Marine Depot Forums / TEAM Marine Depot / Disease, Health and Wellness - by Kelly Jedlicki

is there something wrong with my friends clown trigger?

Reefski — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 20:51:19 GMT

i was visiting my friend in SF two weekends ago, he has a 55 gallon marine tank with a clown trigger and tomato clown fish. he has had both of the fish for 8-9 years.

he also had a yellow wrasse that died recently within a day or two of a 10% water change. he said it looked all bloated and the stomach was ripped open when he saw it in the morning. the wrasse had also been in the tank for years.

he used tap water for top off and mixing salt. dechlorinated of course but that is the only water treatment he has ever used. phosphates are off the scale so over 5.0ppm, nitrates are 60-80ppm.

other water values i measured were wnl.

he did make a mistake in measuring the salt this time and dropped the salinity to about 0.021 from the usual 0.025

could that have caused this?

i told him to slowly bring the salinity up.

what else would you do?

oh, one other thing. he said this has happened a few times before and has resolved itself without any treatment.

could it be an osmolarity problem?

Puffer diet

REEF-DADDY — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 14:34:09 GMT

Hi,
4 days ago I picked up a nice fat 5" porcupine puffer. The only thing he'll eat is krill which I understand is far from optimal. I feed squid, silversides, mysis,brine, nori, pellets. All of which he will try but spit back out. I've not tried going a couple days without feeding him because he is so new to the tank I'd rather wait until he is better adjusted. My other concern is his teeth, I have little in the way of snails/crabs at the moment. I don't really have the need or desire for them other than for the puffer. I was thinking of picking up some lyanassa obsoleta since they are so cheap and going to be used for puffer food anyway. Do you think he'll eat these, or would he be better served by some small cerith/bluelegs? I realize the snails are from cooler water but longevity is not my concern here.

I think my female crosshatch trigger is half blind!

Triggerfreak — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 16:11:32 GMT

My female crosshatch trigger has one eye almost totally popped out of her hear.No discoloration or any signs of a parasite.Sh eats but i half to spray the food right in front of her almost in her mouth.She seems to be not able to open and close her mouth either.Otherwise she looks perfectly healthy.She has been like this for about a month now.I pulled her then and put her in my 55 quarantine tank for possible treatment.The only thing my local people can think of is a tumor or something like an infection behind her eye.For the first 3 weeks in quarantine she hid behind a rock and would not come out unless i made her.Now she is out and swimming all the time but basically bumps off of stufff like she is blind.Now i did lose my male a couple months back to some kind of hemorrhage in his head.And all my tank parameters are perfect.I will try to get a good pic.

Question surrounding the effects of a bacterial infection on a tank

Saldarya — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 20:12:33 GMT

Hello All,

I currently have a 220g tank that has been up and running for about 9 months full of live rock and in general doing very well. I have one fish in it, a juvenille Regal Angel that I have had for about 4 months. He went through a full QT before being introduced and has been doing very well. Eats well everyday pellets 3 times day and PE Mysis in Selcon daily. He is fat and in all respects healthy.

I noticed a couple of days ago that one of his eyes was 'pop eyed'. Noted no cloudiness, so I was hoping for a physical issue that woudl heal up. This morning I noticed that the one eye was cloudy and it loosk like the other eye may be following suit.

He continues to eat fine, but has always been a bit shy and secretive.

Long story short, I simply cannot remove him from #250+ pounds of rock without causing some massive stress to him and me to move him to QT for treatment.

I have some triple Sulfa and Metronidazole that I can treat his food with, but there is not a whole tank rememdy that I am aware of for what I expect is a bacterial infection that I am willing to risk in a 220g tank.

So, my question is this, if this fish passes, the bacterial infection that was the cause, does it remain in the tank? Can I expect that any other fish that I put in the tank in teh future will be affected by the same thing? I am also open to any suggestions for treatment options.

Thanks in advance.

Bobby

unknown spots on batfish

k_zangeneh — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 23:44:00 GMT

hi to all
i tried to share my problem with friends here but i failed
i posted my question in Golden sick puffer topic two weeks ago and i get no exact answer to my problem
so i feel its better to ask it in a new topic
i get some answer to my questions but still some remained
so i post it again
excuse me about duplicating questions

i have two small batfishes ( less than 1.5 cm ) and three 3spot damsels ( each less than 1 cm )
i found bat fishes with some white spots two days after purchase ( i am not sure that they have these spots from the first time introduced to tank because i didnt buy and introduce them )

i posted pics of them to my friends and they told me that it might be Ich but i tried to ask Kelly ( puffer queen ) and after some days i got her answer to some queations but not all
after that i transfer them to a very basic Q.T and lowered down the salinity to 1.009 and start to monitor them
now after about two weeks the white spots on fins had been dissapeared but white spot on bodies are still there without any changes
as i couldnt find any similar batfish in LFS and also in net i am not sure that these white spot are belong to fish originaly or they come from sickness
the other problem id that they change their color time to time without any changes in their environment for example they become dark in about 5 seconds and then change to kight brown in about 10 seconds sometimes they are dark both but sometimes one is dark and the other is light brown
pls help about the whit spots and the color changes
these pics are taken before treatment

