Green "fungal" infection on red cherry swimmerets.

[ryanryan88]

Hey all,

I am currently trying this salt dipping method. I do not have seachem paraguard at the moment so I am currently doing 1.5 minute dips in a very salty solution which also has JBL Fungol in it (malachite green, crystal violet). I cannot remember my exact dosage for each component of the dipping solution but it is roughly 2 heaped table spoons of salt and 0.3 ml of fungol for about 350ml of water.
I dipped him once yesterday for 1.5 minutes and twice today for 1.5 minutes, then popped him back into his isolation tank. 

Desert, like you have reported; I think the malachite green on its own did very little to slow/stop/shrink the infection. Infact, though I stated earlier in this thread that I thought the infection was shrinking, upon closer inspection I do not think this was correct... Sometimes you look at the shrimp and it looks much better but then you get a different angle or the shrimp moves his swimmerets and you see differently. 

*goes to check shrimp now*

Nope, so far he is not better at all. Infact, having had a good look right now he looks almost a little bit worse. Granted I am not treating with Seachem Paraguard so I am not following the instructions you posted to the letter. I believe seachem paraguard has some malachite green in it but it also has some other stuff which -might- be what I am missing. 


this all sucks. 


I will keep you guys posted on any developments and hopefully we might get somewhere with all this.

Thanks guys


P.S. WDIK; sorry mate, this really does suck. 

[WDIK]

P.S. WDIK; sorry mate, this really does suck. 

 

No worries.  On the bright side I do have new babbies.  I believe all of the infected shrimp have died and been removed.  The remaining shrimp look fantastic.  I'm going to contiue with the recommended dosing of ParaGuard for a couple of weeks, and hope none of my currently healthy shrimp get infected.

[ryanryan88]

OK guys. An update on the situation here with my sick red cherry shrimp.

He is dead.


Basically the infection was developing into more advanced levels rather than going away. In the end I had to put him out of his misery. Between the advancing infection, the treatment dips, the isolation chamber and everything I figured it was kinder to swiftly euthanize.


Anyway, I was treating using the salt dip and JBL Fungol (malachite green and crystal violet)... This treatment did more or less nothing as far as the eye could tell. The infection was continuing to advance by the 5th or 6th day of treatment. 

Granted, I did not follow the instructions, posted by Desert, to the tee as I did not treat using seachem paraguard.. I cannot verify or comment specifically on wether these instructions work or not. I know the paraguard has malachite green in it but it also has other stuff which may well be of use. 

Thanks for all the help in this thread, I really appreciate it. 

[Trotwood]

I know this is an old post but since I just successfully cured this infection in a couple of my shrimp using one of the methods suggested here I wanted to add my results for the next person who comes along looking for a solution. About a month ago I noticed a shrimp with a pretty bad case of the green fungus and moved him to a separate tank. Upon close inspection of the colony I found two more with a less severe case and moved them over as well (all were males). The worst infected shrimp did eventually die so it may be, as is the case with so many illnesses, that early detection is key.

Anyway, the tank the sick shrimp were in was just a large critter keeper with no filter or heater. Just a bare bottom with a bit of java moss and few pieces of IAL and Guava leaves. I put about a gallon of tank water in to get it started which made for a pretty shallow tank which I figured was good since there was no air flow. The shrimp spent about a month in this tank. I used a turkey baster to remove 1 - 1.5 cups of water and as much shrimp poo as I could every other day or so and replaced it with remineralized RO water.

I used ick medication as the user Sewoeno suggested earlier in the post in spite of the fact that it clearly states not to use it on shrimp. I did the maximum dosage adding a drop every day for 3 days and then did a large water change. I left them alone for a few days (just doing regular water changes) and then repeated the process. In all I repeated the process 3 times giving them a few days off in between. I didn't notice any miraculous improvements at first and as I said the worst infected shrimp did die.

I had pretty much given up hope and just didn't have the heart to toss them out so I just kept them in that tank figuring they'd die eventually. Then the other day I took a closer look at them than usual during a water change and found to my amazement that they were cured. I drip acclimated them and returned them to the main tank. They had lost a bit of color during their ordeal so for the first couple of days I could easily pick them out and confirm that all was still well. A few days later though they seem to have colored back up and I can no longer tell which ones they were.

This technique was a lot of work and honestly I'm not sure I'll bother should I have a recurrence of the infection. I've just got fire red neos which are quite prolific so a loss here and there is not a big deal (except that I'm a softy). But for those with small populations or expensive shrimp I'd recommend giving it a try. Good luck!

[Wygglz]

Thanks for following up. The more experiences we can gather, the better off we'll all be.