The dreaded Blue Spot Jawfish Disease

[dallas reefer]

Fine grain(sugar) sand you say? Minimum how deep?

Don't mean to hijack and I actually wrote down the names of those medications. Cause I've been wanting one.

 

[emerald525]

Thanks for posting this up. Sad to hear about your Bluespot jawfish. It is one of my favorite fish. I did not realize that they prefer colder temperatures. Does anyone have a good link about their care?

 

[Elysium]

Fine grain(sugar) sand you say? Minimum how deep?

Don't mean to hijack and I actually wrote down the names of those medications. Cause I've been wanting one.

I'll be putting together a build thread for the tank that a jawfish will eventually end up in. So you'll be able to see the sand mix and support structure I used.

As for treatment I would modify what I did due to the lack of availability of certain medications at the start of treatment.

In order I would do:
1) A methylene blue freshwater dip. Monitor the fish closely, really this should be done for 30 minutes but needs to stop at the first signs of distress. Mine lasted 6 minutes and I stopped it probably moments before death.

2) Start treatment in the hospital tank with a mix of Paraquard, Furan-2 and Kanaplex. This provides a very strong broad spectrum of fungal and bacterial antibiotics. If the fish is eating mix the Kanaplex with the food rather than dispersing into the water column. Continue with this treatment for 1 week. Make sure you have an airstone bubbler in addition to filtration.

3) After the week period (3 doses of Kanaplex and 6 of Furan-2) do a big water change and run some carbon and polyfilter to remove the remaining medication. After 24hrs remove the carbon and polyfilter and start dosing with Paraguard and Neoplex. Continue this treatment for 2 more weeks.

4) During the treatment phase complete 5 formalin dips. This works with Brook in clowns which is believed to be related to the infections in BSJ. Note: Do not do this if there is any visible wound on the fish, even scale abrasion, as this will kill the fish. I'd say wait until day 3 to do this to reduce the stress on the fish.

5) I would then observe the fish without medication for 2 weeks in the hospital tank before adding back to the display tank.


The Cupramine, Furan-2, EM definitely worked but I wonder if the aggressive treatment could have been too stressful on the fish. Changing the Cupramine to Paraguard should help with the eating issues I had, and Kanaplex is much better than EM.