Fin rot recovery

[sleepydoc]

I have a royal Gramma that I got about 2 mos ago along with a 1.5" ocellaris clown. While he was in QT getting (prophylactically) treated with cupramine, I noticed his tail fin had gotten chewed up. I never noticed any aggression from the clown, but I finished the course of cupramine and moved the clown to my DT.

It seemed like he might be getting worse and I noticed some slight redness at the base of his caudal pedicle, so I treated with a course of tetracycline, then doxycycline. (started with tetra because that's all the LFS had, observed for a week and didn't notice any improvement and then obtained the doxy because I have read that the Ca in salt water can bind the tetracycline and limit it's efficacy)

I'm now a week out from the course of doxy and haven't noticed any change - his tail fin doesn't look any better, but I don't think it's any worse, either, and the redness persists. He is otherwise active if a bit shy, and eating well.

How long should I wait to see improvement? Does the redness mean continued active infection, of am I just paranoid and over treating.

I tried to take some pictures - he's hard to catch still, so the redness looks more like a smudge in the picture.

 

[hollister]

He looks stressed is there any water flow in there for him?

 

[sleepydoc]

I have an aquaclear 300 HOB filter (removed the carbon during treatment.) It provides some some circulation, but not a lot.

He doesn't seem stressed - whenever I check on him, he's usually swimming around, and he devours any food I put in. His biggest concern seems to be me looking at him - as soon as he sees me he darts under the PVC pipe.

 

[HumbleFish]

The problem with antibiotics is most are very slow acting. So, a fish may actually be responding to treatment long before he starts to look better. I'd give this fish another couple of weeks or so. If his fins don't start growing back (or start looking worse), you might wanna give a different antibiotic (i.e. Maracyn aka Erythromycin or Furan-2) a shot.

 

[sleepydoc]

That's what I was wondering. When I went to check on him this morning, his fin actually looked noticeably better. He still has the redness, but the fin appears to be growing back. Hopefully I just need a bit more patience.