the phots are taken with zoom lenses and the fishes are less than 1.5 cm
and now spots on the fins dissapeared but spots on the body are still in their first place

thanks again

Gold Naso Tang

Rbu1 — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:06:48 GMT

I have a Gold Naso in a 125 QT along with a Juvi emperor angel a couple clowns and a cleaner wrasse for about a month. Everyone is eating fine but the naso. I caught him a few times picking at an algae sheet and grazing on the glass but other than that I can't get him to eat. I think I have tried everything......Live Brine included....I was looking at him hard today and noticed his stomach almost looks pinched. What would cause a naso to not want to eat? It can't be tank conditions because everyone else is eating like champs. I was going to start a cupramine treatment but dont want to till I know everyone is eating good. Any suggestions? Could the way this aniaml was caught have anything to do with his not wanting to eat? Are there any tricks I can try? I saw Kelly's presentation at Macna for putting a fish to sleep and injecting the fish but I really don't think I can pull that off and I am not sure were to get the MS222???

Any Suggestions?

Sick Rhino ... maybe?

Sherri — Fri, 16 Oct 2009 05:23:09 GMT

I keep wondering if he is sick or if he is okay - my rhinopias frondosa. The history is that he had a cloudy eye when I got him. He shed and it cleared up about 90%. Then it got cloudy again. Now he has not eaten in at least 6 days, we did just see him poop, he is not as active, sometimes his breathing looks hard but sometimes just fine, AND there is a live feeder fish in there that he is not interested in.

He has no tank mates except for a sea hare and some blue legs. Water params are normal: Nitrates, phosphates, nitrites are zero. Ph is 8.2, salinity is 1.026, Ca 390, Mg 1100, Alk, 9, temp 77. He is in a 65g tank that is part of 365 g system with weekly water changes.

I can see no evidence of flukes around the cloudy eye or gill under magnification. I am at a loss and do not know if I should be worried or if I am being paranoid. Ignoring a live feeder fish is weird though. I normally feed him silversides that sometimes I pack with New Life Spectrum pellets.

I have tried calling an aquatic vet but cannot get a return call. I have written to wetwebmedia but no response as of yet. I have some natural anti-parasitic meds on the way but do not know if I should use them as I do not know what the problem is.

Help????

ich

Sean — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:04:56 GMT

Hi All. I am new to posting in a forum. However I need help with a cat shark that I purchased just yesterday. I acclimated the shark to the water by letting him sit for about 15 to 20 minutes. Then I transposed the shark to the tank from the bag. He appeared to be doing fine. I woke up this morning to check on him and it appears that he may have ich. Im not sure. I never known a shark to get ich. Those anyone know if this is true. If so could anyone give me any ideas as to what to do to possible prevent it from getting worse or if it is actually ich? Any feedback will help.

thanks Sean

Blue Hippo tang, problems, any solutions?

Marchingbandjs — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 18:25:20 GMT

I bought a blue hippo tang at macna. If anyone went it was from the tanks at the marco rocks, nice and small 2". It eats everything i give it and is happy or so i think. As soon as i put it in tank it went into hiding. I found a little nook and it fits in. for a while it used to lay, yes lay on the rock inside... and it would look terrible somedays and somedays it would be perfect. It turned to purple then back to blue, and didnt seem to show any bad signs besides stress... then today i thought it was time to do something. It looks like she has cuts, or holes on her one belly side, and on the other she has these bumps (10 in one small area). She also seems to be doing a rubbing motion on a rock...

Parameters;

1.026
Ph: 8.2
nitrate, ammonium, nitrite: 0

(if you need more i can do other tests)

Use RO/DI water.

theres other fish in there all seem to be doing fine. None are bullying tang, and i have watched for many hours to see if this was the case. She seems head shy, but i dunno..

was told this is the place to go if i had a problem, so here you go... I can get pics for you tomorrow once i move her to QT...

Thanks,

JS

I have a sick Arothron nigropunctatus? (Dog Face Puffer) - I am not sure what to do with him

papasmurf — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 16:46:26 GMT

Hi Everyone,

Sad times i think - i bought this little yellow beauty from my LFS and i am concerned as my fish has deteriorated from day 1 of being in my tank.

I have other fish, koran angel, clowns, humbug and damsels all happy in the tank but my little yellow puffer is sick and im not sure what to think.

He is not as happy as i thought he would be and looks quite sad.

What do you guys think - can i save this fella?

Sick golden puffer

saltyesq — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 11:29:46 GMT

I just noticed that one of his gills is completely closed.
I don't know if it has been this way the entire time or just occurred.
He doesn't appear to be breathing out of this one gill at all. His other gill is working overtime.
What would cause this and how do I treat it?

lartharic wresse

Brian 55 — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 14:20:21 GMT

Hello

Glad to have found this site

I have had my tank up and running for sometime now 10+ yrs

When I lost my old icecap ballest and skimmer this was the place I got the new ones from(MarineDepot) Gald 4 the Forum you got!!

