Hey everyone. I am the originator of the post Dr. Fish linked above. I have a particular interest in Atlantic Blue Chromis and have been dealing with exactly this same issue.
I was in this hobby many many years ago, when QT was not a standard protocol. I would isolate new fish for 30 days of observation and then introduce them to the DT. It was a 90 gallon at the time. I maintained 7 Blue Chromis, introduced in two batches, for roughly 3 years, say about 2005-2008. I started with 9 from memory, lost one in observation and one from jumping. There were no treatments and no observable illnesses.
Fast forward today and I am pulling my hair out. I am using QT methods in close coordination with Humblefish over at LARC and am on my 2nd batch.
My first batch was a total loss; it was 4 small Atlantic Blue Chromis What I have learned is my particular supplier is maintaining sub-therapeutic levels of ionic copper in his holding tank, which makes the fish appear well. Once introduced to a clean QT, after a day copper free, velvet breaks out (originally diagnosed is ich). I dosed Cupramine to 130% recommended levels and held it for 30 days with no other medication. All four fish survived. Upon completion of copper, the fish developed the brown patches and started to die, smallest to largest. Our theories were Uronema concurrent with the velvet and/or secondary bacterial infection. I prepared a frozen food blend with Seachem Focus and Metroplex with no improvement. I started to straight dose the tank with Metroplex but still no improvement. Eventually I saved one fish, but the one fish did not recover 100% in his behavior or appearance. The little fighter gave out around the 60 day mark.
The details are here:
http://lareefclub.com/community/threads/the-blue-chromis-qt-journal.46559/ You will see a lot of confusion in this thread and Bobby and I exchanged notes and struggled to diagnose the issue. Most of my diagnoses is now after the fact and in coordination with Bobby.
I am in my second batch now. The order was replaced at no cost by the supplier to include 3 small Atlantic Blue Chromis and 2 medium. The supplier indicated his chromis holding tanks were emptied, sterilized and then restocked with newly captured specimen. The new fish arrived clean and healthy. I did two treatments of prazipro before any signs appeared. After a week, velvet broke out. This time, copper dosage was via CopperSafe at therapeutic levels for 10 days and concurrently dosed Metroplex and concurrently fed my frozen food prepared with focus and metroplex. During this time, now I was looking for the blotches and started to notice them. Smaller fish were lost due to appetite suppression. One larger one was lost for unknown reasons. Two survived and made a tank transfer. Methylene Blue dips were performed 3 times to observe any changes on the skin patches, including during the tank transfer. No changes were noted for better or worse. At tank transfer, copper was discontinued and metroplex with kanaplex was issued in 3 dosages. I am now about a week post medication with no changes in skin appearance. The fish appear fully recovered. Now my biggest concern is I cannot meat dietary needs in a 20 gallon tank. This round is detailed here:
http://lareefclub.com/community/threads/chromis-and-gobies-and-more-gobies-oh-my.47013/
Similar to above, I have some assorted small gobies that show no ill effects, which is helping me form my conclusions below.
At this point, I have developed a few theories, potentially conflicting and/or compounding.
- Atlantic Blue Chromis are not as copper tolerant as previously thought.
- The use of copper is leading to potential organ failure, and/or scarring of the tissue - leading to fluid buildup - based on symptoms being similar to Edema (full credit to Bluewater on that one).
- The aggressive and concurrent use of copper, metroplex and kanaplex treatments give my roughly better than 90% confidence that uronema not at play.
- The natural social behavior of Atlantic Blue Chromis makes them particularly difficult to treat in the confines of a QT system. The constantly fighting to establish dominance and the acceptance of other chromis is a function of territory and food - both limited in QT.
- If bacterial infections are still at play, it is because of item #4 above that they remain a problem.
- Items 4 and 5 explain why other fish are not symptomatic.
I am very tempted to move everything to the DT to test my theories. For one, I am at my limit to keeping the QT acceptable to the fish. If they don't kill each other, the ammonia will; I have exhausted a lot of change water on this tank. For two, if I am correct, the DT will give them the space and food sources they need to thrive and I should see improvements. My risk is 4 royal gramma and a red spotted hawkfish; I don't have any "premium" fish. I would also risk introducing Uronema into a 110 gallon reef tank.
At this point I am at a stand still.
Chris
I also want to note that an LFS has also ordered a batch of Atlantic Blue Chromis to experiment with from a different supplier that I have ordered from and he has lost 4 of 6 and has not completed copper treatment yet. This data point, along with my findings has me thinking copper may not be acceptable to these fish.
(these pics are of the smallest chromis)
