stefdvm
Member
I have a 65 gallon set up at work, FOWLR. Started out with a half dozen fish or so, including a blue headed wrasse. All purchased from Live Aquaria.. The wrasse did not come from Diver's Den :worried:
About 10 days after they were put in the tank, the wrasse started acting funny - became sluggish, spent a lot of time on the bottom of the tank which was unusual for him. Died a couple of days later. Over the next week, I lost everything else in the tank, one by one. Last thing I lost was my little blue spot puffer. I noticed that he seemed to almost be sloughing his skin. With a little research here, I surmised that it was most likely either Velvet or Brooklynella. I tried formalin dips, but I guess I was too late. Once the last of the fish died, I left the tank fallow - from mid November until the first week of February. I thought that I was "safe" at that point... and I bought another half dozen fish.
A couple of the little ones disappeared... and then I noticed that the large, healthy, robust ones seemed to be rapidly losing color. My black combtooth blenny went from midnight black to gray, seemingly overnight; he was no longer active and all over the tank - he was hiding, then lying on the sand, then he was dead. Another oddity that I noticed - the fins became ragged shortly before they perished. I initially attributed it to inter-tank aggression. Currently, I've lost everything but the little saddle puffer.
I have dosed the tank twice with metronidazole, on Wednesday and again today. The puffer is still swimming, still eating, still acting completely normal. The inverts are seemingly unaffected.
I did a mucous scraping of the bangaii cardinal when he died but didn't see much except fish scales. I'm a veterinarian but don't like cytology, and searching for causal organisms isn't my strong point. When the dottyback, died, he had red marks on his sides - they appeared on Wednesday, I found him upside down on the sand on Thursday. Again I scraped his side, again I saw nothing that i recognized as significant. I also pulled out some material from his gills -- on this I found little black spots but truly I don't know if they are "normal" or part of whatever this disease is. I took pictures of the dottyback before his "burial".
Either my 9-10 week fallow period was inadequate or the organism survived in the rock / sand or invert population. I need to figure out what this is so I don't subject any more creatures to it's devastation.
Any guesses or suggestions?
About 10 days after they were put in the tank, the wrasse started acting funny - became sluggish, spent a lot of time on the bottom of the tank which was unusual for him. Died a couple of days later. Over the next week, I lost everything else in the tank, one by one. Last thing I lost was my little blue spot puffer. I noticed that he seemed to almost be sloughing his skin. With a little research here, I surmised that it was most likely either Velvet or Brooklynella. I tried formalin dips, but I guess I was too late. Once the last of the fish died, I left the tank fallow - from mid November until the first week of February. I thought that I was "safe" at that point... and I bought another half dozen fish.
A couple of the little ones disappeared... and then I noticed that the large, healthy, robust ones seemed to be rapidly losing color. My black combtooth blenny went from midnight black to gray, seemingly overnight; he was no longer active and all over the tank - he was hiding, then lying on the sand, then he was dead. Another oddity that I noticed - the fins became ragged shortly before they perished. I initially attributed it to inter-tank aggression. Currently, I've lost everything but the little saddle puffer.
I have dosed the tank twice with metronidazole, on Wednesday and again today. The puffer is still swimming, still eating, still acting completely normal. The inverts are seemingly unaffected.
I did a mucous scraping of the bangaii cardinal when he died but didn't see much except fish scales. I'm a veterinarian but don't like cytology, and searching for causal organisms isn't my strong point. When the dottyback, died, he had red marks on his sides - they appeared on Wednesday, I found him upside down on the sand on Thursday. Again I scraped his side, again I saw nothing that i recognized as significant. I also pulled out some material from his gills -- on this I found little black spots but truly I don't know if they are "normal" or part of whatever this disease is. I took pictures of the dottyback before his "burial".
Either my 9-10 week fallow period was inadequate or the organism survived in the rock / sand or invert population. I need to figure out what this is so I don't subject any more creatures to it's devastation.
Any guesses or suggestions?