Anyway My Mex Bluehead Wrasse seems to have gotten lathargic on me. His coloring is good. He's just not swimming around alot like he use to.Hes spending a lot of time laying on the bottom or in his favoirte rock. hes not eating the food (no change in the type of food) he was eating anything I put in the tank

The only new adishions to this Tank R the foxFace and the cromies

I lost 3 out of 6 Blues cromies I just throught the wrasse eat them

Any help would be greatly aperacheted

Saltwater 55 FOWLR Tank.
660 IceCap Ball with 3-46.5-UVI 10,000+50/50+ blue VHO
20 gal sump with 10-15 gal of saltwater
Aqua Medic Turboflotor T1000 Protein Skimmer with Ocean Runner 2700 pump in sump bioball box with a small carbon powch
Aqua-Clear 55 pump 950 gal hr (recurulating)
sal @ 1.24-1.30/ph 8.4/5gal fresh water added ever wk
water changes @ 2wk-4wk

Fish; Maron Clown 6ins;FoxFace 4ins;Mex Bluehead Wrasse Yellow Saddle blueishgreen body(Rainbow)6ins 3 Yellow cromies 3 blue cromies

Eric: Oxygen Seminar

reefdiculous — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:57:56 GMT

Eric,
I just finished watching your video on oxygenation. I couldnt help but think that fish may develop a form of COPD. I dont know how closely the pathophysiolgy of their respiratory system relates to humans, but it does sort of make sense to me that they do; or at least can in certain circumstances. I know that a healthy (without COPD) persons respiratory drive is driven by a rise in Co2, or minute respiratory acidosis. Someone with COPD is driven by a drop in oxygen, or what is known as a hypoxic drive. The most obvious example is smokers; they constantly are in a state of hypercarbia, but it is when their oxygen level drops that they breath; not when they take a puff of that cigarette. The interesting thing is that healthy people have a PaO2 of 96-100%; people with COPD have a PaO2 between 90-95%. It is not until someone with COPD has a PaO2 of below 90% (est.) that their body is driven to breath. Keep in mind a healthy person PaCo2 is between 35-45 mmHg. A person with COPD has a PaCo2 of between 50-60mmHg, usually at the higher end.

As I am typing this theory, lots of ideas are running through my head. I cant help but think of a new breakthrough in emergency medicine that is having us focus in more on capnography, as opposed to oxygen saturation levels. The reason for this being that oxygen saturation level is only helpful if it is low; but a person could still have a relatively high PaO2 and still be acidotic. Both, obviously nearly impossible to test for on a fish but very telling in humans. If you can bare with me here as I type through this you might be able to add your imput which i would be very interested to hear. A fish in an aquarium with an acceptable oxygen saturation level might gill at a normal rate. Now if you take that same fish and stick in a tank with a much lower oxygen saturation level, it would make sense that the fish would gill at a faster rate, in order to compensate for the lack of oxygen. The purpose of this obviously to oxygenate itself, and off gas the Co2 in the blood stream to avoid a state of acidosis. But this fish cant hyperventilate forever, obviously, or it would die. So does this fish then switch to a hypoxic driven respiratory system where it becomes use to a higher level of Co2 and a lower level of O2?

I wonder if you took a fish out of a very very low oxygen saturated tank, that appeared to be doing relatively well, and put it into a tank with an extremely high o2 sat level tank, if it would survive. If this were the case, that fish did develop COPD than it would take several days to see an outcome. It is a taboo in a hospital setting to put someone with COPD on supplemental oxygen over a long period of time as it does knock out their hypoxic drive. Their o2 level remain elevated and their is nothing driving them to breath. Could the same thing be happening to our fish when we put them in tanks with lower oxygen levels?

I apologize for the lack of structure in this "journal" but like i stated earlier it was something that hit me right away and i just had to jot down all of these ideas. I suppose the main issue that i would like to infer is if it is the Co2 levels in fish we should be more concerned about, not the o2.

Tony

Quarantine tank - dual purpose

Hesham — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:07:20 GMT

Hi,

I'm setting up a 20 gallon long quarantine tank next to my large reef and have decided to run this tank as a dual purpose tank - quarantine tank and additional refugium for the main tank.

When the tank is run as quarantine tank, fresh s/w would be fed through slowly continuously form either the main tank (return water from a continuous water exchange) or from my s/w reservoir and then overflow into a floor drain. That is the filtration plan for the moment.

When the tank is run as an additional refugium, it would be fed from the main sump (strong flow) and the return would be back to the sump. I also have an upper refugium (pod factory) as well as a sump level refugium (plant factory). The upper and sump level refugium would never be used for quarantine.

So, I would like to include a deep sand bed and possibly some permanent algae or plants (mangroves) in the quarantine tank. My concern is that when the tank is run as quarantine tank, any medications I may use would build up in the deep sand bed or permanent plants and then be later released into the main tank when this tank is run as a refugium.

