"Panaque Plague"
Posted: 27 Jul 2006, 20:54
About a month ago my panaque tank was hit with the infamous "Panaque Plague" (a disease that starts out as lesions and spreads quickly)...out of the 5 panaques in the tank, 3 of them actually acquired the disease...it started out with small lesions, my larger L191 was the first to develop the lesions...
http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997
http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997
my smaller L191 and one of my L203's (the larger of the two) also developed symptoms, my L203 acquired a few lesions on his tail and near his belly, and my smaller L191 developed a large lesion on his side and one of his eyes caved in...shortly after my L203's eye became red and cloudy...
the first day i watched them closely and pm'ed some people to get a diagnosis...it was confirmed to be the panaque plague from the pics i provided (same pics as above)...the next day the lesions got worse, my large L191 now had about 8 lesions, my L203's tail was slowly being "eaten away" and my smaller L191's eye remained caved in and his lesion on his side grew a bit...so i did some intense reading, a lot of it through others experiences, and I had knowledgeable people to help me through it...the following day i removed my two un-affected panaques (my other L203 and my L27) to separate tanks (my L27 was housed with the other inhabitants of the panaque tank that were un-affected), and removed all wood except for one piece and also increased the aeration in the tank...i unplugged the heater on the main tank where the disease hit (temp went from about 80-82 to about 68-70) i believe this played a large part in the recovery...i also added salt and in a desperate attempt Aquarisol (i do not know if this did indeed help in the healing process, but immediately after treating the disease stopped progressing and began on the road to recovery) i treated daily with a 3/4 dose for the first week two weeks, then i dropped it back to a 1/2 dose and then to a 1/4 a dose as healing was progressing...i did frequent water changes (about 30% every other day) and added fresh salt after each water change (about 4-5 tablespoons (tank is a four footer)...from the moment the disease was discovered the lights were turned off (and since the tank is in a window the blinds were shut) and remain this way even up until today (about two weeks after complete recovery)...i believe the drop in temp, water changes, salt (and possibly the Aquarisol) were the main factors in the recovery...I am pleased to say that all three of my affected panaques are back to 100% and fully healed
and my two un-affected panaques are doing very well also...
http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997 (pic from about 2 weeks ago)
during this entire process i used two different sets of equipment, one gravel vac, bucket, and nets that were then never used again after i had done a wc and discovered the disease, and then a different gravel vac was used to do the regular water changes...new nets, gravel vacs, buckets, cleaning equip, etc. was purchased to use on all my other tanks...i never cleaned my other tanks when this tank was scheduled to be cleaned...i also made sure the filter in the diseased tank remained very clean and as little stress as possible was put on the fish...I also reduced my feeding a bit to accommodate for the three individual panaques, no more than they could consume in about 15 minutes (during the entire span of the disease all three of my affected panaques ate on a regular basis, their appetite did not decrease)
I wanted to share this in hopes that maybe this information could help others...
Kitttyfish
http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997
http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997
my smaller L191 and one of my L203's (the larger of the two) also developed symptoms, my L203 acquired a few lesions on his tail and near his belly, and my smaller L191 developed a large lesion on his side and one of his eyes caved in...shortly after my L203's eye became red and cloudy...
the first day i watched them closely and pm'ed some people to get a diagnosis...it was confirmed to be the panaque plague from the pics i provided (same pics as above)...the next day the lesions got worse, my large L191 now had about 8 lesions, my L203's tail was slowly being "eaten away" and my smaller L191's eye remained caved in and his lesion on his side grew a bit...so i did some intense reading, a lot of it through others experiences, and I had knowledgeable people to help me through it...the following day i removed my two un-affected panaques (my other L203 and my L27) to separate tanks (my L27 was housed with the other inhabitants of the panaque tank that were un-affected), and removed all wood except for one piece and also increased the aeration in the tank...i unplugged the heater on the main tank where the disease hit (temp went from about 80-82 to about 68-70) i believe this played a large part in the recovery...i also added salt and in a desperate attempt Aquarisol (i do not know if this did indeed help in the healing process, but immediately after treating the disease stopped progressing and began on the road to recovery) i treated daily with a 3/4 dose for the first week two weeks, then i dropped it back to a 1/2 dose and then to a 1/4 a dose as healing was progressing...i did frequent water changes (about 30% every other day) and added fresh salt after each water change (about 4-5 tablespoons (tank is a four footer)...from the moment the disease was discovered the lights were turned off (and since the tank is in a window the blinds were shut) and remain this way even up until today (about two weeks after complete recovery)...i believe the drop in temp, water changes, salt (and possibly the Aquarisol) were the main factors in the recovery...I am pleased to say that all three of my affected panaques are back to 100% and fully healed
and my two un-affected panaques are doing very well also...http://www.plecofanatics.com/gallery/sh ... puser=2997 (pic from about 2 weeks ago)
during this entire process i used two different sets of equipment, one gravel vac, bucket, and nets that were then never used again after i had done a wc and discovered the disease, and then a different gravel vac was used to do the regular water changes...new nets, gravel vacs, buckets, cleaning equip, etc. was purchased to use on all my other tanks...i never cleaned my other tanks when this tank was scheduled to be cleaned...i also made sure the filter in the diseased tank remained very clean and as little stress as possible was put on the fish...I also reduced my feeding a bit to accommodate for the three individual panaques, no more than they could consume in about 15 minutes (during the entire span of the disease all three of my affected panaques ate on a regular basis, their appetite did not decrease)
I wanted to share this in hopes that maybe this information could help others...
Kitttyfish