Questions about epistylis (NO SICK FISH)

[aussieman57]

1. Facebook is inundated with idiots and morons all who think they are experts. Most of them could not find their *** with both hands and a flashlight.
2. One does not need a college degree in something to have expertise & knowledge. I have a biology degree and a masters in environmental science (fisheries concentration), and a BS in Nursing. Believe me when I tell you it means not much and I am listening to experts here who may or may not have degrees and have a lot more expertise & knowledge in these areas than I do. Quite frankly some of the dumbest people I have met with absolutely no common sense are the "doctorates" with their Post Hole Digger Degrees. A college degree does not infer wisdom & expertise.

 

[Scrappy71113]

Only college biology plus minor courses in different type of biological sciences because it was necessary credits for graduating. My major had nothing to do with biology, just something I found fascinating.

I went to college majoring in biology. It was loads of fun. Plan was 4 year bachelor's degree in biology close to home, then head to New York to get a doctorates in marine biology. But chemistry was kicking my butt and my chem professor finally pulled me aside and brought up the fact that chemistry is the basis of all sciences and maybe I wasn't cut out for the science field. It was upsetting, but understandable.

 

[Scrappy71113]

1. Facebook is inundated with idiots and morons all who think they are experts. Most of them could not find their *** with both hands and a flashlight.
2. One does not need a college degree in something to have expertise & knowledge. I have a biology degree and a masters in environmental science (fisheries concentration), and a BS in Nursing. Believe me when I tell you it means not much and I am listening to experts here who may or may not have degrees and have a lot more expertise & knowledge in these areas than I do. Quite frankly some of the dumbest people I have met with absolutely no common sense are the "doctorates" with their Post Hole Digger Degrees. A college degree does not infer wisdom & expertise.

As hilarious as this is, I will have to agree.
Some of the things people on FB say absolutely floor me. But so much stuff is going around that has a possibility of truth that I'm over here second guessing myself and everything I think I know!
As far as college goes, I totally get it. There's people I work with who are going to college and act like they are above everyone else and haven't even graduated yet... Granted I haven't graduated at all lol
But one of my favorite quotes is from my high school AP biology teacher "a Doctor with a 'D', unfortunately, is still a Doctor."

 

[Scrappy71113]

On a side note, my first intentional breeding project just arrived a bit ago, so I'll probably be here a lot in the future asking questions.

2 males, 3 females. Just finished releasing them into the tank. I'm super excited!
But I wanna let them grow up a little first.

 

[SaburaiAquatics]

Does salt help with epistylis?

 

[Scrappy71113]

Does salt help with epistylis?

I don't want to leave you hanging, but I honestly don't know. I have never, that I know of, had to deal with epistylis. I have had to deal with two major fungal infections, HITH, and most recently severe emaciation.
From what I understand, salt irritates the skin and promotes production of the slime coat, so maybe, but like I said before, I honestly don't know.

 

[Kmassey32]

Sorry this will be a book but I know this thread is pretty recent and there's not much information or documentation of what works or doesnt or what to do so I thought I'd chime in since after 20 years of fish keeping I can say for certain I just had epistyles. I fought and won and lost this battle and thought I'd put out there what I did. First I noticed it 2 Saturdays ago after water changes on my amazon puffers tank only on the puffers none of the other inhabitants plecos ottos siamese or Chinese algae eaters. On that day I cleaned all 42 tanks in my fishroom. And due to my own fault for not paying attention I spread it to my nanoluteus tank 5 adults all highly infected by Sunday. On Saturday I started dosing only paraguard in only the puffers tank since I had not seen it in the Nanos until sunday they were a day behind on meds. I dosed for 3 days only paraguard on the puffers since I thought it was ich but it continued to get worse and I had never seen ich like this. In my experience using paraguard with ich in the past it was clearing up most of the time after about 24 hrs so I did my research and came to the conclusion it was epistylis for many reasons and with the help of many other experienced fishkeepers. So on day 3 I started kanaplex which is what most things I read said worked and i keep all seachem meds on hand so i went with that and since you can't feed them if they refuse to eat I dosed it In the water while continuing paraguard everyday. Day 4 only para day 5 one of 3 puffers dead (he was small and weak bc of a missing pectoral fin he was missing since i got him) and 2nd dose of kanaplex day 6 throughout the day all 5 adult nanoluteus died. Now I was worried and I love my puffers and they were barely clinging on so I had to do something else. So I started dosing api erythromycin and fin and body cure on just the puffers due to a few more things I read and also bc I had them on hand Day 7 was skipped dose of api meds but last dose of kanaplex on puffers and now empty nanoluteus tank. Puffer finally showing improvement at this point. Day 8 paraguard and 2nd dose of both api meds. Day 9 2 of 3 remaining puffers fully cleared one still heavily spotted and first water change as api meds call for but 50% on both tanks and sponge filter cleaned in puffer tanks more paraguard. Day 10 and 11 dose both api meds and para third and final puffer fully cleared up. Day 12 (today) another 50% water change no filters cleaned. Now it's super unusual and I know I'm super lucky as I use the same water change equipment in all tanks pretty much and there were 38 tanks cleaned in between the 2 infected tanks which in order are the 2nd tank and 2nd to last tank in my cleaning cycle. So I can't say for sure what worked or what didn't since there's so many variables. But I can say for certain only kanaplex and paraguard in the water did absolutely nothing if anything during that time it continued to worsen. But in conclusion 12 days in 9 fish infected total 5 cryptoheros nanoluteus and 4 amazon puffers only 3 puffers remain but are spot free eating and I'd have to say cured. I'd be happy to clear any of that up if it sounds confusing and hear any ideas on how to go about the empty tank since it's planted and aquascaped better than almost all my other tanks after much impatience I'd rather not nuke it and that's about the only advice I've gotten from anyone who actually had it to strip it down bleach it 3 times and leave it out in the sun for a week. Lol