Tail of multiple fish rotting

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Mebbid

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Mar 1, 2013
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Michigan USA
I just moved my salt tank over to my new house and my fish came down with a very nasty infection. Yesterday i noticed the clowns tail was a different color, and today both my clown and coral beauty angel have almost entirely lost their tails.

I dont have a lot of hope that the infection can be controlled at this point, but i would like some ideas on what it is and if theres any medications i can try.

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This is gnarly man, sorry to see it happening. Maybe someone has some insight?

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I'm not a disease expert, but you need a hospital tank set up ASAP. That is not good and fast progressing. It will need treated with something like furan to see if it can be nipped in the butt quickly as once fin rot progresses too far there isn't much hope after that.
 
I would think there is something different in the water [source] or you unleashed a pest[mantis shrimp IE] from your rock in the move?
Did you bring old water with you or make new when you moved?
Look into herbtanna for a quick safe treatment...[like bactine for salt water fish]..
 
That does look like it was physically removed ?? Especially considering the time frame and circumstance.
If it is predation would leaving a night light on help? I'm just thinking out loud here, no real idea, just trying to help;)
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It definitely looks like some type of bacterial infection in which if the Herbtanna ( I have no experience with this product but if it works like Bactine, it might help) doesn't work and the fish are still alive, Furazone green ( Furan 2) might be your best option in a hospital tank.
The only thing I would do for starters in the hospital tank that is different than most times is to use water from your tank at first then use new water for the water changes during medication time. I have found that with bacterial infections of this severity, introducing the fish to too much new water disrupts their cellular balance and so you want to change it gradually and not drastically.

I will say that it does not look good for these fish however, I have seen fish in the wild with huge parts of their body missing and they were still swimming with their school so I would not toss in the towel just yet. (y)
Hope this helps.
 
I would think there is something different in the water [source] or you unleashed a pest[mantis shrimp IE] from your rock in the move?
Did you bring old water with you or make new when you moved?
Look into herbtanna for a quick safe treatment...[like bactine for salt water fish]..
I made new water
That does look like it was physically removed ?? Especially considering the time frame and circumstance.
If it is predation would leaving a night light on help? I'm just thinking out loud here, no real idea, just trying to help;)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G891A using Aquarium Advice mobile app
I havent added new live rock to my tank in 3 years or so and its gone through multiple moves, it would be surprising if there was a predator in the tank. The only other tank mates are a few gobies and a blenny.
 
It definitely looks like some type of bacterial infection in which if the Herbtanna ( I have no experience with this product but if it works like Bactine, it might help) doesn't work and the fish are still alive, Furazone green ( Furan 2) might be your best option in a hospital tank.
The only thing I would do for starters in the hospital tank that is different than most times is to use water from your tank at first then use new water for the water changes during medication time. I have found that with bacterial infections of this severity, introducing the fish to too much new water disrupts their cellular balance and so you want to change it gradually and not drastically.

I will say that it does not look good for these fish however, I have seen fish in the wild with huge parts of their body missing and they were still swimming with their school so I would not toss in the towel just yet. (y)
Hope this helps.

I'm not a disease expert, but you need a hospital tank set up ASAP. That is not good and fast progressing. It will need treated with something like furan to see if it can be nipped in the butt quickly as once fin rot progresses too far there isn't much hope after that.
Thanks for the advice guys, i got them into a hospital tank yesterday. I used water from the tank to get it set up. I couldnt find any of the other medications in short notice so had to go with furan 2.

As for a status update on the fish: The clown apparently doesnt care. The cottony growth on him is already gone and he is acting normally (minus some difficultu swimming). I dont have high hopes for the coral beauty however :(
 
Furan 2 is probably your best bet in this situation. Either way, you've hospitalized and QT'd fish before so it is all in good hands at this point. Good luck.
 
Thanks for the advice guys, i got them into a hospital tank yesterday. I used water from the tank to get it set up. I couldnt find any of the other medications in short notice so had to go with furan 2.

As for a status update on the fish: The clown apparently doesnt care. The cottony growth on him is already gone and he is acting normally (minus some difficultu swimming). I dont have high hopes for the coral beauty however :(
The good news is that Furan 2 works on both gram - and gram + bacteria and fungus so if that doesn't work, you will need to really get a high powered more gram specific med. Let's hope it doesn't come to that. ;) (y)
 
wow never saw fin rot that progressed that fast , hope you can get things back on track .
we'll keep thinking of these little guys
 
wow never saw fin rot that progressed that fast , hope you can get things back on track .
we'll keep thinking of these little guys
Yeah, its rough... That clown was the first salt water fish i got :(

With as bad as the fin rot is i dont know if their tails will ever grow back. I've decided that if my clown (or hopefully both of them) survive and their tails dont grow back i will set up a low flow LPS 29g hex tank i have sitting around just for them because it just wouldnt be right to put them back in my regular display thats set up for sps with as fast as the flow is in it. They can still get around surprisingly well for not having tails.
 
As long as the actual peduncle isn't overly damaged, I've had fish regrow entire tails after infection. The key is to save as much of the tail as you can and be patient because it will take quite a while to heal.
Saltwater is highly corrosive even to fish and when a disease like a bacterial infection strikes, it can be devastating quickly. :(
 
Well its safe to say that my clownfish is doing fine through this ordeal, sadly my coral beauty passed though :(
 
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