Coral Beauty... destined to die

GhostCon1

GhostCon1

Rebmem Deretsiger
I felt horrible going into one of my LFS (Pet Supplies Plus) today and seeing an absolutely beautiful CB there, this one was almost entirely blue, and by blue I mean metalic blue.

It has a slight hit of orange on the rear quarter of its body, and the fins were orange, as well. This orange looked like a sunset, it had tints of yellow as well.

It made me just sit down and look at it for about 10 minutes.

But, sadly it had a white fungus on its tail, eating away at the flesh, and ich.

I wished I had the money to get it and try to nurse it back, despite it probably being long gone.

I just can't get over the beauty of that coral beauty. Has anyone ever seen (or know what region) the color description I have of this CB comes from?
 
Ok, so I would like to ask others this question now:

If you had the money, would you ever attempt to buy a fish from a pet store and try to nurse it back from Davey Jones' locker?
 
Don't play fish vet based on your emotions on the LFS incompetence...you will just end up mad & broke. Some of those fish are just too far gone.
 
If the fish is that far gone and you have meds to burn, you could ask the LFS if they'll simply give it to you. It isn't worth anything to them if it will just die in their tank.
 
LukFox said:
If the fish is that far gone and you have meds to burn, you could ask the LFS if they'll simply give it to you. It isn't worth anything to them if it will just die in their tank.
Click to expand...

I had not thought about this.... I've only got two med's to burn... and that's malachite green (melafix) and kick ich.

I might call them tomorrow and see if they will do that... they told me today they just feed their tube 'nem their dead fish...
 
Yes, but I paid 30 bucks for it so might as well use it lol.

I don't have a refractometer for hypo :(

And that LFS owes me... they never ask me if I'm military (they give discount to dependents, too) so they owe me.
 
Well, if I can somehow manage to get it for free, it wouldn't go anywhere near any tank of mine, would get it in a QT and see how it does, then after a month or two by then my 75 should be good to go and he would love it.

Hey, I can dream right?
 
GhostCon1 said:
Well, if I can somehow manage to get it for free, it wouldn't go anywhere near any tank of mine, would get it in a QT and see how it does, then after a month or two by then my 75 should be good to go and he would love it.

Hey, I can dream right?
Click to expand...

If the fish will live that long.

I usually stay away from rescue missions, I rather buy a healthy fish and watch it grow in my DT. Not wasting money trying to cure a sick fish. The medicine you spend trying to get rid the ick and fungus, probably you can spend the same money and get a healthy fish.
 
If the LFS would give it to me, I'd be tempted to isolate and try to nurse back to health a truly unique fish like that one.

I order a lot of my meds from National Fish Pharmacy. For the tough ich that's been going around the last couple years, I've had success with quininine sulfate.

Don't bother with the Kick-Ich. IME it will do more harm than good. Not good stuff, I think it just pollutes the water.

BTW, you can get a decent refractometer if you look around, for about $40, maybe less.
If you want to try hypo and can't measure low enough on a hydrometer, make up some 1.020 seawater. Then do the math and make appropriate dilutions to get it down to about 1.009 or 1.010. If the LFS has a hydrometer, get them to check it for you.
 
Thanks for all the opinions and advice, most of what I thought was confirmed but I would love to see if they'd let go of it for me to try and nurse it back... maybe with paying them 1/4 of its cost if it lives might entice them?

Anyway, I will be calling them tomorrow to try my luck :p

And maybe I can get a pic... somehow.

and yes, I did think them feeding the dead fish to the nem is a terrible idea, but if I said anything it would have been in one ear and out the other, so I saved my breath.
 
If you decide to ask them for it, I'm rooting for you! I know it's bad practice to pay a LFS for ANY sick fish, and that rescues are usually a fail. I really shouldn't be egging you on. But that species has some really beautiful and unique variants. It's also a fairly tough dwarf angel.

Is it eating at all? That would be a huge plus. (You can also medicate food - I have just barely melted Ocean Nutrition cubes in the microwave, mixed in meds, let the food resolidify, then fed.)

If you DO get it, I suggest you post either in this thread or on the disease forum for help with treatment. I don't happen to have any quinine sulfate on hand, but would be glad to send you any meds I have that work. Others have done this for me when I've been in a bind. And some of the more experienced folks might have some good treatment recommendations.

Sometimes, with sick fish, I've had success with daily dips/baths. Where I've taken the fish out of a well established tank with good filtration and water quality, and put it in an aerated bucket for one hour or so, once or twice a day. It's a lot of work, but I've had good luck with this method. It's been a long time since I did it, so I'd have to look up the treatments I used.

BTW, what is the med you have besides Kick-Ich? Melafix is not very useful, IMO. But malachite green could help a lot. I think you wrote that you have Melafix (malachite green) but they are not the same...
 
Thanks! I had kind of given up hope when I saw the spot on its tail and the ich, so I didn't get hopes up, I don't have high hopes now as it is. But, we shall see, I may not be able to get to them today, might have to wait till tues when they get new shipment in and that might be bad.

If I manage to get him, I will definitely be posting about it.

Melafix probably isn't the right name, but I know it says the main ingredient is malachite green.

If he had been normal color, I probably would have left it alone, since I like flame angels better, but this one... ok, it literally took my breath away that's how stunning it was. And it was swimming really strong, I will see about getting them to feed him while I am there.
 
http://www.novalek.com/kordon/malachite_green/index.htm

Some have concern about toxicity of malachite green. However, it seems that this angel has more wrong with it than ich, and malachite green has broad spectrum effectiveness, including antifungal properties. If you have malachite green on hand, I would consider using it AT LEAST as a daily or twice daily bath.
 
Have the qt set up first so it too is established and causes less stress on the fish. An angel would benefit from a piece of lr or 2 mixed in. If not set up already then do a good size water change from your existing setup and use that if you are going to get it after all.
 
Good advice. That was one reason I was thinking daily baths - keep the meds out of the tank so water quality stays high and stable, give the fish some relief until it can recover somewhat. Definitely yes on live rock, cover, macro if possible.

You can also feed medicated food in the QT.

And have a lot of aged saltwater made up for frequent water changes. They never hurt and can often help.
 
All good advice above. Be sure you have a cycled QT tank. If you do, and you get it for free, AND are willing to properly medicate (not Kick ich which is snake oil), go for it. Rescues, if done properly, are worthwhile. Otherwise, leave it in the LFS.
 
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