Q: "goosebumps" and cloudy antibiotic water

[doglover_50]

Many of yaa'l might recall my clown loach with what appear to be goosebumps. He's in the midst of antibiotic treatment using maracyn I and II concurrently. Got home tonight, day 3, water is VERY cloudy.

20g long is set up with 20g Penguin filter with biowheel going and filter floss stuffed in (no carbon); temp is 80; O2 and water moved with the Penguin, airstone, and a MJ600.

Nitrates are 20-25 (I'm bad with colors--basically that's what it is out of the tap), nitrite/ammonia are zero, KH is around 150ppm, and pH is at 7.2 These are values the fish has lived with since being with me in display tank.

Just before applying treatment tonight, I did a 40% WC. Is this cloudiness a problem? As long as it isn't dangerous to the fish, I can live with it.

[Jim Powers]

Cloudiness may occur while using Maracyn 2.

[doglover_50]

Thanks Jim.

[chefkeith]

Any improvements Yet?

[doglover_50]

With my travels, haven't quite been able to give goose the treatment attention I wanted. I did a first 5 days of maracyn I/II--absolutely no improvements. Day before I left, qt water was showing slight increase in nitrite and I was worried about the risk of leaving him in QT for 5 days while I was gone. So he went back to the display.

When I get back this Monday night, I'll be here for 2+ weeks, so I'll net him and he'll go back to the QT. So here's a question--since he didn't show any improvement with 5 days, and he'll be in display for 7 days before back to treatment, would you:

Do just another 5 days of Maracyn I/II, OR do *2* 5 day trials with the maracyns?

2nd question--my next idea is to try an antifungal. Can I treat with an antifungal at the same time as bacterial? Are there other issues in addition to bacterial or fungal you'd try? Whatever it is is quite odd--the bumps aren't moving, so I'm 99.9% sure they are NOT parasitic. And my other 3 clowns continue to be fine.
doglover

[chefkeith]

I don't think antibiotics will help either, since now I doubt they are from an infection. If it were, the fish would of gotten better or worse by now. It's been over 3 months since the goosebumps showed up.

I think the fish might just have a glandular disorder or something like that. Other fish keepers have called similar white bumps breeding tubercles.
It doesn't seem to pose any threat to the fishes health. So maybe just leave it alone.

A bad solution would be to try shocking the fish with different temps and TDS. Shocking could change it's hormone responses from the glands, but that would be dangerous, and do more harm than good.

[doglover_50]

Keith, I certainly don't want to shock him, and don't think I have.

You may well be right on about a glandular problem. However, for the longest time he had the goosebumps but seemed fine. However, I'd say in the last 4 or so weeks, maybe more, he's shown some behavioral indicators that something is not right. The main signal I see is that he does not school as he used to with the other clowns, and sometimes they seem to pick on him/her, despite the fact that the other 3 are smaller.

So I'm at a point willing to try more/other treatment--I agree with your thoughts on antibiotics--likely it would have gotten better or worse given the time, not remained stable.

[chefkeith]

One thought I ponder, but not as severe as shocking, might be to gradually decrease the TDS in a q-tank (with the fish in it) until the water's purity is greatly increased. As you know, pure water has a TDS of 0. So maybe dropping the TDS to about 50 would trigger a hormone response in the fish. Purifying the water will increase the fishes mucus production also. So maybe just lowering the TDS over a few weeks time would improve the condition. It would need to be done extremely slow though.
I hate suggesting experiments like this because I've only done some basic research on fish glands, hormones, and receptors. But If it was my fish, I'd probably try it though. I don't think it could hurt anything if done slowly. Pretty much all you would be doing is simulating nature.