Chris,
In my experience, I have not found a complete cure for the dreaded ulcer
disease. I lost about 10-12 adult bows from my community tank with the
ulcer disease over a period of about 2 months last year. The best action to
take is to remove the affected fish from the community tank, as the disease
spreads quickly through the tank. I tried everything under the sun, spoke
to many other fishkeepers and stores, read the list archive, and spent a
fortune on medications. Nothing succeeded and I ended up destroying the
sick bows.
As an experiment and I guess as a last resort, I "treated" a male
trifasciata during the early stages of the ulcer, and the ulcer faded into a
little "scar" on the fish. When I say a scar, the white pimple of an ulcer
has been replaced by hardened tissue of a yellowish cream colour. That was
about 6 months ago, and the ulcer has not re-appeared. I have not and do
not intend to re-introduce this fish back into the community tank for fear
that the ulcer may spread again. It is still on its own in a quarantine
tank - as I am monitoring its progress.
The treatment I applied was as follows :
Increase the water hardness to around 200 - 300 ppm. I also added shell
grit to maintain the hardness.
Add acriflavin to the water - around 10 ml per 10 litres of water
Swab the ulcer with mercurochrome.
Keep the aeration on high.
Change 20% of the water every two to three days, add appropriate amount of
acriflavin, and re-apply mercurochrome to ulcer daily for 1 week.
I hope this of some help to you and your customer.
I too would be interested in hearing other list members' views.
Chen