I would not use any copper based medications in this quarantine tank. I am willing to lose pods and zooplankton in the quarantine tank if I must treat an outbreak.

So, are my concerns of the buildup of medicines warranted? Are there any medications that I should avoid in this type of setup? What do you think of the overall approach? I'm hoping to use the most of the space and energy available.

Sincerely,

Hesham

Formalin in system

xroads — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 08:44:42 GMT

Hey Kelly,

I have a mini hatchery going with 6 BB tanks & common sump. I have a couple clowns that have developed a disease. First they started not eating, then last night it looked like their skin was sloughing off. I did a 20 min dip in a formalin bath.

1 other pair in the system is not eating, but look ok. I want to jump on this now. The instructions on the bottle says I can add the formalin to the system. It is a bare system with no LR, inverts or anything. Is this wise?

What is the life cylcle of this disease. I have had these fish for months with no problem until now.

Thank You

Craig

Possible Puffer Parasite Problem?

seamantimmy — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 18:04:31 GMT

Sorry; I couldn't help the alliteration

I have a dogface puffer who has a sore on his side just in front of his anal fin (Apologies to Puffer Queen - that's probably not the correct term, but you get the point). I know from other posts that Puffer Queen is goiing to ask, so here are the stats:

Tank: 55 Hex (we plan to upgrade to 120 gal soon) FOLR tank that has been established for about 3 years. (original fish died of ich a little over two years ago).

We've had "Spotty" for about 5 months.

His/her tank mates include:

- False perc (2 years)

- Yellow Tang (1 year)

- Koran Angel (6 weeks)

- Pajama Cardinal (3 months)

Live rock is a mix of Fiji and Tonga branch (both over two years) - approx 30 pounds

Also have about 10 pounds of lava rock

Substrate is mix of aragonite and crushed coral

I have a fair bit of red slime and green coraline algae.

Filtration: Fluval 404

Water Quality Stats:

NO2: 0 NO3: 0 NH4: 0 SG: 1.020

I haven’t noticed any flashing, but it’s certainly possible – the sore seems to indicate that.

He goes through periods where he doesn’t eat much, but it could just be a phase. It lasts about a day, and then he eats again.

One important thing to note: I live in San Diego and don’t have a water chiller. We don’t have A/C, and it has been pretty hot for the last week or so (90-100 F). We put a Tupperware bowl of ice in the tank during the day and turn off the lights from 12 to 6.

Pictures posted - they're a bit fuzzy, but I tried. The last pic doesn't show his sore, but I thought it was cute

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions are welcome.

Thanks!

Dormant Itch

subsea — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 07:09:41 GMT

In the different stages of marine itch life cycle, is there a stage which can be dormant for several months. I received a shipment of Aquacultured Ocellarrius Clowns from C-Quest. Because of the reliability of this hatchery I put the whole shipment in my outside propagation tanks. After two weeks with no ploblems I moved twenty of the clowns into my display tank. Now, two weeks later, four weeks total I have marine itch.

Also can you comment on aquacultured fish in general, with respect to a pampered livfestyle does does not eleminate the weaker fish and there fore sends somewhat more suseptible to loss fish into the word of chaos. It is just a thought as I have higher loses with aquacultured fish than wildcaught.

Pat C

African mystery disease

JTlanders — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 21:22:34 GMT

Hey guys! Remember me? I used to post here quite often.

I've been keeping fish for over 14 years, but this "mystery disease" as I call it has me stumped. I have a well established aquarium maintenance business and have numerous tanks around town and a "grow out" tank at my house that I have been taking care of for years, all stocked with mixed African Malawi chiclids. All have been fine until now. Something very odd and elusive is going on. Here is a list of Symptoms, or lack thereof.

- Only one fish contracts this "disease" at any given time. It is always just one fish. It only happens once in a while maybe one in about 2 or 3 months.

- They all seem to be doing fine, then one of them dies overnight out of the blue.

- The one and only common symptom they all have is that the tail fins look like they have been cleanly bitten off, but I never witness any aggresion towards just one fish.

- All other fins are fine and intact.

- Not much of a fin left, just a tail "nub" is left behind. There are no other visible symptoms on the body.

- Other fish in the tank appear to be doing just fine.

- This happens in almost all of my maintenance tanks.

- Little to no warning signs except the shortened tail on some of the affected individuals. All of them eat like pigs everyday leading up to the one night where they check out.

Its so odd. I'm guessing it is internal and bacterial. If it were fungal or parasitic there would definitely be other signs on the body.

Any ideas?

Thanks

blotches, lack of pigment or holes in tailfin of a Red Tailed Flasher Wrasse

mysterybox — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:18:16 GMT

My huge Diver's Den MM Leopard Wrasse went to Wrasse Heaven Saturday. That was only after 4 days. On Friday, I tried to treat it with focus/metro. On Saturday, I decided to start treating all fish focus/metro (mixed with food) for 5 days as a precaution.

