Treating tank with uronema marinum...what to do with the corals

[benjc]

So I'm >95% sure my tank has uronema marinum in it. A couple months back, I lost two chromis and a wrasse which ended up exhibiting sores that looked like uronema; it now looks like I'm going to be losing a diamond goby. I'm at the point where I don't want to deal with pathogens in the tank and want to properly address the situation.

I know that leaving the tank fallow won't work because uronema doesn't require a host fish and can instead survive on bacteria. I understand that Furan 2 and other formaldahyde-containing medications will kill the uronema, but they aren't reef safe. I'm looking at a couple different options, and would appreciate feedback or advice for other options. I'm looking at:

a) Moving corals and CUC to a quarantine tank and treating DT with Furan 2. I'd then go through a hyposalinity cycle to address ich that is also in the DT (no need to lecture, :deadhorse. Meanwhile the corals and CUC would get dunked in 3 buckets of RO water before being placed in the QT tank (using freshly-mixed saltwater and Dr. Tims bacteria starter). Once hypo treatment completed, perform three 50% water changes, then add corals and CUC back to DT.

b) Moving the fish to the QT, treat QT with Furan 2, then replace QT water with freshly-mixed saltwater. Use QT and 5-gallon buckets with heaters/pumps for tank-transfer ich treatment. Once tank-transfer process completed, keep fish in QT, then 3-bucket RO water rinse for corals and CUC and place them in QT also. Empty DT, nuke all live rock, dispose of all sand, then restart DT (new sand/water, and new cycle).

I'm leaning towards option A. The timeline would be quicker, cost and time commitment would be lower, and I suspect less stressful for the fish. Either way, I'd like input from the experts.

Are there any problems with the two methods I propose?
Will Furan 2 kill uronema present in the sand bed or only in the water column?
Are there any additional medications/treatments I should incorporate while I'm at it?
Will the 3-bucket RO rinse be effective at removing all pathogens from my corals (LPS, softies, and zoas)? If not, any suggestions on how to ensure I'm not spreading the uronema without killing the corals?

Thanks in advance.

 

[MrTuskfish]

I have never heard of Furan 2 being used effectively on a uronema problem. Furan is just an a combination of antibiotics; uronema is a parasite. As far as I know, Formalin (formaldehyde) is the only real cure. While Googling uronema, I remember running across a bacteria with a similar name: aeromonas. I believe Furan says it kills this bacteria.

 

[Psionicdragon]

I never had luck treating this disease/parasite in the past. I just bleached the whole tank and start over. I avoided the LFS that had the disease. But other LFS told me that certain wholesaler has fishes with this disease and they stopped ordering from them. They couldn't cure the illness either.

 

[Chicago]

how quick does this disease attack.. can it happen over night?

 

[Deinonych]

If you can remove the corals and other inverts, you could treat the tank with chloroquine phosphate.

 

[Chicago]

can you run methan blue in the tank to kill this.. I am referrint to my QT tank that I think was infested.. thanks

Or am i better off treating with somehting else.

 

[mbauma]

I just found out I have this as well. I lost 5 chromis and just lost my leapard wrasse. What's the best way to treat this, or am I going to lose everything?

 

[ThRoewer]

The issue is that Uronema is a opportunistic parasite that primarily lives off bacteria, dead tissue and detritus. The dead tissue and bacteria are what gets it to infect fish in the first place.

Because it is an opportunistic parasite it has no fallow period. There is also nothing I know about that can kill it without wiping out most of the inverts in your tank.

Chloroquine Phosphate at double the standard dose as been shown to kill Uronema on dead fish. But since CP will also kill all your corals you may as well use bleach.
I also don't know how well fish will handle a double dose of CP. Wrasses will likely not handle it well.

The other chemical that kills Uronema reliably is formalin - again, your inverts won't handle it well, but it may be a good way to clean your fish before transferring them into a clean QT.

 

[mbauma]

So, basically follow these steps?

1. treat fish with CP in separate container
2. remove fish and place in clean QT
3. remove all corals and shrimp, crabs etc from main tank
4. remove sand, live rock etc from main tank
5. sanitize main tank with ???

Are my shrimp, crabs and snails at risk?

What do i do with them?

What about the corals?

Do I have to replace my rock, sand etc?

What about the sump and refugium?

 

[ThRoewer]

There is really no pleasant or easy solution to this.

If you want to get rid of it you basically have to sterilize your system (with bleach or something equally drastic).

Rocks and sand have to be sterilized (bleached, boiled, dried,...) as well if you want to reuse them later.

Corals and inverts can't be cleaned of Uronema reliably - If you want to keep them it would have to be in an invert only tank that is under permanent quarantine.
I don't know if Uronema is also harmful to inverts and corals - my suspicion is yes, as everything that can get a wound and bacterial infection may also get infected by Uronema. If it is as fatal to inverts as it is to fish - I don't know.

 

[mbauma]

Here is one of the chromis just to be sure on identification.

 

[mbauma]

There is really no pleasant or easy solution to this.

If you want to get rid of it you basically have to sterilize your system (with bleach or something equally drastic).

Rocks and sand have to be sterilized (bleached, boiled, dried,...) as well if you want to reuse them later.

Corals and inverts can't be cleaned of Uronema reliably - If you want to keep them it would have to be in an invert only tank that is under permanent quarantine.
I don't know if Uronema is also harmful to inverts and corals - my suspicion is yes, as everything that can get a wound and bacterial infection may also get infected by Uronema. If it is as fatal to inverts as it is to fish - I don't know.

Great, I just put in all new rock and dropped 1700 on new lights, put in a new sump

 

[ThRoewer]

Equipment can be sanitized - you will have no losses there.
The rock and livestock is what needs to get purged.

The thing I would first make sure is that you are really dealing with uronema. You may want to send an infected but still living fish to a lab to be sure (if you have Noga's Fish disease book - they have a form and an address to send specimen for pathogen ID).

 

[mbauma]

Ok, no other fish are showing signs and the last one I lost with the same symptoms was 3 weeks ago. The wrasse who was dying this morning had no visible symptoms. I did a mercy killing on him to ease the suffering.