Dying Bannerfish - Bacterial Infection?

The friendliest place on the web for anyone with an interest in aquariums or fish keeping!
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.

Ultratank

Aquarium Advice Newbie
Joined
Jun 21, 2017
Messages
5
Hi guys,
2 weeks ago I purchased 3 bannerfish 2 small and one medium size, all looked very healthy but i forgot to ask to see them eat.
A couple days after I put them into my tank one of the small ones developed a cloudy patch on its body fin (not the tail), each day it seemed to get larger until around the third day it appeared the actual body of the fish under where this cloud started was infected (missing scales and redness unfortunately didn't take pictures), by this point the fish was obviously stressed, breathing fast, annoying the other bannerfish and the next morning it was dead with what looked like an even larger area of missing scales and redness.

Now a week on the medium size bannerfish developed missing scales and redness on the side of its body just above the lower fins ( see pictures) and I am thinking what the other bannerfish had has been passed onto this fish ? And only 3 days later this fish had died as well.

Now I only have one of the small bannerfish left and i am worried that it too will catch this infection. It has looked fine until this morning where I've noticed the tiniest patch of white on his body which I'm really hoping is not the same as the other fish , but I think it may be. I also noticed for the first time it flashing on the rocks the other fish did not do this.( no signs of whitespot at all however)
I should note that the first small fish that died was eating but not heaps, the medium size was eating pellets fine but this last one I haven't seen eat much I've tried nori, pellets, flakes and marinara/greens mix I made.
My tank is 450 gallons
No other fish in there other than this last bannerfish as it used to be a predator tank home to only one large grouper which i moved on to someone else with a larger tank.
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate i haven't checked as I've lost my test kit for it but when I checked at fish store 2 weeks ago it was 0.
Never really had a problem with those parameters at all really as I have a lot of live rock, bio balls, marine pure bags, 2 canister filters, an overflow with mesh type filter and polyfilter . Tank has been running for 14 years now.

So I'm hoping that I just bought a sick fish which has passed it onto the other fish.
Does it look like a bacterial infection ?
Can it stay in the water and infect future fish?
Yes I will be looking to set up a hospital tank to try save this last fish.
Let me know what you think the disease is or any advice you can give me on addressing it (melafix?)

These pictures are only of the medium sized fish that died, the last one showing the other side of his body and the small white patch it started out with until it grew and became redder.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5020.jpg
    IMG_5020.jpg
    158.8 KB · Views: 98
  • IMG_5015.jpg
    IMG_5015.jpg
    254 KB · Views: 83
  • IMG_5021.jpg
    IMG_5021.jpg
    251.9 KB · Views: 106
Did you notice any aggression between the fish? I too would double check your readings. If a store is doing it then maybe another store to double check. I want to be able to rule that part out.
 
Last edited:
No aggression between them they usually swim together.
Only on the first day I brought them in the bigger one would chase the small ones but nothing at all after that.
Yeah I'll sort out another reading to make sure.
 
Looks like the other one is getting it now aswell.
One of his eyes have gone cloudy as well which is making me think maybe it's a water quality issue since my skimmer hasn't been running for a couple weeks due to a broken pump.
My sera ammonia kit still says ammonia 0
And my aquasonic nitrite says 0 as well.
Lost my nitrate kit.
Maybe these kits are no good.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5047.jpg
    IMG_5047.jpg
    192 KB · Views: 72
I don't know what aquasonic is when it comes to test kits. I'd suggest getting your skimmer back on line so those nutrients are exported before they have a chance to hit the nitrate cycle.
I'd do large water changes to assist with whatever is going on. I'm not sure any type of treatment at this point in a hospital tank would help with what is going on, simply as you'd have another tank to do water changes on and not knowing 100% of what the issue is.
 
So my salifert test kits came in today and these were the results
Ammonia I believe is 0 could be <0.15 judge for yourself as it was just a cloudy white no yellow.
Nitrite was 0
Nitrate looked to be between 50-25 ppm.

So I wonder if it was these higher nitrates that killed the fish.
Skimmer part should be in this week I'll let it run for a couple days and re test before I add any fish. Will get a couple chromis to make sure everything is ok before I get more fish.
 

Attachments

  • IMG_5065.jpg
    IMG_5065.jpg
    126.3 KB · Views: 63
  • IMG_5066.jpg
    IMG_5066.jpg
    226.8 KB · Views: 61
Question ? If you have a 450 gal show tank why don't you have a quarantine tank? Why would you put any fish in a main tank before you quarantine a fish first. This is one of things I just don't understand. Can spend hundreds or thousands on a system and people cant set up a cheap quarantine tank. One of the biggest problems are new fish infecting established fish. Every fish you buy is under stress. Most were taken from the ocean. tanked at a supplier. Shipped to a distributer 24 to 48 hrs in shipping. depending on where the fish was brokered into usualy NewYork or L.A. depending on destination they were partialy water changed oxigenated if the broker is good. then shipped to the distributer. Then the fish is shipped again to the fish store. there are a lots of fish stores that don't have a clue what there doing with saltwater fish. Mainly the big chain stores . I catch my own fish and they are stressed and its only 10 to 20 min to tank. I have 11 tanks no fish gets in until it goes through Quarantine first no less than 6 weeks.
 
Completely understand what your saying but I'm probably a minority and have had good luck i suppose over the years with buying from reputable/ usually the same fish store that quarantines there fish for a week.
However for the last 6-7 years my tank has been a predator tank with only a couple fish, these types of fish are very hardy and a quarantine tank is not necessary in MY experience, others may beg to differ.
 
Sorry to hear about your banner fish . Not a fish you want to loose , this is why many of us use a qt so if things like you encountered arise you can treat before introducing to your main tank . it also helps preventing any of your other fish to contract any symptoms , it also gives you the opportunity to observe the new fish .
for the longest time I never QT until I lost all my stock due to one sick fish I got the domino effect . now QT is a must every new comer is QT 7/10 days before introducing to the main tank. Again sorry about your lose ,
 
I'm always on the fringe when it comes to this topic. A QT tank is always best practice, but I've never had room for one. I know a healthy looking fish and go for broke. Just isn't something everyone can manage, like myself.
I don't think the nitrates are the downfall of your fish. They are most likely the end result of the fish decomposing during this time along with feeding.
I think this is most likely losses from aggression and the stress that followed.
 
Back
Top Bottom