On Sunday, Paracheilinus rubricaudalis had 3 small blotches on body near dorsal fin (not ich). They were gone yesterday. He also had a small pinhole (maybe just a blotch)on his tail fin. Today, there are even more!

Parems:
Alk 9
Ph 8.2
Salinity 1.026
Temp 78
Phates < 0.024
Trates <0.5
0 ammonia & trites

Food:
At least 2 x's daily
Mixed together
PE Mysys
Hakari Spiruella Brine
Hakari Brine
Table shrimp
Squid
Cyclo-peeze
Selcon
Garlic
Beta-glucan

Now I am on Day 5 of focus/metro

What is it?

Ralph

Hippo Sick???

aba418 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 19:16:24 GMT

My Hippo Tang is constantly rubbing on my LR to the point that his side is turning a faint white color. Is this some sort of disease, if so how should it be treated??

Severe gash in Shark

cjg — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 20:45:00 GMT

My Green wolf eel bit my black tip near his last gill and tore a 3" hole from his gill to around his underside. This is a large gash. I can clearly see inside of my shark. The shark is swimming normally and does not appear to be bleeding. However I don't see a wound like that healing up without being stitched. I know that sharks have an amazing ability to heal however the location and size of the wound couldn't be worse. Just to avoid infection at this point seems impossible due to the size of this gash. I'll do whatever I can to better the chances of survival no matter what. Does anyone have any ideas??? I can send you some pics if you need some. Thank you in advance for any and all help you may provide.

SICK DOGFACE

reefracer8 — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:46:09 GMT

I ahve a sick dogface that has cloudy eyes,loss of appetite and ZERO personality right now. Lays on the bottom and little to no swimming at all. I was told originally by drs to QT and treat with Furanase(sp). Cannot find locally and the tech then referred me here for someone they said here knows it all on this type of issue and would be of the BEST assistance with my fishes well being. Please help me this is my wife's favorite fish of all and I must fix him!!!!!!!!

Need help with algae bloom. PLEASE!!!!!!

morfeo — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 06:11:03 GMT

Hi!!! I'm kind of new in the aquarium hobby.

I have a 15g aquarium with a millennium 2000 (160gph), 1 Koralia Nano (240gph), 1 Maxi-jet 400 (106gph) and for the light I have a Current USA fixture with tow compact lights of 40w each.
And for the livestock I have like 20 pounds of live rock, live sand, 2 clown fishes, 1 Firefish, 1 coral banded shrimp, 2 blues leg craps, 6 snails, 1 sand shifting start.
And for corals I have 2 pieces of polyps from the Zoanthus family, a small family (4 in total) of Green Striped Mushroom, 1 Brain Coral Trachyphyllia, and some frags of Clavularia around the aquarium.

Ok now that you know all I have in my aquarium lets go with the problem. I had the aquarium for about a year already is a very well establish system and all the corals was thriving perfect, but them the
algae problem started it started to cover the corals and suffocate them so I started to use Aquarium Pharmaceuticals Algaefix for the green algae and Dr. G's Red Slime Controller for the red alagae.
But the problem persist so I decided to brake apart the aquarium and cleaned, and it was beautiful, but after two weeks the algae stars to appear again. so I decide to cover the aquarium with a
black peace of fabric to prevent the the light from the windows get in to the aquarium but with no luck. I'm doing water changes every week (about 15% of the water).

Please help me!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Puffer/trigger food???

Nettey — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 12:24:12 GMT

I was looking at videos on utube about puffers and such. and one was feeding crawfish, I thought about trying this, is it safe to feed freshwater crawfish to your marine animals, as a treat every now and then? Also, I am wondering about live foods for puff and my trigger any suggestions?

Alien in tank!

shs1451 — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 11:06:59 GMT

Please help. I have this new thing growing in my reef tank. It's stationery. Looks like a half-dome, irregular surface (kind of like that of a spider crab).
It also has a very small hole in it. Don't know how well you can make it all out in the attached. I'm trying for a better pic. and will post if/when i can get one. I also have another hitchhiker in my tank. It's white, and looks kind of like cauliflower without the tops. Looks like a coral of some kind, but I did not put it there. In a very difficult spot to get a pic.
thanks for all the assistance, in advance!

Wrasse with curving spine

Flame Wrasse — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 11:54:39 GMT

I have a Lineatus wrasse that has developed a curved spine after being in the tank for 3 weeks. He is keeping himself vertical most of the time. He is eating well and has no other symptoms. Should I treat him with anything?

yellowtail blue damsel losing fins....

JTH — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 20:48:32 GMT

and then developed white crude on them. I have gone through 39 pages of this board and have not seen this topic. I have a 65 gal red sea, new but cycled 0 NH3, nitrite, Nitrate. 8.17 PH 1.7-2.8 alk. SG-1.024, 32 ppm. QT less then 2 weeks, duh. I blue damsel I noted lost the clear area of the tail fin then developed white blobs on his tail area, I took him out of the DT to a QT but died 48-72 hours. Tx with hyposalinity instant ocean life guard. Now a 2nd blue damsel is missing part of his right pect fin. I am trying to pull him out of the DT to QT but can't catch the quick sucker. Also in the tank is a false perc and yellow tang, cleaner shrimp, fire shrimp, hermit crabs and turbo and cernith snails.

