Chromis's Dropping (Detailed)

[Gtownguy487]

Have had 4 Chromis die in last 30 hrs 2 in QT and 2 in bag on way home, Please help the 2 in QT were purchase 2 days ago and the 2 on way home were today.

1. How old is this aquarium? Aquarium has been running for a year

2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level? Older then 6 months

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.025 refractometer

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? Today about 3 hrs ago

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? It is in quarantine now, not been treated with anything yet

6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When? Nothing yet, no medication added

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer? Not using

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? I bought to batches of Chromis, in most recent batch, 2 of them died in the bag on the way home.. (The tank i got them from at LFS there were several dead on bottom and I wanted to try to save them so i got a deal on them worth trying) They were breathing rapidly and i saw a few with missing scales.. Some of them were a bit darker then the others... The batch before the ones i got today have been in QT for about 2 days.. I've lost 2 of them.. 1 yesterday and 1 this morning. Looking at those it seems there might be a lesion where i can see a red line on its body maybe a cut or just a vein..

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish? I try to keep the lights off but when I turn them on the fish are swimming together all around.. When i turn the lights off they usually split off where 2 will go to one corner and 4 in other and so forth.. In the bag they stayed on the very bottom..

10. Is the fish eating? What? Yes most of them seem to be eating.. Tried to feed them brine but they dont seem too interested however with Mysis shrimp they eat it up very good.. I try to mix Garlic guard with their food to make them have more of appetite

~

I hope i gave enough details on the questions asked.. Any help would be much appreciative..

What I have currently on hand is..

I have:

1) a cooler with a heater and fresh RO/DI water at 78 degrees ready for freshwater dip if needed

2) Organi-Cure - Fast relief for Ick and protozoan parasites, (ingred. Tri-chelated copper & formalin)

3) AmQuel Plus (water conditioner) by Kordon

4) AmQuel Plus (ammonia detoxifier) by Kordon

5) KanaPlex by Seachem

6) Metronidazole by Seachem

7) ParaGuard by Seachem

8) Coppersafe by Mardel

9) Maracyn-Oxy by Mardel

If pictures are needed, I possibly can get.. I have kept the fish frozen incase more info or pictures are needed~

Thanks in advance!

 

[Gtownguy487]

Make that 5, Just lost another one..

Please help

 

[Gtownguy487]

Decided to freshwater dip once I lost the 6th one..
Freshwater dipped them for about 10 minutes

 

[Gtownguy487]

after looking more closely to the school I've notice a little darker coloration in some, like a dark grayish brown if that helps

 

[snorvich]

Fresh water dips do nothing for parasites. In the case of velvet, they provide temporary relief. In general buying fish from an LFS that has fish in distress or dieing is very risky. From your description, I cannot tell if you have a specific parasite, but if they are "breathing quickly" it would seem that they have cryptocaryon irritans (ich) in their gills. Be sure to keep these fish in quarantine and do not add any additional fish. It sounds like the best treatment option would be hyposalinity (see sticky at top of the forum). Keep us posted on this thread.

 

[Gtownguy487]

Thanks for the response...

I was at 24 they were all very small, Im at 13 now in the matter of a few days... Ive been trying to feed them a lot throughout the day... Been puttin Garlic Guard in their food to keep them wanting more food.. Been doing about 50% water change on the tank everyday... Some of the fish that Ive seen dead seem to have lost scales, I saw one with a tail fin issue looked kinda bad.. I saw 2 under PVC that were only heads...

Im guessing this is just the damsel instinct to dominate? I was stupid enough to listen to 3 of my LFS in talking me into having a chromis school.. hell eve Live Aquaria told me it was possible to have a school of blue/green reef chromis'.. Not sure if this is a parasite or infection or if they are just killing each other off... I keep strees coat and ammonia detox in the tank.. and Ive been keeping the tank's lights off with plenty of hiding spots within the tank as well as keeping the tank covered with a blanket to not get them spooked with traffic in front of tank.. I turn lights on to feed then cover them back up...

 

[BBraker]

One clue that you gave caught my eye, "possible red line..."

Uronema causes that symptom, and it is SO common in newly acquired green chromis, that you can just about always say "Uronema" and be correct the majority of the time. It is sometimes called redline disease.

Other symptoms of Uronema include dusky coloration, scales falling off, pimples, "bruises" under the skin and rapid breathing. These symptoms mimic bacterial diseases, so you need to do a skin scrape and look at it under a microscope to tell that it is really a protozoan.

The problem is that this is an intra-cellular protozoan, once you see it erupt on the surface of the fish, it is really too late (please don't shoot the messenger!).

Chloroquine at 15ppm is a good treatment. Lots of misinformation out there though, like using hyposalinity to treat it - Uronema thrives in hypo.


Bill

 

[MrTuskfish]

Not much help, just a comment. I haven't kept any chromis in at least 25 yrs. At that time, they were regarded as peaceful, hardy fish and a bullet-proof beginner fish. Now, from everything I read on our forum; they are as mean as most damsels, routinely kill each other, and often die without explanation. Threads from RC members who have quickly seen "schools" ("groups" would be a better term) reduced to one fish are common on the forum. I have to idea why this is happening, and it may just be my perception. But I would avoid them altogether in the future.

 

[Gtownguy487]

Yes, trust me im learning from this experience.. Never again will I go chromis' anymore! Not the happy feelings i thought i would have! . I got them for 2 dollars a piece and was excited to see a school/group of 25 of them swimming around my tank... Im down to about 12/13 now....

Which of my medications would be best to use? Should i use multiply medications at this time since they are dropping like flies?

 

[Gtownguy487]

and then there was 4, We are from 25 to 4....

 

[Jeremy Blaze]

So, the lfs had a tank full of chromis, probably fresh imports, and there were many dead ones in the bottome of the tank,. so you decided to buy a bunch of them out of this tank?

There is your first problem.

Chromis are shipped in small groups in small bags. They tend to get beat up in transit. I often saw a high mortality rate from them when they first came in to the stores due to this method.
You will see a lot of physical damage on them, which then leads to other problems.

I do not recommend people buying chromis, espesially to keep in groups as it just doesn't work long term.

When my 1200 gallon reef was still up, I put 25 chromis in it at once, within a year I was down to 1.

 

[Sorry]

I bought 5 chromis from my LFS about a month ago. Within two or three days of purchase, one of the chromis started getting that red line crap on one of his sides. 24 hours later that red line turned into a big gash on both sides. Then he started swimming upside down and couldn't control his movements like a twirling motion. Died like a hour later

I regret getting those fish. The other four fight all the time and cause unwanted stress in the tank. :headwally: