Butterflyfish with cloudy fins and redness on base

[NarakuAulonocar]

Help. I have a red sea heniochus butterfly with cloudy fins and redness at the base of its tail. I tried triple sulfa and it didn't work. I really don't want to loose it!
PH: 8.2
Alkalinity is normal.
Nitrite zero
Nitrate below 20 ppm

I'm currently trying erythromycin but I'm not keeping my hopes yet.

It is eating new life spectrum pellets and in hypo (Bought last week).

Should I try Maracyn2 or kanamycin?

 

[Jacob D]

Naraku, sorry to hear about your butterfly.

It sounds bacterial. Erythromycin is a good broad spectrum antibiotic, try to give it a few days and see if there is any improvement. You can *probably* use the Maracyn2 in conjunction with the Erythromycin (I believe Maracyn is Erythromycin based) - double check this with Maradel.


Good luck. Keep us posted...

 

[NarakuAulonocar]

Hi JacobD

Thanks for the encouragement. I will try to keep this thread updated so people with future problems can have this as a reference. It seems like cloudy fins is a common problem with new butterflyfish and angels.

I was planning to get maracyn2 and maracyn tomorrow.
You're right, maracyn is mainly erythromycin


1/5/2011
At this stage its early to tell but erythro seems to be keeping the disease arrested. This morning I tried the "clean water" route but it seemed to progress until I put erythromycin. After the first dose, the fish seemed more calm with a better appetite. According to many sites, erythromycin is mainly forgram(+) and should be double dosed in salt water. I have a 45 gallon tank but only 6 packets left (1 packet/gal) so all went in.