Anthias deaths after a year.

[rocket098]

Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen as I cannot explain what’s going on. I have had a pair of square backs and 3 lyretails for about a year now. Last week all of a sudden the anthias start dying one by one. Over 8 days all are dead. Every day or two I come home to find another one dead. The whole time they are out swimming and eating food. I have had these for almost a year and out of nowhere this happened. All other fish are fine including tangs, chromis, fox faces and so on. Tank is a 430 and the only change that I made was adding focus and kanoplex to frozen food that I made because my trigger has pop eye. Any help or insight appropriated.

 

[Aframereef]

That seems fast but will tell my story anyway. I had a school of 5 or 6 and one by one the school would kill off the weakest until like only the male was left. Every few months I lost a fish.

 

[Weeb]

Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen as I cannot explain what’s going on. I have had a pair of square backs and 3 lyretails for about a year now. Last week all of a sudden the anthias start dying one by one. Over 8 days all are dead. Every day or two I come home to find another one dead. The whole time they are out swimming and eating food. I have had these for almost a year and out of nowhere this happened. All other fish are fine including tangs, chromis, fox faces and so on. Tank is a 430 and the only change that I made was adding focus and kanoplex to frozen food that I made because my trigger has pop eye. Any help or insight appropriated.

You added the antibiotic to the food and then to the DT? The trigger currently has or had popeye? Popeye is a bacterial problem. The trigger may have been injured or in a fight maybe. Maybe a large bloom of bacteria in the DT? However, Kanoflex is absorbed through the skin of the fish and really not intended or needed to be ingested. Whereas Focus is a food additive for internal bacterial/fungal problems. Not sure how these may affect the nitrifying bacteria.

You make your own frozen food, or did I misunderstand? What is in it? Any overfeeding?

Check all water quality parameters including ammonia and nitrites. Last water change? How much? How often?

Much of the time, with proper water quality and nutrition, the fish will heal (popeye) -- sometimes completely, sometime with a residual appearance. How often do you feed? These anthias fish are used to eating throughout the day -- small quantities, often. Tank size is good -- they like a lot of space.

What other fish are in the DT other than those you listed?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Just trying to see if anyone else had this happen as I cannot explain what’s going on. I have had a pair of square backs and 3 lyretails for about a year now. Last week all of a sudden the anthias start dying one by one. Over 8 days all are dead. Every day or two I come home to find another one dead. The whole time they are out swimming and eating food. I have had these for almost a year and out of nowhere this happened. All other fish are fine including tangs, chromis, fox faces and so on. Tank is a 430 and the only change that I made was adding focus and kanoplex to frozen food that I made because my trigger has pop eye. Any help or insight appropriated.

Was the Kanaplex in the food before and during the anthias losses? You didn't lose any anthias before dosing that?

I'm suspicious of the Kanaplex, it can cause toxicity in some species, but there is not a comprehensive list for that. Here is the thing - adding antibiotics to Focus and feeding the fish should NEVER be done. The dose is totally uncontrolled. You have no way to know of the fish got too much, not enough, or (rarely) the right amount. The proper oral dose for Kanamycin is 50 mg/ kg of fish body weight daily. I wish this idea wasn't so pervasive in the hobby, but I hear it all the time.

Here is an article I wrote on dosing oral meds properly (not easy to do though!)

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods Jay Hemdal c. 2020 Oral medications are an excellent way to target internal diseases of fishes. Marine fish absorb aquarium water, so in certain cases, they “drink” enough medication from the water to effect a cure. However, freshwater fish actively export...

www.reef2reef.com

One of the other Fish Medics here developed a medicated food calculator:

Fish Weight Calculator / Medicated Fish Food Mix Calculator

If you follow threads on the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis forum, you know that whenever oral medication is the recommended treatment, @Jay Hemdal cautions that achieving the proper dosage is critical to success. He often refers to his article Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods. That...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[rocket098]

Thank you to all. The anthias where all fine until the after I gave the medicated food. The food I make myself according to the many articles online. I only gave one dose because after the first death I stopped being afraid it May be the cause. The weird thing is only the anthias where affected.

 

[rocket098]

i feed these guys like 3-4 times a day and they eat like crazy. My male square back was literally in best condition I ever seen so strong and healthy. Him dying like that makes me thing the meds had something to do with it. All the water quality is good I have a mastertronic which takes care of that and besides that only the anthias where affected

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

i feed these guys like 3-4 times a day and they eat like crazy. My male square back was literally in best condition I ever seen so strong and healthy. Him dying like that makes me thing the meds had something to do with it. All the water quality is good I have a mastertronic which takes care of that and besides that only the anthias where affected

I agree, it was likely the meds, and the dose may have been too high. We see a few odd toxicity issues in fish with various medications. Some are well known (scaleless fish being sensitive to malachite green) but others are not (flashlight fish dying when treated with fenbendazole) and then others are circumstantial. That's why I was trying to determine cause and effect.

There are also times where medications get blamed for something they had nothing to do with. There was a rumor going around that if you treated moray eels with formalin, they would die two years later. That simply isn't true. Most of the copper toxicity comments you hear are either mistaken, or are based on the old ionic copper products.

Jay