Shiro Treatment (CT)

[Gazza]

Hi Guys,

As promised on the CT thread i have sorted out some pictures and looked back in my notes on what i did when i found i had a sick Shiro. It was a funny one as the Shiro was a new purchase and went into the QT tank and literary the next day when my parents where over my dad had been out to the QT and said to me that new fish looks crap What does he know i says and we go out for a look and something looks a bit odd so off with the air and then i see that the Shiro now looks like a Showa as it has a lot of red on it

Straight away we basically know we are dealing with a nasty bacterial infection (Aeromonas attack) and one which needs to be hit with a big stick and fast as otherwise this wasn't going to end very well.

Day 1 20.6.2006 I turned up the heat to 27c and put in a salt to bring it up to 0.3% and added 10gm of CT per 100 gallons once the tank was at temperature.

Day 2 21.6.2006 Treated with another dose of CT @ 8gm per 100 gallons.

Day 3 22.6.2006 Treated with another dose of CT @ 8gm per 100 gallons.

Day 6 25.6.2006 Carried out a 25% water change to freshen things up a little and fish looking much better and the red area had begun to reduce.

Day 7 26.6.2006 No more treatment and everything had settled down and there was hardly any marks on the Shiro apart from on a couple of scales. The Shiro made a full recovery and was back to 100% in less than 14 days and you could not see a mark on this fish after the first 10 days as if nothing had been going on.

This type of intense treatment can have remarkable effects on this type of bacterial infection and as long as you can catch it in time and have the correct set up to be able to carry this out it can be done without any problems,but we must remember when carrying out such treatments we have to be on the ball and keep a very close eye on things as they go through the treatment process.

Here are the pictures of the Shiro from day one and as you can see not to good:













Half way through you can see its been stopped in its tracks and is now starting to cool down:







This is as you can see from Day 6 and looking good and you can just see the odd scale but this all healed up within a few more days:

[tomc]

That's a good photographic representation of the results that can be achieved.

As per the original thread, had a similar situation when I got back from a business trip. I can only guess the koi decided to go for 3 rounds with the shower as it was nicely bashed up. 3 doses of CT, heat and 7 days later not a problem.

The only "problem" with such dose rates is that I do feel the need to be around for the treatment so scheduling this and work can be tricky!

Tom

[tomy2ponds]

Very interesting to see all the stages of healing,Ct is great stuff I would hate to see it on the banned list

[Brockp]

Hi guys

Would anybody have given this fish a dose of Amikacin as well as the other treatments ? If not why not (assuming you can get/have some that is).

Excellent series of photos well done mate.

Pete

[Gazza]

Hi Pete,

I did have antibiotics on hand but after looking at the alternatives and after chatting with Duncan is was decided to go the CT rate and as you can see it worked a treat

The thing with antibiotics is they are not going to help the fish they just knock back the problem and give the fish a chance where as the CT/Salt/Heat treatment is going to work from more than one side so giving a better chance of a quicker recovery IMO.

[B.Scott]

Almost hard to believe they are all the same fish

[Gazza]

Hi Scotty,

Yes it is mate is was hard for me to think it was the same fish when i looked in the tank thinking it was a Shiro and looking like a Showa

I have to say when i first see it i had two options one was antibiotics and the other was the treatment detailed above and i am glad i went with the CT route and heat and i find the heat part is one that is very much overlooked.

For some reason some people have the train of thought that if you turn the heat up it will help the bacteria more than the fish but this is not the case as in the right conditions the heat helps the fish and does not work against them.

[Duncan]

im just gonna but in here briefly

this type of aeromonas i see a lot of, i keep around 8 types of antibiotic on hand and trust me when is ay this type of infection does not respond very well to and antibiotic for what ever the reason, trust me again when i say it would be much easier to use an antibiotic rather than jump through the hoops the gazza did but thats not the case

what this bug does not like is heat! and heat can burn it right out as well as boosting the koi's immune system. the salt lightens the osmotic pressure on the fish while the C/T keep the fish and envionment sterile and also cauterises any breaches in the dermis

back to Gazza i dont want to steal his thunder

dunc

[Gazza]

Hi Duncan,

Hey its not my thunder Dunc i didn't even know what way a fish was supposed to swim till i met you mate let alone how to treat

I think its an important one to get out to the people that heat is a great help to the healing of our fish as far to many people do not use heat enough due to being told that you should not heat up as this will help the bacteria and not the fish

That is the great gift of this section we can actually show people that things can be done and that are not of the norm but work very well as i see so many people fail due to just getting that little thing wrong like not enough heat or salt and yet if they could see how close they are to it it