After loosing my first battle with Hex, I have been super careful with my restocking. Every fish in my 125 gal was either raised by me or purchased from the 2 most reputable sellers I could find. Much research and care has been devoted to diet, feeding habits and compatible species/aggression levels. So to see one, then three, then five fish come down with bloat sent me into a panic!!! How could this be happening again and so soon? With such healthy, young stock? I was beside myself and at a loss.
I started with an Epson Salt bath and then began the Metro treatment. All the while, trying to figure out what I did wrong. Then it hit me! I don't KNOW it's Hex. So I dug till I found an old microscope my parents had given my brother back in high school (15 years ago). It only had 1 unbroken slide left but the stain wasn't dried out. (How is that possible??!! Maybe my nephew bought some to use it...?)
Using a turkey baster, I put some poop on the slide then added the stain. I found a roundi-ish "thing" with one whip-like flagella attached. After a lot of research (and a call to the Vet for conformation) I was sure about two things, it was NOT Hex and it could just be bacteria. Apparently, Hex has 6 or 8 flegella (depending on kind). And there is such a thing as bacteria that have a single flagella as a tail. I'm not exactly sure what I was looking at but it wasn't Hex. I still took the bloat situation seriously, finished the Metro treatment, and saved all five fish. But it made me feel a lot better knowing it was most likely a bacterial infection. Time to stop spazzing, give the Vet a break, and admit to myself that I might need to cut back on the feeding a little. 😂
