Chromis with red sore..

[Tetra84]

I just received a small school of 5 black axil chromis from LA. All but one appear healthy, the one that looks questionable has what appears to be a red sore developing on its side. I've heard that the Red Sore disease is a very difficult thing to combat, and I don't want it to spread to the others if they don't have it (at least I hope they don't) Should I just keep them all in QT and see what happens, or should I pull the one that is showing outward symptoms now and QT it from the others??

 

[MrTuskfish]

This is probably uronema. Treatment is described in the fish parasites sticky by Snorvich. This parasite has been very common with chromis over the last few years, I have no idea why and wouldn't buy any chromis at this time. Just a heads up; most chromis have a habit of reducing their numbers to just one in a short time.

 

[snorvich]

Yes, uronema in the last 3-4 years has had an incidence rate that seems to be much higher than previously. Seems to affect chromis primarily, enough so that I suggest not getting in chromis.

 

[Tetra84]

Hmm.. wish I knew about that a few days ago :\

So should I pull the one that is showing symptoms to try to avoid spreading it to the others? Or are they all pretty much infected with this terminal illness now? I was thinking of starting a series of freshwater baths as to per this article, and did the first one today:
http://www.ultimatereef.com/articles/brooklynella/

I also read that this might be worth trying, though I'm not sure where I could get some:
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2013/2/fish

I'm not sure where to get any formalin, and it doesn't really sound like something I'd want to mess with being a carcinogen anyway.

They're all in my QT tank, so as of now, everything in my display is safe.

If I run the whole QT with all the fish in Hypo 1.011 for a month, would that kill off the parasite?

 

[snorvich]

Hypo is 1.008/1.009 and would have no effect on uronema. Chloroquine Phosphate might if you can get it.

 

[Tetra84]

I did more research, it looks like Chloroquine Phosphate is my best bet. I Just ordered some, hopefully my fish can hang on till it gets here.

 

[Tetra84]

Just like to update: It's been 4 days since I started CP treatment at a dose of 75mg/gal and that nasty dime sized red spot is already practically gone! The chromis' rapid breathing has slowed back to what I'd consider normal as well. All the chromis are responding to the treatment and eating well. Whether I was dealing with Uronema or something else, the Chloroquine Phosphate seems to be performing admirably! I'd like to thank my friends at the South Carolina Aquarium (It's good to be a volunteer there!) for hooking me up with a tiny bit of this medicine so I could start treatment ASAP while waiting on some I had previously ordered online.

 

[Newsmyrna80]

Wow..That's really good news!

 

[Tamarae]

Im glad you were able to save yours. My black axil that came in last week had the same problems, but was too far gone by the time I realized what was wrong.

 

[Tetra84]

Im glad you were able to save yours. My black axil that came in last week had the same problems, but was too far gone by the time I realized what was wrong.

Sorry to hear that. Yeah I probably would have lost mine if I wasn't able to start treatment ASAP.. Here is what it looked like before I started treatment.. hard to tell but that spot was pretty bad looking..

 

[Tamarae]

Mine looked much the same, it was going so fast you could almost sit there and watch the spot grow. I'd tried cuperamine first for about 12 hrs while searching for a better choice, then straight into azithromycin. I thought he might make it as it was still alive the next morning, but he only held on to blub good morning to me and was gone by the time I had my coffee made.

Thanks for posting about this - I now know what to do better and differently in the future.