Golden puffer sick

saltyesq — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:19:27 GMT

He was fine until the other day when I noticed he was not getting up from the sandbed when I walked in the room. Today I noticed him breathing heavily. I began to feed him and he was eating and then all of a sudden he dropped to the sandbed and just sat there breathing heavily. After a few minutes he got up and ate some more and then dropped again.

What is going on?

The tank is well established over 4 years.

Nitrates: 20ppm

All of the other fish look fine except for my maroon clown who has a little fungus infection on the top of his head (it appears to be going away) (the maroon has issues due to being attached by a queen trigger 2 years ago)
I also noticed my Sohal tang scratch a few times against the rock. I have noticed the Sohal scratch maybe once every other day. Today I noticed him scratch 3 times. I have not seen any signs of ich. The only new additions to the tank in the past year are 2 snails and a sea hare (both were in my QT before putting them in my display)

what do I do?

Tank:
210g with 80 or so pounds of LR and 240lbs of LS
bubble king SM 200

Stock list:
sohal tang
purple tang
humu trigger
golden puffer
blue spotted puffer
pearlscale butterfly
regal angel
emperor angel
flagfin angel
singapore angel

Deworm medication

GMaquarium — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:34:39 GMT

I was wondering if pyrantel pamoate would work on fish as antiworm and fluke medication. I have been thinking of testing this out, just thinking if anyone used it.

Tennenti Tang emergency

Sherri — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 16:24:40 GMT

I bought this guy from a LFS on Friday, he was a bit skinny but was swimming fine and looking okay. Bought a bristletooth too. Both have been in QT. The bristletooth is fine. The tennenti is struggling. Do not know if he will make it. He goes though Qt with the LFS so has been treated with copper and prazi. Any suggestions? He is barely swimming, does not appear to be eating, and looks white around the gills -- not like ich -- just discolored. I am afraid he might be a goner. I think I have some maracyn 2 -- I could put him in a ten gallon and treat him but don't really know what is wrong with him. Help????/

my betta has a scratch, should i treat it?

p3rla — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:44:18 GMT

i have a betta named rosita and my grandparents recently brought me a shell so she could go to sleep in there whenever she wanted to.

the problem is that rosita likes to swim through small spaces and i saw her one day trying to fit through a really small gap between the shell and the wall of the tank. the space was too small and there was no way through so she was stuck. i panicked and went to go get the net to move the shell and set her free.

when i came back, she was out of the gap and swimming happily.

i thought things were ok you know, but the next day i noticed she had one of her scales looking weird.

i realized that maybe she had scrathed herself while trying to get out.

i don't know if i should treat it with something or just let it be. i don't want her to get an infection or something.

please someone help, i don't want my little one to get sick!

fish diet check

saltyesq — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 12:41:12 GMT

I feed a full sheet of nori every morning
then every evening I feed either 6 cubes of formula 1 or 2, angelfish formula or mysis.
Then once a week I feed spectrum and danichi pellets soaked for an hour (so it is nice and soft for the fish) in marine zoe and zoecon.

How is this feeding for my fish?

Stock list:
golden puffer
humu trigger
blue spot puffer
regal angel
singapore angel
emperor angel
flagfin angel
purple tang
sohal tang

Need hepl with golden puffer ASAP!!!!

Triggerfreak — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:58:51 GMT

My golden was attacked be my guinea fowel puffer and now i think he has sucked in air and needs help.No damage just wants to either lay or float and be pushed around the tank by the water movement.He is also breathing very heavy, maybe do to me trying to burp him.I tried burping him but it did not work.Is there any thing else i can do.need help ASAP.

Garlic

charlesr1958 — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 23:11:10 GMT

While in a discussion with others about the use of Garlic, this came up and thought it worthy to share.

OK I'm a no garlic for marine fish person.

Why?

Well firstly let me give you a little background on where I’m coming from, I’m a fish disease research scientist and I specialize in fish vaccination and ectoparasite infections in fish. I donl;t work for sell or am I in anyway assciated with commerical fish foods retail. My research laboratory has carried out many trials for fish feed manufactures on garlic, both as an appetite stimulator, immunostimulant and white spot “cure” and I shall link to some of this work publishes on UR and in the scientific literature.

So why not use garlic in marine fish diets.

1 Long term heart and liver lesions

Terrestrial plant lipids are well known to cause heart and liver lesions in marine fish. The problem with feeding terrestrial plant oils (not just garlic but any terrestrial plant oil) to reef fish is due the nature of the lipid the fish do not possess the enzymes to digest them correctly and this leads to fatty deposits and serious pathological changes in the heart and liver of fish that are fed these lipids. Although these are not instantly fatal they cause chronic change to these organs and long term deterioration in the health of the fish. Granted much of this his work is done on farmed fish, but it is a well known phenomena and here are some of the research papers that detail this problem.

