Help with Disease ID/Prevention

azreefr

New member
I'm fairly new to having fish. I didn't add fish to my reef tank until 5 months after my 1st frag went in. And that was after a lot of reading on selection, disease and QTs. All my fish have gone through a min 6 week QT. I treat all fish with Prazi 2 times during the 6 weeks. Now I'm thinking of adding a Cupramine treatment because I'm finding it so hard to diagnose what's wrong with my fish after they get sick it seems to make sense to try and be proactive.

About a week ago I lost a Chromis in my DT. It was the first fish I lost in the DT and he had been in there for 6 months. Then a couple days ago I lost another. I posted some pictures here and got much needed help identifying that they had Uronema. Ordered some Formalin and I'm watching my Melanarus, Carpenters, and last Chromis carefully.

I had a Black Cap Basslet in my QT since 11/1. About 3 weeks in his appetite decreased and he had some white spots on his fins. It was after a stressful WC and the spots went away after a day but I remained suspicious. His appetite came back until a week ago. So I figured I'd treat with Cupramine. After a couple days he looked terrible and completely stopped eating. So I stopped the Cupramine and moved him from the QT to an HT. I had some ICH-X that contained formaldehyde so I treated with that. He died after 2 days. I will add some photos but like my Chromis he had white feces which you can see in the photos. Someone mentioned he may have had nematodes. This guy already had 2 rounds of Prazi. So now I'm wondering if my QT practices are sound.

I am leaving a couple Large Aqueon filter cartridges in my sump for a couple weeks. One with carbon and one without carbon (in case I need to medicate). I use one of these with NSW to start up my QT tank. When I do a WC I rinse it in the "old" water and put it back in the power filter. I keep reusing the same filter unless I have to medicate. Then I throw it away and add the new filter from my sump (without the carbon). When done medicating I throw out the filter and add another new filter (with carbon) that has been sitting in my sump.

Couple questions for you guys. Can you tell what killed my Basslet from the photos? Do you think I'm infecting my QT via my filters with something in my DT? Should I change how I'm setting up my QT?
 
Thanks for the reply. I guess you are saying that this is Uronema? The thing is that these fish never came in contact with each other. I only us NSW for WC in my QT and I have separate pumps, tubing, nets, etc to ensure no water gets from my QT to my DT.

So do you think it came from my DT via my filter as described above. If that's the case then per the articles there is no way to get this out of my DT. And I should probably stop using filters from my DT in my QT and switch to Dr Tims for beneficial bacteria?

Just trying to learn from my mistakes and from others here. So I'm better prepared in the future.
 
Yes, you are carrying the parasites from your DT to QT via the filter cartridge.

I did the exact same thing 3 months ago, and learned the hard way - similar to you. In my case, I would not have had a problem if I had followed strict QT procedures and kept my DT disease free, which it is now after 80+ days fallow.

In the meantime, I setup a separate tank and cycled several filter foams and bio media which I've been using for my QTs. I may actually keep this small tank running just so I have known 'clean' cycled filter media, but the downside is that I'll probably need to keep ghost feeding it to keep it active.
 
Thanks Todddye. I figured someone else must have had experience with this. I never thought of creating a tank for providing beneficial bacteria. I had a bottle of Dr Tims so I'm trying it in my QT now.

I read that the parasite that causes Uronema feeds off bacteria. So you can't get it out of the DT unless you treat it with methylene. I'm very nervous about dosing my sps, lps, and inverts so I'm going with the wait and see strategy before doing anything.

Steve, your advice was very helpful. I have no doubt that my chromis had Uronema. I purchase several medications so that I am able to follow your instructions.

The reason for this post is that the basslet did not show the same symptoms as the chromis. He laid sideways in a pvc pipe for a couple days. The day before he died he was head down proper against the side of the pvc. And when he died there were no external markings / discolorations that I could see. Very different behavior and apperance than the chromis. So I thought It wise to repost to see if it was something other than Uronema.

I have very little experience with fish disease. The only thing I've been able to Id and treat successfully in my QT has been ich.
 
Back
Top