don't have a liquid test, you should be changing at least 50% of the water everyday until you get the liquid tests. Treat the water with Prime.

I would treat with both Maracyn 1 and Maracyn 2 if available.

 

[Nalgene123]

Looks like a bacterial infection which neither melafix nor pima fix will help. Both are pretty weak. You need to test the water for both ammonia and nitrite using a liquid test. If you don't have a liquid test, you should be changing at least 50% of the water everyday until you get the liquid tests. Treat the water with Prime.

I would treat with both Maracyn 1 and Maracyn 2 if available.

I have the API freshwater test kit and made sure the water quality was good before I got the pacu. I just did another test and the ammonia level is high now, so I changed 50% water with API stress coat (I don't have Prime). I ordered Maracyn 2 from Amazon (can't find Maracyn 1) just now and it should be here tomorrow. I have another question: should i keep doing 50% water change daily when using the Maracyn 2? Thanks so much.

 

[duanes]

Just a thought (I can't tell by the pics) but many bacterial diseases (columnaris is one) become more virulent at higher temps.
Columnaris advances quickly at temps above 82'F.
So for some bacterial diseases it is more advantageous to lower the temp.

 

[Rocksor]

I have the API freshwater test kit and made sure the water quality was good before I got the pacu. I just did another test and the ammonia level is high now, so I changed 50% water with API stress coat (I don't have Prime). I ordered Maracyn 2 from Amazon (can't find Maracyn 1) just now and it should be here tomorrow. I have another question: should i keep doing 50% water change daily when using the Maracyn 2? Thanks so much.

Maracyn-1 contains erythromycin.

I would keep doing water changes to keep ammonia no higher than 0.25ppm. You have to re-dose the medication for the water added back in. API stress coat does not protect against ammonia poisoning, so I suggest getting a water conditioner that does (Prime, Amquel, AmmoLock)

 

[Nalgene123]

Just a thought (I can't tell by the pics) but many bacterial diseases (columnaris is one) become more virulent at higher temps.
Columnaris advances quickly at temps above 82'F.
So for some bacterial diseases it is more advantageous to lower the temp.

Thank you for the info; I lowered the temperature to 76 on 2 days ago. Fish is eating with good appetite and things are getting better now.

 

[Nalgene123]

Maracyn-1 contains erythromycin.

I would keep doing water changes to keep ammonia no higher than 0.25ppm. You have to re-dose the medication for the water added back in. API stress coat does not protect against ammonia poisoning, so I suggest getting a water conditioner that does (Prime, Amquel, AmmoLock)

Thanks, I ordered it and it should be here. I applied Prime to the water with water change, and the fish is getting better now, eating pellets with good appetite again.