Followup for Wilder's disease database.
Despite real similarity with initial Flex symptoms this was not Flex at all, in fact, it even is not a bacterial disease.
After collecting the reaction to several more drugs, it became clear that the disease responds to exactly the drugs that target true fungi, pure antibiotics were uniformly useless.
What happens is that my Danios damaged their mouths, likely because of searching for food in gravel. The dead tissue attracted fungi. Another person (who runs an Emergency Room on a different site) has exactly the same disease affecting her Rainbows (again, gravel).
The disease seems to be not life-threatening and not transmissible to other fish (who don't have dead tissue). It is also really hard to cure -- the other person could only get temporary remissions, just like me. This is a common situation with Fungi in general, not just on fish.
One amusing thing is that we know that often bacteria (flex, myxo) looks like fungi... here was the case of fungi looking bacterial.
I probably still will try stronger drugs, but now it is certain that only antifungals are relevant.
I'm still unsure what to do with the fish: the current prognosis is that they are going to be sick until they die.... in 5-6 years.
Despite real similarity with initial Flex symptoms this was not Flex at all, in fact, it even is not a bacterial disease.
After collecting the reaction to several more drugs, it became clear that the disease responds to exactly the drugs that target true fungi, pure antibiotics were uniformly useless.
What happens is that my Danios damaged their mouths, likely because of searching for food in gravel. The dead tissue attracted fungi. Another person (who runs an Emergency Room on a different site) has exactly the same disease affecting her Rainbows (again, gravel).
The disease seems to be not life-threatening and not transmissible to other fish (who don't have dead tissue). It is also really hard to cure -- the other person could only get temporary remissions, just like me. This is a common situation with Fungi in general, not just on fish.
One amusing thing is that we know that often bacteria (flex, myxo) looks like fungi... here was the case of fungi looking bacterial.
I probably still will try stronger drugs, but now it is certain that only antifungals are relevant.
I'm still unsure what to do with the fish: the current prognosis is that they are going to be sick until they die.... in 5-6 years.
