How fast will it kill?

[DJ88©]

Just the other day one of my pair of Banggai Cardinals died. From what I can find out it was septecemia that killed it. I am currently treating the tank(Maracyn Two) so that my other doesn't succumb as well. So far it looks like things are great.

My question is how fast can it appear and kill a fish? This tank is right next to my chair and I would sit and watch these two guys all the time. Yet I didn't notice the redness down the fish's body until the night it actually died. Up until that day it was eating and was breathing normally.

Can I expect this bacterial infection to kill this quickly in the future?

DJ

[FMarini]

Hi:
First off....many animal tend to hide there illness until the last moments, its a kind of defense mechanism which doesn't show weakness to potential mates/predators, problem is for us fish don't show there clincial signs of illness until it late. When sick, they usually do exhibit a change in daily routine, and you may have not noticed this.
Sespis as you know is a bacterial infection in the vascular system, in which the bacteria do not kill the organism but the response to the bacteria generated by the host is responsible for all the septic toxic effects. I suggest to you that in fact your fish died from complication of a bacterial infection (whether or not sepsis was the actual cause of death may remain unclear).
If it was sepsis then what allowed the bacteria into the banggais bloodstream? In my opinion-the major question is infact what caused the reduction in your fishes immune system which allowed the bacteria infection to occur and then progress. Again I suggest that you look at your current tank set-up for answers. Any ideas??? water quality issues???, aggressive tankmates? the other banggai? something caused the trauma?
Antibacterial agents take between 3-5 days before there is a noticable reduction, but I would follow a 14day course to ensure its all killed off and you have NOT allowed a resistant clone to grow out.
Time to start taking inventory.
Sorry about the fish
frank


[Edited by FMarini on 01-23-2001 at 10:50 PM]

[DJ88©]

Thanks,

The only other occupants ofthe tank(20 gal) is the mate, a goby and a brittle star. I set this one up originally for two Perc's and decided the Banggai's held an attraction I didn't want to pass uyp. The params have been great since I set this tank up six months ago and the cardinals went in about two and a half months ago. Zero's across the board, salinity 1.025 and the Ph at 8.0 The only recent addition was the brittle star from my 90 gallon that my cowfish were picking to death. And that was a month and a half ago. Maybe his injuries brught it in. I don't know.

Thank you very much for your time. I do appreciate it.

I will follw your advice on the treatment for the remaning fish. :)

DJ