Anthia with ragged tail

[CindyKz]

Hi all. This is my first try with anthias. I have 3 in quarantine with rock and sand. They have been there since 10/3. I noticed last night that the smallest one had a ragged tail. Today the ragged part is gone.
Breathing and eating seem ok. She seems slightly lethargic today but that could be my imagination.

I know anthias bully each other. This one is the smallest and shyest. Spends more time hanging out in the rocks than the other two and tends to split off to the other side of the tank (40B) quite a bit. I have noticed the largest of the three swimming up to the others quite close in a "we all know who's boss here" sort of way that I assumed was dominance behavior. Even though I haven't witnessed any outright fighting I can't rule it out.

Any suggestions? I have meds on hand although my prazi is very expired anything I need to purchase will have to be through Amazon as we are under covid house arrest for another week. It should be pretty easy to catch her for a freshwater dip although I hate to add the stress if aggression is the likely issue.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Do you have the ability to split off the smaller anthias with a tank divider? This is definitely an injury from one of the other anthias. It may or may not be infected, but until you isolate it, there isn't any reason to believe that the bullying won't just escalate. You probably will not see the outright fighting - one bite can start this damage and the chance of you witnessing that split second of activity is very small. In addition, while you are watching your fish, they are busy watching you and the worst aggression may happen when you leave the room.

Jay

 

[CindyKz]

Do you have the ability to split off the smaller anthias with a tank divider? This is definitely an injury from one of the other anthias. It may or may not be infected, but until you isolate it, there isn't any reason to believe that the bullying won't just escalate. You probably will not see the outright fighting - one bite can start this damage and the chance of you witnessing that split second of activity is very small. In addition, while you are watching your fish, they are busy watching you and the worst aggression may happen when you leave the room.

Jay

Thank you so much for replying! Yes I can split the smaller anthias off with some egg crate while in quarantine.

I plan to add more when they become available to me...will that help with the aggression once they move to the DT (180 gal)?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Anthias aggression is difficult to manage. Larger groups help spread out the aggression (5 or more). However, I’ve had issues with squampinnis anthias all turning male , and that leads to increased fighting.
Jay

 

[CindyKz]

Her tail has become noticably red even since I wrote the first post this morning, so I am concerned for infection.

What would be my best choice for an antibiotic?

Thank you again, Cindy

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Antibiotic selection is always a guess, since we can never know what bacteria is involved. Generally, a broad spectrum antibiotic, effective against gram negative bacteria is the best choice. Kanaplex, Maracyn 2, Neoplex and Furan-2 would all be possibilities. Always monitor your ammonia level when dosing antibiotics, as sometime the biofilter is affected.

Jay

 

[CindyKz]

Antibiotic selection is always a guess, since we can never know what bacteria is involved. Generally, a broad spectrum antibiotic, effective against gram negative bacteria is the best choice. Kanaplex, Maracyn 2, Neoplex and Furan-2 would all be possibilities. Always monitor your ammonia level when dosing antibiotics, as sometime the biofilter is affected.

Jay

I have some Furan 2 on hand so I'll go with that, thank you again!

 

[CindyKz]

I separated the 3 anthias yesterday with a screen in the middle of the tank and started Furan 2.

Since I separated them and rearranged the rocks a bit, they have all been acting weird. The 2 "healthy" anthias are in the left side of the tank. One has been hiding almost all of the time but does come out to eat. The largest has taken up this odd vertical position (see attached photo).

The one with the ragged tail is alone on the right. She hasn't eaten and the redness has spread to her body in patches.

They were all behaving normally for anthias prior to me re-arranging I think - for the most part hanging out in a group with the exception of the small one going off her own sometimes as I described above. Am I just dealing with the stress of separating them and rearranging here, or possibly worse? Or is this normal anthias behavior?

Thanks for any help -

Cindy

 

[CindyKz]

The first anthias passed yesterday morning shortly after I wrote the above posts. I was able to get some amatuer skin scrapings and gill biopsies just a couple of minutes after she passed. I didn't see anything suspicious - nothing moving at all for that matter.

Now the second smallest anthias has a red tail just like the first did. I'm beginning to think disease process despite my negative microscope findings.

Any suggestions from anyone? Obviously I'm concerned for uronema although the presentation doesn't seem to be textbook (tail vs. body).

Thanks again for any assistance,

Cindy