Help! Fin Rot spreading?!

chopkins · 04/14/2014, 08:39 PM

I hope someone can help me out here quick. A few days ago my tang had cloudy eyes and a white film covering his body, I checked all my parameters and they were seemingly fine. I increased the amount of garlic infused seaweed I was giving him and he seems to have bounced back. Just yesterday I noticed that my pygmy angelfish had a tattered tail and what looked like a white film on his body. I bought Ruby Reef Rally and treated the tank, but by the end of the day he was dead. Now it seems to have spread to my orchid dottyback, green mandarin and red firefish.

I'm not sure what is causing this: bacterial, fungal, or a parasite. Another thought was that one of my corals has been aggressively stinging my fish. The only two corals that could be doing this is a hammerhead coral and a very small glaxea coral.

My first guess is that this is some kind of bacterial infection that is spreading throughout the tank. Worse yet I think the Ruby Reef Rally is effecting my mushroom coral (they look all bunched up). All the other corals appear to be thriving.

Water Parameters: "normal"

Tank size: 55g

Waterflow: ~1500 gph

Tankmates:

Scopas Tang (small 2-2.5")
2x Ocellaris Clowns
Orchid Dottyback
Red Firefish
Green Mandarin
2x Cleaner Shrimp
2x Peppermint Shrimp
1x Emerald Crab
10x Blue Leg Hermits
2x Red Leg Hermits
1x Banded Serpent Star
2x Mini Maxi Anemone

Corals:

Hammerhead Coral
Galaxea Coral (very small)
Pulsing Xenia
Waving Hand
Sea fan
Potato Chip
2x Mushrooms
Star Polyps
Zoanthids
Brain Coral
Leather Coral (Blue Chalace?)

julie180 · 04/15/2014, 05:15 AM

Garlic will not do anything. Recent studies have linked it to liver damage in fish. Treating for something unknown is not the way to go about this. Pictures would be helpful to get a diagnosis.
What has changed in your tank? How long have you had each fish? We need as much information as possible to help you.

chopkins · 04/15/2014, 08:59 AM

It happened right after I added the pygmy angel to the system, so I think he brought something in. I will try to get a picture...but it will likely be difficult.

chopkins · 04/15/2014, 02:51 PM

Attached a photo of the mandarin. I don't think he will make the day :*(

chopkins · 04/15/2014, 04:26 PM

So I ended up removing the mandarin from my MT and put him in to the QT since he was getting sluggish and crabs started moving in on him. When I tried to catch him he seemed to have a lot of fight left in him so hopefully a rest in the QT will help him recover. I'll let you all know how it goes. He is trained to eat frozen copepods and brine shrimp, so I don't think he'll miss his live copepods too too much (yeah right).

If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please let me know.

As for the others, I wasn't able to get pictures of the others (at least not good ones). They are always in the rocks or only show one side. They seem to be acting more energetic which I think is a good sign and the cloudiness/spots seem to be dissipating. The dorsal fin on the red firefish has a little chip in it and the left fin of the dottyback is a little tattered. Hopefully those will repair in time.

chopkins · 04/15/2014, 04:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by julie180

Garlic will not do anything. Recent studies have linked it to liver damage in fish. Treating for something unknown is not the way to go about this. Pictures would be helpful to get a diagnosis.
What has changed in your tank? How long have you had each fish? We need as much information as possible to help you.

Most recently, before the issues developed, I added a bunch of new coral to the tank, a pygmy angelfish, and 2 cleaner shrimp. I stupidly didn't put the pygmy in QT before adding it to the MT because someone has suggested that the QT can stress the fish out more and they will likely get sick as a result.

The tank has been running for 6 months. I've had the clowns since the beginning, the firefish for about 3 months, the tang for about 2 months, and the dottyback about 1 month. The mandarin I bought WAY too early, almost right at the start. I know, I know. It was a newbie mistake but he's been fat and happy for about 5 months until this recent plague. I hope I don't get flamed for it. Trust me I've learned. Fortunately, for the past 2 months there has been a huge copepod population developing so I haven't been worrying too much about him getting food.

04/14/2014, 08:39 PM	#1
chopkins Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 14	Help! Fin Rot spreading?! I hope someone can help me out here quick. A few days ago my tang had cloudy eyes and a white film covering his body, I checked all my parameters and they were seemingly fine. I increased the amount of garlic infused seaweed I was giving him and he seems to have bounced back. Just yesterday I noticed that my pygmy angelfish had a tattered tail and what looked like a white film on his body. I bought Ruby Reef Rally and treated the tank, but by the end of the day he was dead. Now it seems to have spread to my orchid dottyback, green mandarin and red firefish. I'm not sure what is causing this: bacterial, fungal, or a parasite. Another thought was that one of my corals has been aggressively stinging my fish. The only two corals that could be doing this is a hammerhead coral and a very small glaxea coral. My first guess is that this is some kind of bacterial infection that is spreading throughout the tank. Worse yet I think the Ruby Reef Rally is effecting my mushroom coral (they look all bunched up). All the other corals appear to be thriving. Water Parameters: "normal" Tank size: 55g Waterflow: ~1500 gph Tankmates: Scopas Tang (small 2-2.5") 2x Ocellaris Clowns Orchid Dottyback Red Firefish Green Mandarin 2x Cleaner Shrimp 2x Peppermint Shrimp 1x Emerald Crab 10x Blue Leg Hermits 2x Red Leg Hermits 1x Banded Serpent Star 2x Mini Maxi Anemone Corals: Hammerhead Coral Galaxea Coral (very small) Pulsing Xenia Waving Hand Sea fan Potato Chip 2x Mushrooms Star Polyps Zoanthids Brain Coral Leather Coral (Blue Chalace?)

04/15/2014, 05:15 AM	#2
julie180 Registered Member Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Raymore, MO Posts: 2,556	Garlic will not do anything. Recent studies have linked it to liver damage in fish. Treating for something unknown is not the way to go about this. Pictures would be helpful to get a diagnosis. What has changed in your tank? How long have you had each fish? We need as much information as possible to help you.

04/15/2014, 08:59 AM	#3
chopkins Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 14	It happened right after I added the pygmy angel to the system, so I think he brought something in. I will try to get a picture...but it will likely be difficult.

04/15/2014, 04:26 PM	#5
chopkins Registered Member Join Date: Mar 2014 Posts: 14	So I ended up removing the mandarin from my MT and put him in to the QT since he was getting sluggish and crabs started moving in on him. When I tried to catch him he seemed to have a lot of fight left in him so hopefully a rest in the QT will help him recover. I'll let you all know how it goes. He is trained to eat frozen copepods and brine shrimp, so I don't think he'll miss his live copepods too too much (yeah right). If anyone thinks this is a bad idea please let me know. As for the others, I wasn't able to get pictures of the others (at least not good ones). They are always in the rocks or only show one side. They seem to be acting more energetic which I think is a good sign and the cloudiness/spots seem to be dissipating. The dorsal fin on the red firefish has a little chip in it and the left fin of the dottyback is a little tattered. Hopefully those will repair in time.