# Are cory sensitive to acriflavine?



## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

3 of my rainbow fish came down with a bacterial infection a couple months ago. I started treating with daily water changes, no improvements. So, wanting to stick with snail safe meds, I started using Melafix and Primafix with water changes every other day, still no improvements.
Then did a week and 1/2, treatment with Maracyn and Maracyn-two. No improvement and the Maracyn cost way to much to continue treatment in a 65 gal tank.
So moved the snails in a 20gal QT, and switched to Acriflavin. I am guessing Acriflavine is not Mystery snail safe?
Problem, the cories did not eat tonight. With the Acriflavin, I have to do daily 50% water changes. The cory seemed a little slow to move out of the way during the gravel cleaning, and thats a little strange for them. This is day four of the Acriflavin treatment, with little improvement.

The reason for treating the whole tank, was because I believed it to be contagious, but only the same three fish are sick.

I could move the cory into QT with the snails, or move the three sick rainbows into qt and quite treating the whole tank. Only problem with that, I don't know when it is safe to put the snails back into the 65 gal. Afraid to put the snails in another fish tank, not sure if they could be carriers of the disease.

Sorry for the novel, any advice is welcome.

PS, there have been no new fish added to the 65 gal for months, so why the outbreak, I have no clue. There has been no water quality problems either. The fish have sore spots, with missing scales, one with cloudy eyes, and a few white patches. Looks like a columnaris outbreak. The rainbows are still eating and act healthy, just look bad.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Snails don't carry bacterial infections except for flukes. You could move them back in the 65g once acriflavine is removed completely. I'd err on the side of caution. Acriflavine has not been tested with apple snails specifically yet nor do I have intentions to do the experiment myself. I am a softie for snails.:sad:

I can't remember the last time I treated my main tank with acriflavine but I think the cories were okay although not really all that lively as they often were. I'd just treat the rainbowfish separately to be safe.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Maybe I will just place the snails in a 10 gal with fish for now, till I believe the acriflavine is removed.
Not sure how to tell when its safe to put the snails back in the 65. That Acriflavine is some nasty stuff! The whole tank is a nasty green haze, my hand are turning yellow from water changes.

Also, do you think I should stick with the treatment of Acriflavine in the 20 gal qt, or would another med be better?
The missing scales seem to be looking better since I started the acriflavine treatment, but still see a lot of white stingy areas on one of the fish.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

I wouldn't touch the acriflavine with bare hands, Twister. It does stain. How are the rainbows doing with acriflavine? Acriflavine is indeed a harsh treatment. If it does not work after a week, I'd switch to tetracycline or a combination of Maracyn and Maracyn 2.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

The rainbows do not seem bothered by it, but through the green water, its hard to tell if there has been much physical improvement. Perhaps I will go back to the Maracy and Maracyn-Two in the 20 gal QT, will not cost as much to treat in the 20 gal. My ph is close to 8, not sure if the Tetracyline will work in such a high ph?
Thanks so much for your help!


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

Ahh..Good point. So this leaves us to deal with Maracyn and Maracyn 2 instead. Tetracycline does not indeed work well at that pH.


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## Rohland (Aug 20, 2009)

Cories don't do well with medicine in the water. You may want to remove them while your doing treatment.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Rohland said:


> Cories don't do well with medicine in the water. You may want to remove them while your doing treatment.


I think you are right. My plan is to move the 3 sick fish into the 20 qt, with no other fish developing the disease after 2 months, I feel it is safe not to treat the tank as a whole. It will be nice doing 50% water changes in a 20 gal daily, instead of the 65!


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

I killed my poor fish. 

I thought I would post this so others can learn from my mistake. Yes, the disease is contagious, but next time I need to resort to a stronger medication, I will not be treating everyone in the tank. The fish with signs of illness will be moved into QT. 

After noticing that my cory where acting sluggish after 4 days of the acriflavine treatment, on Thursday and Friday, I did 50% water changes with no meds added, to start removing it. My plan was to wait till today, to move the rainbows into the QT, and decide what tanks I want to move the apple snails into.

When I got home from work on Friday, all four of my skunk Cory where dead. I also have 5 albino Cory in the tank, all where acting weak, one on its side. In a mad rush, I moved the cory into the 20 gal qt, with the snails. Then I started to worry that enough of the medication was on the cory to kill the snails. Did a 50% water change in the 20 and added carbon to the filter. This morning, all the snails are still alive, and the cory are looking better. Even the cory that I thought for sure would be dead this morning, has righted himself.

My plan now is do a few more big water changes, before moving the cory back and freeing up the QT tank for the rainbows. Hoping the rainbows will not deteriorate to quickly, without treatment for a few days.

Wishing now, that I had just stuck with the Maracyn and Maracyn-Two. I have never had any fish, shrimp, or snails fall ill from the use of the med combo.


