Dwarf Zebra Lionfish Not Eating, Looking Ill

[Molly's]

I purchased a dwarf zebra lionfish from a LFS a week and a half ago; the employee who caught it told me that it had been eating thawed silversides (not a chain pet store). I'm currently keeping this dwarf zebra in a ~35-40 gallon corner tank with live rock, a deep sand bed with roughly 10-15 saltwater guppies and a molly. In this tank there are also some cerith snails and dwarf hermit crabs. Me and my family have seen this dwarf lion striking at and possibly eating a few guppies only a few times, but their eyes are now cloudy and they do sit around quite a lot on the rock work. I've tried to feed the lionfish with my tongs- silversides and freshwater ghost shrimp and it always shies away or doesn't care. I've tried dipping silversides in garlic juice, would anyone have suggestions? This is my first lionfish to own, and I'm nervous they may pass away.

 

[griss]

@Dr. Reef any ideas here?

 

[Dr. Reef]

cloudy eye are normally flukes. i would starrt with a freshwater bath for 3-5 min depending on the stress of the fish and if that doesnt cure it then it might be bacterial infection.

 

[Molly's]

cloudy eye are normally flukes. i would starrt with a freshwater bath for 3-5 min depending on the stress of the fish and if that doesnt cure it then it might be bacterial infection.

Will do. Thank you.
update-
I've taken out the molly and guppies, sicne their numbers have dropped dramatically. I should've noted.. they they all are covered in small white dots.

 

[Molly's]

Continuing off of this update, I plan on treating the tank. I plan on removing the inverts and one coral I have in there, what medication would be best at killing the flukes?

 

[Dr. Reef]

Will do. Thank you.
update-
I've taken out the molly and guppies, sicne their numbers have dropped dramatically. I should've noted.. they they all are covered in small white dots.

oh no covered in white dotes might be velvet or ich
you may have to leave the tank fallow and treat fish accordingly. will need to see pics for futher confirmation.

 

[Molly's]

Will give a follow up picture tomorrow. Thank you for helping me out; me and my father will work on doing a dip tomorrow since it is rather late in the night for me.

 

[Molly's]

Just did the freshwater dip for 5 minutes. Seemed to breathe some life back into him. Boy, he put off quite a bit of slime. Sanitized all of my tools. I'm going to set up a QT bucket for my inverts and treat the tank later with Coppersafe (fritz). Will be updating.

 

[Molly's]

Well, woke up this morning... and he's (she's?) passed away in the top back corner. I'll continue to treat the tank so whatever killed the Lion can't come bouncing back. A damn shame, but now I know what to do. Thanks for you all for helping out.

 

[BeanAnimal]

Sorry about the turn of events. I am not sure the best way to treat the system or what should be the fallow period before livestock is reintroduced. Somebody else will have to answer those questions.

In the past I never too much worried about QT of new animals. I think a lot has changed in the hobby over the last decade or so. Aside from that, I would certainly be having a conversation with the LFS.

If you decide to try again:

I would suggest using a vendor that does observation and quarantine, such as @Dr. Reef for livestock purchases. The upfront cost of buying quarantined/observed/treated fish is only a bit more, but the savings are evident when incidents like this occur. It only takes one bad purchase to cause a ripple of costs and headaches that usually far exceed the added cost of purchasing from somebody like Dr. Reef.

 

[asmodeus]

Well, woke up this morning... and he's (she's?) passed away in the top back corner. I'll continue to treat the tank so whatever killed the Lion can't come bouncing back. A damn shame, but now I know what to do. Thanks for you all for helping out.

I'm so sorry to here missy, loosing a battle with disease in a SW tank sucks you were on your way to success I believe. i downsized to from a 240 to a 50 gal tank and ended up losing the whole tank to Marine velvet. it happened the ext day and i had no warning i believe it started around that earlier day and once i got home the next day all was gone/ i hope all goes well after this