New wrasse has a white fuzzy spot

[bpeitzke]

We got a new fish last weekend, a lovely wrasse that I think is a female or sub-dominant male Lineatus Fairy Wrasse. It's a small fish, about 2.5", and looks very healthy and is active, but tonight I noticed it has a small white fuzzy patch on its right side. I wonder if anyone has any suggestions on treating this.

Tank is 65-gal tall, with lots of LR and a 2-3" sand bed; has been up about 6 weeks; with 2 MaxiJet 1200 PH's, one Hydor Koralia #2, and a CPR Bak-Pak Dual-Pak skimmer, and a Current Dual Satellite 30" fluorescent light system.

Grateful for any advice.

Bob Peitzke
Pacific Palisades, CA

[cmor1701d]

Do you have a QT/hospital tank you can set up?
Can you post a photo of the affected area.

It could be a bacterial infection that may need to be treated with antibiotics in a QT tank.

I would start by preparing PWC of 20% for the main tank just to help with water parameters.

Please post all of the water parameters that you can test for. Please post actual numbers.

What other live stock is in the tank?
How many pounds of LR do you have?
How did you cycle the tank?

[bpeitzke]

I do think it may have been due to bio-load. I got behind on PWC's on this new tank, and had a lot of purple algae (?). I've started changing ~ 20% every weekend. Tank has all the LR it has room for - don't know total weight, as we bought in small batches over time, but probably > 2lb/gal. Most of the LR (all Fiji) came out of the old 36-gal tank. The sand was new, but when I set up a transition tank (30-gal plastic tub) I seeded the new sand with bundles of live CC from old tank, tossed in a couple of shrimp bits, and cycled it. Other fish are 6" speckled green puffer (eats a lot), 4" yellow tang, 3" zebra damsel. I think I'd been overfeeding too, and have cut back. I'll try to check water parameters again tonight. Don't have a QT tank now.

[melosu58]

Moved to sick fish forum. Read these as I`m wondering if it might be a fungal problem. I have used pimafix before for fungal problems and it worked but you`ll need to QT the fish first and provide excellent water conditions.

Fungal Infections in Fish

[bpeitzke]

I don't have a QT tank yet, and doubt I could catch the wrasse anyway, without removing all the LR to a holding tank I don't have set up. Couldn't I just put the fungicide in the main tank?

The spot is a little larger today - apparently getting worse, though the wrasse is still active and seems healthy other than this. I'll do another PWC as soon as I'm able.

Appreciate any suggestions.

[cmor1701d]

Never ever treat in the main tank. There are many ways and tricks to catching a fish. Sometimes you do need to remove all the rock (last resort).

You should be setting up a QT of some sort. 10 gallon tank or tote. Just somewhere to isolate that fish for treatment.

Please read the artciles on QT and how to set one up.

In hte meantime continue with daily 20% - 30% pwc's. That may help.

[bpeitzke]

I'll do the PWC's for now and hope for the best.

I'll need to figure something out for a QT tank. It's not just getting a small tank, but finding a place to keep it in our small house.

Open question is need for cannister or sump filter to supplement protein skimmer. Majority consensus seemed to be not, but might in light of puffer's bio-load - eats more than 10 fish.

Thanks.

- Bob

[melosu58]

The only thing you can do in the main is what Cmor recommended and that`s plenty of PWC`s. You need to have the best water parameters possible

[cmor1701d]

IMO you are overstocked for that size tank in such a short period of time. You should probably be doing 10% daily water changes to help get water parameters where they need to be. That worked for me when I had a similar situation with my FoxFace Lo a year ago. The puffer is not helping the problem either.

Once you get the tank back to where it should be (water parameter wise) you can decide on getting a canister filter to help with the bioload. I guess snails are out of the question to help with the sand bed and excess food.