AH, Sargent JR, Thompson KD 1993[/font]
Terrestrial and fish oils affect phospholipid fatty acid composition, development of cardiac lesions, phospholipase activity and eicosanoid production in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar).
Prostaglandins Leukot Essent Fatty Acids. 49(3):665-73

AH, Park MT, Sargent JR.1991.
High dietary linoleic acid affects the fatty acid compositions of individual phospholipids from tissues of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar): association with stress susceptibility and cardiac lesion.
J Nutr. 121((IMG:style_emoticons/default/icon_cool.gif) :1163-72

J. Gordon Bell2, John McEvoy3, Douglas R. Tocher, Fiona McGhee, Patrick J. Campbell* and John R. Sargent 2004
Replacement of Fish Oil with Rapeseed Oil in Diets of Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) Affects Tissue Lipid Compositions and Hepatocyte Fatty Acid Metabolism
The American Society for Nutritional Sciences

J.G. Bell1, D.R. Tocher1, B.M. Farndale1, A.H. McVicar2 and J.R. Sargent1 1999
Effects of essential fatty acid-deficient diets on growth, mortality, tissue histopathology and fatty acid compositions in juvenile turbot (Scophthalmus maximus)
Journal Fish Physiology and Biochemistry 1573-5168 Volume 20, Number 3 p263-277

SL Seierstad, TT Poppe, EO Koppang, A Svindland, G 2005
Influence of dietary lipid composition on cardiac pathology in farmed Atlantic salmon, Salmo salar L
Journal of Fish Diseases.

These scientific journals detail the pathology and chronic changes die to these lipids (there are many more) but there aren’t any on seahorse, mainly as they are not a major farmed species or laboratory model, however if you apply the precautionary principal to your fish (in the same way it is applied to Humans) then you wouldn’t feed your marine fish diets containing terrestrial lipids. This has a human health comparison with Trans fats, very useful in making vegetable oils butter like so common in vegetable spreads and thought to be harmless until it turns out they cause liver tumors in rats and mice and probably in humans too. So if this evidence is good enough to ban trans fats in foods then the much stronger data in fish should be good enough to ensure you don’t feed terrestrial oils to reef fish. As I said earlier my lab (which is a fish health lab at a leading University) is often asked to carry out fed trials for feed manufactures and we have carried out many that use garlic or garlic extracts. Unfortunately these are considered to be commercially sensitive and I can tell you the results of using them to control white spot (but suffice to say the companies we have carried out scientific trials have all decided not to launched garlic supplemented feeds). However I did persuade one feed manufacturer to allow me to post the growth data from their feed trial on UR. The results were, well, damning for garlic. Here is the link to the trial from my lab in this thread
http://www.ultimatereef.net/forums/s...d.php?t=230961

Why do manufactures put it in their food, well clearly there is a demand for it and they are supplying that market demanded. It doesn’t mean it good for your fish it just means that they will sell more of their food if people are misinformed and think it is beneficial

Garlic’s Anti-parasitic Properties
The first question I have is please show me a research paper with proper controls where garlic has b been shown to cure parasitic diseases in fish. I’ve just visited web of Science (a major research database) and there are no research papers that do this.
Much of the anti parasitic effects of garlic are attributed to Allacin and most work is done in humans where it may have some benefits if purified allacin is fed, around 400mg kg/bw every day. However in many mammals, (dogs, cats, horses etc) garlic causes a Heinz body anemia which is potentially fatal.

My laboratory has recently carried out a trial using purified allacin in clown fish
I recently picked up a MAEFS grant to look at this and the preliminary results are as follows The experiment was as follows

90 clown fish 40 on allicin, 40 not, 10 time zero samples. 10 sampled per week per group. The dose of allacin is 400ug/kg bw (a level used in humans and about 400ng/fish)

week 0 mean both groups 41.7% Hcrt
week 1 test 34.7% Hcrt control 42.4% Hcrt
week 2 test 18.8% Hcrt Controls 41.% Hcrt
week 2 test 17.2% Hcrt Controls 42.8% Hcrt
week 2 test 17.0% Hcrt Controls 40.6% Hcrt

Hcrt= haematocrit (how many red cells there are in the blood). The histology results on the organs hasn't been processed yet

Clearly allacin causes acute Heinz body anemia in reef fish too

To assume that all fish can eat garlic with no ill effects seems optimistic, when in mammals (which as a group are far more closely related to each other that fish are) it is fine for some e.g. the great apes, but toxic for dogs and cats (see
O. Yamato, E. Kasai, T. Katsura, S. Takahashi, T. Shiota, M. Tajima, M. Yamasaki, and Y. Maede[/font]
Heinz Body Hemolytic Anemia With Eccentrocytosis From Ingestion of Chinese Chive (Allium tuberosum) and Garlic (Allium sativum) in a Dog
J. Am. Anim. Hosp. Assoc., January 1, 2005; 41(1): 68 - 73. (which is just one of 100's of research articles on this in the field))
Each year veterinarians have to treat 100's of cats and dogs for acute anaemia in the UK due to their owners feeding garlic to them. Simply because they read on the the web it does wonders for their immune system, anti worms etc. Yet these potentially fatal supplements are still widely available in the US/UK

http://www.pet-points.com/product_in...roducts_id=557
http://www.mysimon.com/9015-10992_8-29572306.html

3 Well Garlic must be an immunostimulant

In the most recent review if immunostimulants in marine fish

Ian Bricknell& Roy A. Dalmo 2005
The use of immunostimulants in fish larval aquaculture
Fish & Shellfish Immunology 19 (5) 457-472

Garlic is not referred to as an immunostimulant.

