Not sure if this is a problem or not

[ken123]

I have a Flame Angel and the rear portion of the lower fin appears to be splitting some. The rear portion of the upper fin is splitting but not so much. I have 2 clowns, 1 Royal Gramma and 2 Blue Chromis in a 90 gallon tank. The Angel is having a blast swimming all over the tank and all the other fish do not show any problems. He will not stay still enough for me to get a decent picture, besides he hangs out in the rockwork. His caudal fin seems to be fine. Should I just continue to keep an eye on it like usual or should I be doing something about it?

Flame Angel info..
http://www.oceanlight.com/spotlight.php?img=08667

 

[Sk8r]

how old is this tank? Possibility of a crab that's gotten uppity? Sallies are good at that. Coral Banded Shrimp. Your other guys are more agile than the angel, who tends to stay still near rock where browsing. If an area of fin ends up missing, definitely suspect a crustacean.

Another thing to check is your alkalinity: if that goes 'off,' fin issues can result. 8.3 dkh is good.

 

[ken123]

Tank is 5+ years old. Only hermits, the Angel does not go near the bottom. Will check the alkalinity. I do see other parts of other fins on the Angel 'separated'. Will see if I can get a pic.

 

[Sk8r]

Nutritional, maybe: if not a hitchhiker. How long has it been in there? An angel is generally a rock picker and depends on film and small stuff.

 

[Tenor]

Is your Royal Gramma getting along with Flame Angle?

 

[ken123]

The RG and FA seem to be alright together. The RG stays in one section of the tank and the FA is all over the place. Occasional when they get close they sort of present their sides to each other and the RG seems to open his mouth wide. That's about it. Now today I see evidence of something going on with the RG's tail fin. Getting the QT tank ready now. The clowns fins look OK. Do I really need to QT all of them? My QT tank is only 10 gallons. I have large plastic pipe for hiding. There are alot of threads about what to treat with so I'll ask here what is the right course of action?

 

[ken123]

Any suggestions???

Any suggestions???

So I went to the LFS and bought Furan-2. Only problem is I cannot catch any of the fish. Already knocked LR around. Tried with the lights off, the fish hide in places I'll never get. I'll have to remove everything from the tank to catch them and I'm not prepared to do that.

When I was at the LFS, I saw this stuff from Microbe-Lift called Artemiss. They said it could be added to the display tank. At that thought I cringed adding anything to the display tank. I could not find that much online about it, at least not here on RC. Has anyone tried it? Going to call the manufacture tomorrow with some questions. It says reef & marine safe. What about inverts?

 

[ken123]

Since there have been no replies...I did a search on RC and other sites for Artemiss and did not come up with much. Also did a search on RC for tail\fin rot. Most of the threads I found were incomplete or left un-answered. Going to try again tonight to get the fish in QT. If I do get them in QT to treat with Furan-2, what about the bacteria in the DT? There must be good and bad bacteria in there. I don't want to kill all the bacteria as that will start a whole cycle. Will leaving the fish out of the DT for a while rid the DT of this 'bad' bacteria causing tail rot? Hopefully someone with knowledge about this chimes in.

 

[ken123]

New problem now?????

New problem now?????

I have my 2 clowns and flame angel in 10 gallon QT for 2 1/2 weeks now for tail rot. Only the angel showed signs of tail rot. For some other reason I lost the Royal Gramma early on in QT. I was treating with Furan-2 as per the box directions. Looks like no more tail rot and the FA fins have grown back well and looking good. I have had the clowns the longest, like 2+ years now.

My problem is this. The larger of the 2 clowns is getting slights bumps on her body and I see some specks on her fins. I took a picture but you cannot see anything in it. All 3 fish are eating well and the clowns hog the food when they eat as usual. No other signs of a problem except the bumps. They do not look white, at least yet. And no evidence of a mucus coating at all.

Any idea's?

This is as best I can do for pics, not sure if anything can be seen. You can see some bumps just above the left fin.

 

[ken123]

Let me add I started the QT tank with a sponge that was in the DT and one small rock, nothing else. 4 treatments of Furan-2 with water changes after each of 2 treatments. Fin rot looks to be gone. About a week ago I started soaking frozen mysis in Aminomega before feeding. All three fish are eating, swimming & acting fine.

 

[sjwitt]

Ken,
I just now stumbled upon your thread. Sorry I'm late on this but yes, I've used Artemiss in my 185 gal mixed reef system when I saw some fin erosion on my lyretail anthias. I've used it many times with no ill effect on anyone else (some of the corals and anemone closed or bubbled up at first but that passed after an hour or so). It has worked well for me.

There is another 'sister' product by the same manufacturer (Microbe-lift) called Herbtana. I also use this directly in the DT at the first sign of anything 'white' on a fish. Herbtana is for expelling parasites like ich, flukes, chilodonella, costia, trichodina, and oodinium. It too has worked well for me.

I couldn't see much in your photos but suggest that since you've cured the fin issues, get the Herbtana and follow directions to treat what sounds like a parasitic disease. Some have reported a decrease in appetite after dosing the Herbtana, I've seen this with stressed fish but those eating well seem to keep eating in my experience.

 

[ken123]

Good to know about Artemiss. Not much of a mention on RC about it.

Good that I spent the 3-4 hours to catch them and get the in QT anyway. I do have Formalin-3. It says to add 1-2 teaspoons for 10 gallons and repeat in 24 hours. Anyone think otherwise?

Anyone else want to chime in?

 

[ken123]

Hoping Sk8r answers I guess. After adding Formalin-3 last night the spots do not look worse and they are still there. Too soon to tell progress. Will add a second treatment tonight as per the bottle.

I still want to treat for the fin rot some more by adding Furan-2 again. Think it would be OK to have both in the tank at the same time? There are probably still trace amounts of Furan-2 in there now as I did the 33% water change yesterday. All fish have been acting normal.

 

[ken123]

So this is looking like my personal blog... not many responses.

FWIW, the spot like things that were on the clown, whitish like, have gone away after 2 treatments of Formalin-3 to the QT. Never confirmed if it was ich or not. Might have caught it early on.

And the fins are looking better on the Flame Angel. Looks normal as of this morning. I did treat with Formalin-3 and Furan-2 at the same time. Fish were fine and did a 33% water change 2 days after the last treatment.

Will continue with water changes as needed for a few more weeks in QT and hope for the best. Nice outcome so far except I and lost the Royal Gramma after 2 days in QT. I suspect lost her due to stress as she seemed 'shy' and usually stayed out of site. Not many places to hide in QT and she did not go in the large plumbing elbow's I had in there.

 

[ken123]

Everything has been OK since about 4/17. I had to separate the clowns from the Flame Angel in QT, the larger clown was picking on the FA especially around feeding time. Two days ago (5/2) the Flame Angel started to look ragged. The fins did not look to good so I added some more Furan-2 and a teaspoon of Formalin-3. The clowns look OK but not the FA. It's not that the fins are rotting, they just look ragged. It's swimming and eating OK, although do all FA sort of swim at a slight angle?

 

[sjwitt]

Glad to hear things seem to be working out. I've never used the products you're using so can't comment.