2 fish stopped eating, one has a deteriorating mouth???

[Travis]

Thanks for the help and pointing me in the direction of experts to talk to. One thing we have to remember, take anything Seachem says about how great their product is with a grain of salt. They are there to promote their products and make them sound good. But I have read enough positive that I am willing to give it a try. At this point I don't have much to lose.

I don't have any sponges on hand but I put a couple filter socks in the baffles of my sump. They should get colonized with bacteria soon so if I need to set up a hospital tank I can use them for biological filtration.

 

[RBU1]

I just spoke to Seachem and they feel confident that their Paraguard will work. They claim it has been tested and proven or they would not market it. They will be responding to my question on their forum soon. After losing my Glodflake angel during the copper treatment I am going to try Paraguard during my QT process. Keep in mind you have to dose the paraguard everyday for 30 days. I am not sure what size tank you have but that could be a good amount of paraguard. Also keep in mind the tech support person I spoke to at Seachem is against using any product in a main tank but thats your call....

 

[Travis]

Thanks for the info. My system is around 380 gallons so yes, it would be very expensive to treat for 30 days. Sorry to hear about your loss with the goldflake. Those are beautiful fish and not cheap.

 

[VacavilleFC3S]

sounds like bacterial or viral infections, external medications aren't going to help.

 

[RBU1]

sounds like bacterial or viral infections, external medications aren't going to help.

What?

 

[Travis]

Achilles is now dead also. Had to euthanize him a couple weeks ago. He was laying on the bottom of the sump breathing rapidly. When I took him out I noticed his head was shrunk in. Any idea what would cause this? His body was fine and filled out but his head was severely caved in. Just like the foxface, the achilles had a large sore in the middle of its body that looked like it could be coming from the inside. Ulcer maybe?

I did treat the system with Paraguard for a week. The last sps still growing in my system on the side of the tank immediately RTN'd. I believe it also killed all of the sponge in my system, which I had a lot of sponge as a lot of my live rock is close to 11 years old. Those were the only ill effects noticed. The fish handled the treatment fine. The treatment took care of what I believe was finrot on almost all of the fish. The treatment did nothing for the brook/velvet/whatever it is on my emperor. I will say that in general I believe that all of the fish look brighter colored and healthier in general from the treatment. I can see where you were coming from RBU1 about Paraguard turning silicone blue. My tank is acrylic so no silicone seals but the air tube for my skimmer is silicone and turned blue, also I have my algae clip hanging from a piece of airline tubing and that tubing also turned blue.

It is now around 1 1/2 weeks after treatment and the finrot is coming back on almost all of the fish so I am basically back to square 1 minus my sponge and pocillopora. The white specks are still there on the emperor but don't seem to be any worse.

 

[scubasteve06]

It really sounds like you have flukes to me, weird irratic swimming behaviors(achilles) heavy breathing, cloudy eyes, not wanting food after eating fine the day before. I'd do a prazipro treatment right away in the DT its reef safe and it works I just finished my second treatment. I do a second treatment to make sure its all gone. My fish were fine after the first treatment but cant hurt if done correctly. I really think you have a case of flukes and not velvet velvet kills VERY rapidly not over a course of a week or so as in your case.

 

[Travis]

Flukes was my first guess, which is why I FW dipped the foxface right away. But nothing came off him in the 10 minute dip. Also, if it was flukes, the Paraguard should have taken care of them.

My puffer overate a little last night and sat in a corner of the tank not moving which gave me a chance to get a close look at what is on the fins of all my fish. I thought it may be finrot but it is actually tiny white specs. I believe they are smaller than ich. They are the same white specks that are on the emperor. Maybe it really is just ich and I'm worrying more than I need to.