To be honest garlic has been discussed many time on UR, if you want to feed your fish garlic then nothing is stopping you, but I doubt you will see a benefit and the evidence strongly suggests you will do short and long term harm to them.

Chuck

Sick F8 Puffer

Feathers&Fins — Sun, 24 May 2009 03:14:46 GMT

Hello. About two nights ago I discovered my F8 was having a buoyancy issue. The lowest portion of his belly kept pulling him upwards, tail first. I have had this Puffer for at least 7yrs. I tried burping him but it is appearant that the gas is trapped in his lower intestinal tract. I skipped feeding him for two days but went ahead and fed him a little last night. He is more than happy to eat but is having a great deal of difficulty keeping himself from floating to the top of the tank.

I have seen this present in two other older Puffers in my care. The symptom was the same -- the sudden development of a floating rump. "Burping" did not help in either of the cases as the gas bubble also appeared to be in the lower intestines. The two other Puffers died within 24 hours of becoming symptomatic. One was an adult brackishT.biocellatus, the other was an adult freshwater T.miurus. Both had been in my care for over 5 years. Right before they died the gas dissipated and they were able to swim normally. Unfortunately, they literally dropped dead within hours of what appeared to be their "recovery". I took a brief look inside the T.miurus and the most notable observation was the presence of sludge in the digestive tract even though it had been over 1wk since its last meal.

Any thoughts as to what the cause of the problem might be? Bacterial infection of the digestive tract?

Assistance is greatly appreciated.

Flagyl / Metronidasol Reef Safe?

Vili_Shark — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 11:39:40 GMT

Hi,

Do you have any experience dosing Flagyl or Metronidasol into a reef tank?

If so what is the reccomended dose?

Thanks in advance.

Swollen lumps on crosshatch trigger.Need Help ASAP!!!

Triggerfreak — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:51:26 GMT

My male crosshatch trigger has been acting weird the last couple days and the wife noticed a lump on him.Don't really know if it is anything but i would like to find out.It is not huge.Just protruding a little and it is right behind his eye above his fin on the side right at the top by his spine.Is looks to be the size of a quarter and only looks like it sticks out maybe 1,16".And is is barly noticable but we can see it.Any Ideas.Should i maybe treat with a medication.Also it is a 210 gallon tank.Could it be a tumor or maybe a swollen organ.

Puffer with ICH

Fish dude — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 07:42:02 GMT

Hey Kelly,
I have a lady in my club that someone told her not to use copper with puffers. True or untrue? If true what should she use? TIA

How much coppersafe to use

sunkisd69 — Fri, 08 May 2009 20:56:41 GMT

Hi I just dveloped ich in my 90 gal. tank. I removed my 6 fish and put them in a 20 gal. quarentine tank. I am using coppersafe and was wondering how many times I have to put the medication in. The bottle said to put in 5ml for every 4 gallons so i did that. Do I have to do it again or is that the only time I have t o add it?

Thanks in advance

Kevin Arruda

QT fish problem

Killerwhale — Fri, 29 May 2009 11:12:35 GMT

Kelly

I need some help. I have had these fish in QT for 3 weeks. Salinity has been at 1.010 for 2 weeks now. I had 5 yellow tangs, a bristle tooth,a tennentii, and the cleaner wrasse. They have all done very well this whole time. I did a 50% water change 2 days ago and another 5 gallon yesterday because I forgot to wash the sponge filter out the day before. I have about 40 gallons in a 55 gallon tank with a hydro sponge V rated for 125 gallons run with a mini jet. I also have a seperate airstone in the tank. Every body looked great last night. When I turned the lights on this morning 2 tangs were dead, everbody breathing very heavy and these brown patches on their sides. It is not as noticable on the yellow tangs but you can kind of get the idea fom the photos what I mean. The yellow tangs also have somewhat of a bloody appearence to their skin almost like vericose veins. The only fish not effected is the cleaner wrasse. I have had this happen another time with 2 other tangs. They made it through QT the salinity had been normal for about 3 weeks and I was just about to add them to the tank when this very thing happened. I have ammonia badges on the tanks to constantly moniter and their has never been a trace. PH is 8.14. I have been feeding new life spectrum pellets the whole time and they have all been eating like pigs. I did feed the anti parasite version (heavy on the garlic) yesterday. I dont know if that is a peice to the puzzle or not but I was feeding that pretty heavy the last time this happened.

Thanks

Damon