rainbow shark needs help!

[Chapayev]

I have a year old rainbow shark, Marx, in a 20g. long tank with some dojos, yoyo's, kuhlis & an algea eater. In the past week & a half my shark has developed some sort of infection? on his face. first his mouth was swollen and we thought it was cotton mouth so we started giving him triple sulfa for that, but then his eye started to pop out so it looked like pop-eye and now we're giving him maracyn. We do regular water changes. He seems to only be getting worse although I am surprised he is still alive. His mouth is very swollen and looks like something is just eating away at his face. Would it help at all to put him in his own tank and give him a heafty dose? He looks pretty nasty but he's a trooper so any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

need some more info first ;
a. what are your recent water stats like nitrate, nitrite and ammonia?
b. What does his infected mouth/face look like exactly? is it red and inflamed or covered in white fluff etc?
c. the eyes are infected with pop eye, anti internal bacterial meds can treat this but bad water quality can also be the cause.
d. what type of algae eater do you have- plec or chineses algae eater or other?

 

[sylvia]

Isolate him in a dimly lit tank with lots of fake (or live if possible) plants for cover. Stop treating the main tank obviously. Treat him with an anti-internal bacteria med. Don't overdose though. Make sure you do daily water changes of about 90% in the isolation tank as the water quality will deteriorate rapidly otherwise. Get him some healthy live foods like brine shrimp to help his immune system and also make sure the water is warm enough for him.

Also answer the previous poster's questions. That will help other people trying to reply.

Now a note on the algae eater - if it is a 'chinese algae eater' (aka sucking loach), you will need to get rid of it. These are not good community fish and don't do well at all with similar looking fish like sharks. They also have a tendency to suk out eyes and the slime coat of other fish, get to 10" and will eventualy stop eating any algae in prefference of live fish . They are nasty, though attractive, fish and realy not good for a community. It may actualy be responsible for starting off the health problems in your shark if they happened to get confrontational at some point... Anyway, if it's a plec, you need not worry. If it is a flying fox, siamese algae eater or false siamese algae eater, you should still reconsider your current stocking as these last three are all closely related to sharks and, if the shark makes it through, he will eventualy begin to bully them.

Now to add to the questions already asked: How long has this tank been set up, how many of each fish do you have, is it cycled and when did you add each of the fish you mentioned (all at once? - when did you add the shark?)?

 

[WILDER]

If the mouth is eating away yes you do need to you anti internal bacteria med, good luck hope he pulls through.