What do my fish have, and how do I treat it.

[elegance coral]

I know, I know, I know. Always quarantine fish BEFORE putting them in your tank. I've never been much of a fish person, so I haven't had any illnesses to deal with in years. I guess I got a little over confident. I set up a 120, mainly for the wife. I purchased 6 blue chromis. Gave them a fresh water and iodine dip. Then plopped them in the tank. All was fine for a month or more. All 6 chromis, a pair of perculas, an anthias, and a royal gramma were all eating and doing fine. Then I noticed a "film" developing on all the fish. I did about a 30gl water change yesterday. Got up this morning and all 6 chromis are dead. The royal gramma is MIA and presumed dead. All that's left is the pair of clowns and the anthias. They ain't lookin so good though.:sad2: Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[elegance coral]

Well, I found the Royal Gramma. He's still alive, but hiding in the rocks, and seems to be having a rough time of it. Hopefully he'll pull through. I did a 50gl water change today. I'm mixing up another 50gls of water, and will be doing another large water change in a day or two. Hopefully, if I keep the environment clean they can shake what ever is ailing them.

 

[TripleT]

Got more pics?

First pic looks like marine velvet. Hopefully it is not.

How would you describe the clown? Are those black spots I see? Is his skin bumpy?

 

[lhm nole]

Looks like velvet cupramine in a qt tank will be your best bet. And why dip fish in iodine? Fw dips do nothing for velvet how are they breathing? If rapid imo definetly velvet.

 

[elegance coral]

Those were the best pic's I could get. The clown seems to have orange areas in the white stripes and scales that seem to be lifted up.

I just looked up marine velvet, and it does look similar to what my fish have. It's strange though. Some of the chromis died with no film or marks on them. The male clown looks and acts unaffected even though he's rubbing all over the female????? I sure hope this isn't marine velvet.

 

[hottuna]

Velvet would be one possibility,brooklynella -another...

 

[LukFox]

Those were the best pic's I could get. The clown seems to have orange areas in the white stripes and scales that seem to be lifted up.

I just looked up marine velvet, and it does look similar to what my fish have. It's strange though. Some of the chromis died with no film or marks on them. The male clown looks and acts unaffected even though he's rubbing all over the female????? I sure hope this isn't marine velvet.

Not all fish with velvet develop the film. If they're rapidly breathing and it's killing that quickly, I'd say velvet.

 

[JHemdal]

Could very easily be Cryptocaryon that made it past the "spot" stage to the more diffuse acute stage (see the finite white spots on the anthias' eye, and just above the black "Y" on the clownfish). A quick skin scrape and putting that under a dissecting microscope would quickly tell - but I understand that is not something everyone can do.

One way to identify velvet (Amyloodinium) is to take a respiration rate measurement of the fish - if they are respiring rapidly (over 120 gill beats per minute) it is probably Amyloodinium. If not, it could still be Crypt. or Brook.

These are all protozoan problems, so the treatments are fairly similar. However, the general rule is that once fish loss in the group of fish has happened, none of the available treatments are likely to act fast enough to save many (if any) of the remaining fish....sorry.

If they were my fish, I would move the survivors to a quarantine tank with chloroquine at 10 or 15ppm...and keep my fingers crossed....additional water changes will not help.

Jay

 

[scubasteve06]

Looks like brook to me could also be velvet. that pic of the clown really reminds me of brook

 

[elegance coral]

All I have left are the clowns. I found the Royal Gramma DOA this morning and the anthias is MIA. I'm setting up a hospital tank when I get home from work. The only medication I have on hand is a product called "Quick Cure". It contains malachite green, formalin. Will this work? My LFS is closed today, so I won't be able to pick up any chloroquine until tomorrow. That is if my LFS has any.
This whole thing has made me sick! I've had the Royal Gramma for about 6 years. I know Royal Gramma's aren't anything special, or rare, but he was my boy. To think that I killed him, and the other fish, simply makes me ill. I will be setting up a 55gl quarantine tank in my fish room. This will never happen again!
Thanks for all the help. It is greatly appreciated.
EC

 

[RBU1]

Sorry about your fish.

Your LFS will not have Chloriquin. That med requires a script. My advice would be to use Cupramine in your hospital tank. Did you recently add anything to your tank?

 

[elegance coral]

Sorry about your fish.

Your LFS will not have Chloriquin. That med requires a script. My advice would be to use Cupramine in your hospital tank. Did you recently add anything to your tank?

Yes. About a month ago, I added 6 small blue chromis. They seemed to be doing fine. Their color had improved, they were very active, they seemed to be putting on weight, they would fallow me from one end of the tank to the other, and they started eating out of my hand. All was fine, then POOF. Everyone started dieing. At first I thought it was some kind of fungal infection drought on by over feeding. Now, all I know is I want to save the pair of perculas. They've been spawning every two weeks, and I'm in the middle of setting up a rearing system. The little male looks and acts great. I'm really worried about the female though. She's not looking good.:sad2: