How to stop fin rot?

[guyguerra]

I've had the Foxface pictured below for 1 1/2 years. She has always been healthy, and still acts normal, but her fin is frayed and her skin looks terrible. I put two pictures below, one from today, and one taken months ago. Is there something I can do to help her? She is in my 230 gallon display tank, and has been there since last September. The only thing I've added to the system is Ozone, and I have been testing the water to make sure ozone isn't in the tank. I have a Kole Tang that made it thru QT, and I added him to the display three months ago. The tang goes thru cycles (I didn't notice this until I put him in the big tank) where it is blotchy and looks like it's been scraped by something. I put his picture below also. The other fish seem to be ok. You'll see a Coris wrasse next to the tang and his tail seems to be alright. I'm stumped on what to do, and am hoping this doesn't end up killing some of my fish.

 

[guyguerra]

bump, I could really use some advice. I've read thru old posts, but I haven't found anything that would help. Have any of you had it, and if so, what was the outcome?
Thanks, Guy

 

[leebca]

Usually fin rot and such deterioration shown in the photos is brought on by stress and bacteria. The fish should be able to heal itself, but for some reason they aren't. This means stress, water quality issues, dirty tank, etc., etc.

If you find and eliminate the cause(s), then feed the best foods with additives, they should heal on their own:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=785228

If it gets much worse, treatment with an antibiotic would be needed, but putting them back into that same tank (after treatment in a hospital tank) with possibly the same problems, will likely lead to the same conditions.

Just to be on the conservative side, stop the ozone treatment and improve their diet and see if they improve.

 

[guyguerra]

Hi Lee,
I read your post, and I have to admit to myself that I am not feeding enough greens to this fish. Yesterday I started back to feeding dried Nori daily. I also ordered red macro algae last Friday, which should be here Tuesday. The ozone is off now, and will stay off until he improves. The only other stress inducement issue might be my Hawaiian cleaner wrasse. The Foxface will go to him many times during a day and "park" for a cleaning. Every once in a while, more often lately, the Foxface gets angry at the wrasse and chases him away. But an hour later the Foxface parks in front of the wrasse again, I don't think anyone could know if this is a real stress issue, or just normal reactions. When I think of a fish stressing other fish it's more along the lines of chasing, harassing, etc.. In this case the Foxface initiates a lot of their contact. I could net the wrasse and put him in my 50 gallon tank (he lived there for two months before going into the big tank), but I would worry that something might affect the wrasse thru the process. I'll watch the interaction closer and get the macro algae and nori in the tank daily. My water is always excellent, and I do weekly 15% water changes, change my filter socks every three days, so theres nothing there to change.

 

[guyguerra]

As an update, I started a vitamin regiment, but didn't notice much at first, which is reasonable due to the general slow nature of vitamins. My son recommended Melafix, and I am on my fourth day of treatment, and very pleased. The foxface has turned the corner and is improving enough for me to be convinced that she will recover. It's impossible to say what works when you try several things at once, but I will keep a bottle of Melafix in my cabinet in case I see fin or skin problems.

 

[guyguerra]

My foxface cleared up nicely. I think the Melafix worked well.