Ulcers

[ataller]

So I bought a sunburst anthias and didn't QT it properly. Shame on me. It died, so did my tailspot blenny. Now you guys are left to help me clean up the mess I made.

Livestock remaining in my 120G (with 60 fuge and 40 sump basement) are as follows:

2 Percs
1 Purple Tang
1 Flame Angel
2 Dispars
1 Yellow Canary Wrasse

I think the most major problem in the tank right now is a nasty ich infection. Erratic swimming, 80 breaths per min+, white spots, my flame stopped eating today. The whole nine yards. I was thinking maybe velvet but this has been going on for 3 days now, and I hear if it was velvet they would all be dead already.

Tang has spots, flame has spots, no spots on clowns wrasse and dispars.

If it was only ich I could probably take care of it (going to do hyposalinity, QT is filling up as we speak). However, it seems that my clowns might have something else. They are starting to show ragged fins, and they are getting these ulcers. Ulcers have been around longer than the ich. Could there be a different infectious agent causing this problem in the clowns? Here is a shot of my females head stripe.

The clowns were easy to catch, they are already in cupramine but do not seem to be doing well in it, they are very lethargic, which is why I was going to swtich to hyposalinity. I do not think the ulcers are traumatic as the male has similar marks. Do you think I will need to add something else like antibiotics to the QT for the clowns?

Thank you,

Adam

TLDR: No QT. Fish get ich some die, treating with hypo. Clowns have ulcers do they need aditional therapy to the hypo?

 

[WDLV]

You sound like you have at least some grasp on what you did wrong and what you need to do next, but maybe you need a little more confirmation or direction. If so, take this FWIW.

By the picture you took, it looks like you might have a film or some fine spots on the clown pictured. I think you might be facing amyloodinium or possibly brook. A clearer picture would help. If you can, trap the clown in a container against the tank glass to get a clearer shot. I think you would do well at this point to quarrantine and hypo all your vertebrate occupants and leave the inverts in your system for 30-90 days. If you have a couple 10 gallons, air stones and a heater laying around you can do the procedure I will recommend later in this post....

I do not recommend hypo for your display when there are inverts present. That said, if I do understand you correctly, you have already dropped that level somewhat. Raise it back up slowly over the next few days to do the least damage. Also, when you use hypo in your QT, you want to be sure that you're using a refractometer and that you bring it all the way down to 1.009 and maintain that level.

If you like, go to my site and look under the "articles" page. The second and third article may help you some. www.clowntank.com

Good luck.

Generally ulsers are caused by a bacterial infection and/or injury. I would monitor it for now to see if it heals on its own. If you note any change for the worse you might try some nitrofurizone (sp?) to get it to heal up. If you're dealing with Brook or amyloo, the ulsers are the lesser concern. With clowns I would triage like this:
1. Brooklynella
2. Amyloodinium
3. Ick
4. Ulsers, fin rot or other bacterial infections.

 

[ataller]

Hypo treatment is in a QT tank, not the display. All my fish are out of the display. Hypo is at 1.009 right now.

I do not think it is amyloo because there are very well defined spots on the other fish. And due to the virulence. The fish had signs and symptoms for days, with no deaths. I was under the impression that amyloo kills quicker than that.

I was thinking that it wasnt brook beacuse I see no mucus and the other fish are infected. Is it possible for wrasses/tangs to get brook?

I have two skimmers for my DT. One can be used a HOB. Any problems running the HOB skimmer (deltec mce600) on my QT with hyposalinity tx? I might throw in some prazipro too, would the skimmer skim that out?

Thanks

Ill see if I can get some better pictures of them in the QT.

 

[WDLV]

It is possible for other fish to get brook. I think it was first studdied in Angels.

You can run a skimmer on a hypo tank if you want but it will only serve to oxygenate the water. Brakish water and to a lesser extent fresh water do not produce foam like SW does.