Lyretail Anthias & Copperbanded Butterfly Ailment

[clexman]

Here's my problem...

I have had 1.3 lyretail anthias for two weeks in my main tank. They all eat anything I throw in the tank. Mysis, brine and blood worms all soaked in garlic. About 5 days ago I noticed that one of the females looked a bit beat up. I've never seen any of the fish harassing each other, with the exception of the odd, short chase by the male every now and then. Today, that female looks like it's been to war and the male is showing the same signs too. I've included a picture of the sick male, female and a healthy female for comparison. Their scales seem to be ruffled and stick out a bit.

On another note, I thought my CBB only had ich until today. Now the spots look too big to be ich. He was introduced to the main tank at the same time as the anthias.

The day after the fish were put in the tank, all anthias and the CBB showed signs of ich. After a failed effort to remove them from the tank to put them into qt without tearing down the tank, I started treatment of the entire tank with "STOP Parasites," for 5 days (recommended dosage on bottle). The ich mostly went away, but the spots on the CBB's tail didn't seem affected.

I have now been treating the tank with "Kick Ich," for 4 days. The ich spots are gone from all the fish, but now I have the other problems.

Help me please! What's wrong with my fish or my setup?

What treatment should i follow?

After reading the "Read This First" note, here are my tank details.

SG 1.025
Ammonia 0
Nitrite .3
Nitrate 10
PH 8.3
Temp 77 (does not fluctuate)
520 watt PC lights

System: 2 months old
90g (eventual reef, just fowlr for now)
23g sump (about 13g filled)
6.5g refugium

Fish:
1.3 Lyretail Anthias
1 CBB
9 Blue Green Chromis
1 Blue spot Jawfish
1 Orange striped prawn goby
1 red/orange spotted blenny

 

[steve-s]

The Anthias looks like it's affected by Uronema, the Bfly has either Lympho or a bacterial infection can't tell. I don't see any signs of C. irritans.

Does the Bfly have a redish hue on it's lateral sides or is that just the lighting?

The Uronema can be treated with a series of Formalin dips or a QT stint with Nitrofurazone.

Cheers
Steve

 

[Brenden]

These fish by chance come from liveaquaria?

 

[clexman]

I checked the symptoms for Uronema and while it's dead on for the colors fading and the scales sticking out, our sick anthias aren't scratching or gasping for air. Their breathing seems normal as does their appetite. Does the scratching and gasping happen in later stages of this type of infection?

From the description of Lympho it does indeed sound exactly what our CBB has right now. The reddish hue was just on the picture -- the fish doesn't have it. He is eating tons of live worms and has been putting on weight so with the garlic and Selcon we have been dosing with the food hopefully he will fight it off.

If we do the formalin dips on the anthias, can we use Quick Cure? We have a bottle at home, and it's a 99% formalin/1% malachite green solution. I read for formalin dips to do 20 drops per gallon for 45 min. but I want to check with the folks on the board here whether that is indeed the correct dosage.

Oh, and no, we didn't get the fish from LiveAquaria, but all the hermits, snails and live rock were purchased from them and eTropicals. The fish were purchased from two reputable LFS.

Thanks for the advice!

 

[steve-s]

I checked the symptoms for Uronema and while it's dead on for the colors fading and the scales sticking out, our sick anthias aren't scratching or gasping for air. Their breathing seems normal as does their appetite. Does the scratching and gasping happen in later stages of this type of infection?

Those two symtoms would be in the latter part of progression, they are also indicitive of many parasite maladies so not a conclusive diagnostic tool. The scales on end and the whitish area are.

From the description of Lympho it does indeed sound exactly what our CBB has right now. The reddish hue was just on the picture -- the fish doesn't have it. He is eating tons of live worms and has been putting on weight so with the garlic and Selcon we have been dosing with the food hopefully he will fight it off.

Plenty of water changes and foods augmented with Beta Glucan will also help.

If we do the formalin dips on the anthias, can we use Quick Cure? We have a bottle at home, and it's a 99% formalin/1% malachite green solution. I read for formalin dips to do 20 drops per gallon for 45 min. but I want to check with the folks on the board here whether that is indeed the correct dosage.

Formalin is a 37% solution so use 6½ drops per gallon instead with the Quick Cure. ie 7 drops for a one gal bath or 13 drops for a 2 gal bath. Make sure you use SW, not fresh and the water is well areated before hand. Do not add the fish until the cloudiness clears, keep aerating during the treatment and be sure the temp stays well below 80°, preferabley no higher than 78°. Allow them to stay in the bath for 30-60 minutes unless severly stressed. Treat for a series of three baths every third day. You will most likely see a dramatic improvement after the first dip. Be sure they are placed in a clean SW bath before placing in a QT. Do not put them back in the main, too hard to catch and too disruptive to the other tank mates.

Cheers
Steve