Purple Tang with fin rot...

[JCM2009]

I have purple tang with fin rot in FOWLR tank. Tang seems perfectly normal. Eats like a horse. Also have zebra eel, maroon clown, foxface, emperor angel, turbo snails...

I do not have QT tank and I would probably never be able to trap the tang anyway.

Any suggestions? I am seeing mixed reviews on Melafix.

I think just keep doing WC and feeding seaweed/algae. Also using Kent Zoe.

Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[wooden_reefer]

I have purple tang with fin rot in FOWLR tank. Tang seems perfectly normal. Eats like a horse. Also have zebra eel, maroon clown, foxface, emperor angel, turbo snails...

I do not have QT tank and I would probably never be able to trap the tang anyway.

Any suggestions? I am seeing mixed reviews on Melafix.

I think just keep doing WC and feeding seaweed/algae. Also using Kent Zoe.

Any advice would be appreciated.

For a FOWLR, sometimes it is possible to treat the whole tank.

First, the cost of drug generally is rather high.

Second, you should choose an antibiotic that has milder impact on nitrification bacteria. Neomycin, kanamycin and erythomycin tend to only moderately stress nitrification. Often I would see some nitrite but little ammonia.

Third, you should prepare for contigency for very bad situation; that is if your nitrification bacteria is gravely harmed. Before traetment in DT, you set aside a small portion of biological medium in a seprate container, add some new medium such as sponges or sacks of crushed coral, and sources of ammonia and circulate and aerate, while you treat in the DT. If something goes drastcally wrong, you will have enough backup nitrification activity standing by.

 

[KingwoodMarcia]

I would try to isolate before treating the main tank. I tried melafix on my 325 and it smelled up the whole house because of the amount required. Made the skimmers foam over for about 2 weeks. I had to run a ton of carbon and big water changes to finally rid the tank. It was a complete pain and cost a lot of time and money. For what I spent on carbon, salt for water changes, and melafix, I could have bought 2 of the fish, that I was treating.

Not only that, the fish died anyway!!! There comes a point that some fish just don't make it. It is part of the fish hobby. If every fish lived a long life, there would be many fish stores out of business and the price of fish would drop through the roof.

Try to put in a Qt, so you don't mess up your main display and cause more problems.

If you can't get him, I would do water changes, making sure the water test good, and use selcon with nori to insure a good diet. You can also use selcon directly into the water.

Good luck.