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I've got three P. pictus in my tank that are showing signs of hemorrhaging, with fin rot. Panicking, I immediately treated the tank with penicillin. After doing some research online, I'm starting to suspect septicemia. According to lots of websites, Maracyn Two is the only effective treatment for this. I have also read that once you start treating with penicillin, you have to complete the treatment and also that you have to be careful using penicillin in catfish...
Should I continue the penicillin until I'm done, then start treating with Maracyn Two, or can I treat with both at the same time? This tank has also been treated with Quik-Cure and Melafix recently (Don't ask! This past week has been a hellish learning experience).
Also, this tank is a bit over-populated (I'm setting up another, but it needs to cycle) and requires very frequent water changes or the nitrates shoot up (Why I'm suspecting there is so much going wrong in my tank lately!) Can I do water changes while treating with meds? Do I add meds to make up for whats been taken out? Or just leave it with the lower amount of medicine?
Thanks,
-Kris

Sounds like the fin rot is being caused by the high ammon/nitrite.What is your ph at?

(Why I'm suspecting there is so much going wrong in my tank lately!)

here's the probable cause of all your woe's, your filtration may not be working due to the demands your stock is placing on it, causing a drop in pH and high nitrates,

this tank is a bit over-populated

Also you may want to increase your water changes to 25% daily
until your new aquaria is ready to house all your over stock fish. You can medicate after each water change.

Does the hemorrhaging look like, on some if not all your fish like weeping small wounds that have a mucus like discharge around them?

IF so

Melafix

Is a good medication for this, However; when using melafix it is always advisable to increase the amount of oxygen (by adding a air stone) going into your tank, melafix although being IMHO one of the best medication to hit the hobby in many a year, reduces the amount of disolved oxygen in the water.

Boy did you hit the nail on the head, lol. I realized yesterday that my filter had quit working. I cleaned it out, and now it's running fine. I also picked up a little 5 1/2 gal. tank to use as a quarentine tank, so I have the Pictus cats in that. I'm treating that with Maracyn-Two, and finishing the penicillin treatment.
To answer T's question, When I tested yesterday it was between 7.0 and 7.2. I use Reverse Osmosis water to try to keep the water neutral, because my tap water is at 8.3!