Mike&Terry
Wrasses, Angels, & Tangs, Oh My!
@Humblefish
A little background - or should I say a LOT of background:
I received a pair of C. earlei on August 26th. Since the seller had kept the two in hypo for a couple of weeks, I decided to continue the treatment upon arrival and matched the salinity of the water they arrived in (1.009).
The first thing I noticed upon acclimation, was that the larger of the two wrasses was swimming with his head up/tail down a bit and his swimming in general just didn't look quite right to me. I immediately notified the seller. Fast forward four days, and it became quite obvious that the fish had swim bladder damage due to improper decompression. Here's a video from August 30th:
After viewing the video and talking with the wholesaler, the seller agreed this was an obvious collection issue and the outcome for this type of injury is, with very rare exceptions, quite dismal.
Being the good "Fish Mom" that I am, I began target feeding the little guy. His condition continued to deteriorate over the next couple of days to the point that the only way to get food into him was to hand feed small pieces of LRS Reef Frenzy. He was expending huge amounts of energy trying to swim and not taking in much food, so I decided to add small amounts of vitamin B complex and Selcon to the tank water and after a week of multiple hand feedings a day, his swimming became less erratic and he was able to gain enough control to go after food in the water column much of the time. I continued to do some hand feedings inter-mixed with spot feeding.
Of course, the smaller wrasse started to pick on him (survival of the fittest) and I had to partition off the tank. I've also slowly raised the salinity - really had to go slow the first two weeks (half a point - for example: 1.009 to 1.0095 over two days) because my little guy was having a tough time with the osmotic change. The salinity is currently at 1.023.
He has improved considerably over the past few weeks. He is still a weak swimmer - lists to the right, sometimes will do a 360 twirl, uses his tail to push off, but he's mostly upright and can eat out of the water column - that in itself is pretty miraculous! And while he will never be strong enough to live in our reef, I'm hoping he can live out his remaining life in either our refugium or in my 30g nano by himself. We shall see!
Now to get to my question...
About two weeks ago, I noticed an abrasion under his right gill. I had hoped it would heal up on it's own, but after a few days, it became obvious that treatment was needed. I have treated him with one full round of Kanaplex (6 days). The wound has not completely healed, but is close. Should I administer another round to be safe? And is it safe to do back to back treatments? Thanks in advance for any advice!
-Terry
A little background - or should I say a LOT of background:
I received a pair of C. earlei on August 26th. Since the seller had kept the two in hypo for a couple of weeks, I decided to continue the treatment upon arrival and matched the salinity of the water they arrived in (1.009).
The first thing I noticed upon acclimation, was that the larger of the two wrasses was swimming with his head up/tail down a bit and his swimming in general just didn't look quite right to me. I immediately notified the seller. Fast forward four days, and it became quite obvious that the fish had swim bladder damage due to improper decompression. Here's a video from August 30th:
After viewing the video and talking with the wholesaler, the seller agreed this was an obvious collection issue and the outcome for this type of injury is, with very rare exceptions, quite dismal.
Being the good "Fish Mom" that I am, I began target feeding the little guy. His condition continued to deteriorate over the next couple of days to the point that the only way to get food into him was to hand feed small pieces of LRS Reef Frenzy. He was expending huge amounts of energy trying to swim and not taking in much food, so I decided to add small amounts of vitamin B complex and Selcon to the tank water and after a week of multiple hand feedings a day, his swimming became less erratic and he was able to gain enough control to go after food in the water column much of the time. I continued to do some hand feedings inter-mixed with spot feeding.
Of course, the smaller wrasse started to pick on him (survival of the fittest) and I had to partition off the tank. I've also slowly raised the salinity - really had to go slow the first two weeks (half a point - for example: 1.009 to 1.0095 over two days) because my little guy was having a tough time with the osmotic change. The salinity is currently at 1.023.
He has improved considerably over the past few weeks. He is still a weak swimmer - lists to the right, sometimes will do a 360 twirl, uses his tail to push off, but he's mostly upright and can eat out of the water column - that in itself is pretty miraculous! And while he will never be strong enough to live in our reef, I'm hoping he can live out his remaining life in either our refugium or in my 30g nano by himself. We shall see!
Now to get to my question...
About two weeks ago, I noticed an abrasion under his right gill. I had hoped it would heal up on it's own, but after a few days, it became obvious that treatment was needed. I have treated him with one full round of Kanaplex (6 days). The wound has not completely healed, but is close. Should I administer another round to be safe? And is it safe to do back to back treatments? Thanks in advance for any advice!
-Terry