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## Lupin (Aug 2, 2006)

I am sorry to hear that, Twister.:sad:


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

I used Maracyn 2 on a bout of columnaris (at least, that's what I deduced it to be, although not absolutely certain it was) but it cleared up. It was on the three Panda corys ironically. The visible blotches were gone on day 4 (treatment was days 1, 3 and 5) but I did the treatment on day 5 just to be sure. The corys did well, no obvious sign of discomfort which amazed me because they are very sensitive to almost anything. As you now know TM, sad to say.

One thing with Maracyn 2, it does affect some plants. The pygmy chain swords melted, as did the red leaf large swords; the others didn't seem as bad. All recovered after a few weeks of regular partial water changes.

When one has a large and planted tank with some obvious disease/parasite, it is sometimes hard to know if the best course is to treat the entire tank or remove the infected fish. I prefer the latter, but rarely do it for two reasons. First, if it is contagious (and so many things are, or could be if I'm not sure what it even is), I want to eradicate it in the tank. Second, trying to catch the infected fish in a thickly-planted tank is no easy matter, if it can still navigate well. The fish will be severely stressed being chased around, and so with others in the tank--end result, more stress that will likely exacerbate the disease and make it necessary to remove yet more fish. So I treat the whole tank. Assuming I am fairly confident as to what it is. Sometimes if the problem is a mystery and is clearly worsening and only on the one fish, I will eventually just net it out (during the next pwc when the water is down works better) and destroy it. One fish loss is preferable to risking the entire tank with treatments, given I wouldn't know where to start.

Byron.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Thanks Byron,
Still trying to remove the acriflavine from the 65 gal. I have done 4 or 5 water changes of 50% and still a green tent to the water. Lost two of the albino Cory today and one more on its way out. That leaves me with two Cory if they can pull through.

My Bolivian rams are still in the 65 gal, they have not ate in a couple days, hoping enough of the meds are removed that they will recover. Thought about moving them in the 20 gal qt with the cory and snails, afraid the two rams may not get along so well in the 20.

Some more bad news, two more of the rainbows are showing signs of disease. Yet another with cloudy eyes and another with a fuzzy looking mouth. So that makes 5 sick rainbows out of 6. These are Boesman's and Parkinson rainbows. If I move all 6 into the 20 gal qt, it will be a tight fit.

I use to see Maracyn and Maracyn-Two for sale on line in bulk. The little packets are to expensive to treat the 65 gal, and with 10 days use of the med combo, I did not see any improvement. What to do?

The other fish in the 65 gal now, besides the rainbows is the 2 rams, female bettas, and 2 peacock eels. The rainbows, eels, and bettas are all still eating. Have not seen any signs of disease in any of the fish, but the rainbows.

Also, the tank is not planted except for some anubias, the eels are not plant friendly.

Any where that still sells Maracyn in bulk? Any meds that are less expensive, but fish friendly to treat the 65 with? Think a 20 gal is to small to treat just the rainbows? The thought has crossed my mind to just euthanize the rainbows, but to be honest I am just not up to it. It would be the easiest way out.


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## Byron (Mar 7, 2009)

Twistersmom said:


> Thanks Byron,
> Still trying to remove the acriflavine from the 65 gal. I have done 4 or 5 water changes of 50% and still a green tent to the water. Lost two of the albino Cory today and one more on its way out. That leaves me with two Cory if they can pull through.
> 
> My Bolivian rams are still in the 65 gal, they have not ate in a couple days, hoping enough of the meds are removed that they will recover. Thought about moving them in the 20 gal qt with the cory and snails, afraid the two rams may not get along so well in the 20.
> ...


The Maracyn I used was Mardel's Maracyn Plus Antibacteria. It is liquid, biospheres, certainly cleared the columnaris (if that's what it was). Someone on here recommended maracyn which is why I tried it. An 8-oz (236 ml) bottle treats 230 gallons, and you treat it 3 times, so that's enough for a 75g tank full treatment. It is said to be a broad spectrum antibiotic effective against a wide range of bacterial diseases. Good luck.

Byron.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Thanks Byron! I forgot all about the bottled Maracyn Plus stuff. I will give that a shot.
What had me stumped, the first sick fish had just what looked like an infected scratch, then latter one with cloudy eyes, not till the 3rd fish did I see any fuzzy white areas. Did not read any where that cloudy eyes are a sign of columnaris, so still not a positive I.D. 
Thinking I should not put any new meds in till the acriflavine is completely removed. I guess if I change enough of the water out and change the carbon out enough times it will eventually have to get removed. Believe me, the thought of a complete tear down came across my mind today, but I will stick with daily 50% water changes till the water looks clear.


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## Twistersmom (Dec 9, 2008)

Update, still doing daily water change on the 65 to remove the acriflavine. Water is still not clear. Thinking about a complete tear down this weekend to remove the meds, but not touch the filter, so I can go back to a Maracyn treatment.

Today my female bolivian ram developed a white fuzzy area that looks like a bacterial infection.

One of the cory that I placed in the 20 gal QT, away from meds, appear to have a little tail rot and some red streaking near the fin.

Ahhh, think I am going to go cry!


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