Bristol tooth tang sick?

[musaabi]

This is the crevice he was trying to squeeze himself into. It seems he was getting harassed by the skunk shrimp. Every time he would settle, they would jump on him and he would run away. Now he’s in an acclimation box with good flow. Hoping he pulls thru this

 

[musaabi]

He did not make it unfortunately. I’m going to use focus and metroplex in my food just in case. Could it be possibly bacterial or fungal? I just can’t imagine it would work that fast. Soaking in fresh water longer to check for parasites.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry. Yes, there certainly seems to be a bacterial infection component to this, but that is probably secondary to the primary infection that we weren’t able to nail down. What fish are still in the tank it came out of?
Jay

 

[musaabi]

Sorry. Yes, there certainly seems to be a bacterial infection component to this, but that is probably secondary to the primary infection that we weren’t able to nail down. What fish are still in the tank it came out of?
Jay

Clown fish, 1 carpenter wrasse, 2 Banggai cardinals. Everyone else seems to be doing fine right now. Not seeing any spots are erratic behavior from any of the fish. I’ll be getting a UV filter today as well just in case

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

UV sterilizers are highly overrated for controlling diseases in a single aquarium. They do work well in limiting disease transfer when moving water from one tank to a second one (like in aquaculture). But for removing diseases when used as a side stream on one tank, they really don’t work well. Then there are diseases that never even leave the fish so do not come in contact with the UV - that is possible in this cases.
Jay

 

[musaabi]

UV sterilizers are highly overrated for controlling diseases in a single aquarium. They do work well in limiting disease transfer when moving water from one tank to a second one (like in aquaculture). But for removing diseases when used as a side stream on one tank, they really don’t work well. Then there are diseases that never even leave the fish so do not come in contact with the UV - that is possible in this cases.
Jay

So now this is what my other clown is looking like

 

[musaabi]

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[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

As I mentioned, I think there is a primary infection at work here that we haven't been able to nail down - this clown has some sort of systemic infection - the cloudy skin, poor breathing and stiff body motion are all symptoms, probably of a protozoan infection. Are all the other fish still completely symptom free? Do you have any ability to treat fish in a medication tank?

Jay

 

[musaabi]

As I mentioned, I think there is a primary infection at work here that we haven't been able to nail down - this clown has some sort of systemic infection - the cloudy skin, poor breathing and stiff body motion are all symptoms, probably of a protozoan infection. Are all the other fish still completely symptom free? Do you have any ability to treat fish in a medication tank?

Jay

I’m actually in my LFS right now. Setting up a dedicated QT setup is going to take some time and extra maintenance. The carpenter wrasse seems to have some on it as well but not much. Cardinals I can’t see anything on them. All fish are still eating. Haven’t been home yet so not sure if the clown is still alive tbh. I could try and trap the clown and use a bucket but unfortunately that seems like the only option as of this moment to isolate it.

 

[musaabi]

Clown did not make it. It was gasping for air at the surface late last night so I gave a fresh water bath and he seemed to have gone back to normal for a bit. This morning I found him dead. Interestingly, it’s guts have been ripped out. I don’t have anything that I can think of that can do this. Maybe 3 small hermit crabs and a couple of cleaners.

 

[Tamberav]

I would pull out all remaining fish and start a fallow period. 45 days, no fish at 81-82 imo. With this many deaths, I would never add fish until fallow period is complete.

Many LFS do use copper and such but often not at therapeutic ranges or they add new fish before the previous fish complete 30 days QT or they cross contaminate because many employees catching/cleaning tanks and so on.

Unless they QT the fish in the back in a separate system with separate equipment and strict protocol for the minimum required time (30 days if not transferring to clean system).... then there is no reason to believe their fish are disease free.

 

[musaabi]

I would pull out all remaining fish and start a fallow period. 45 days, no fish at 81-82 imo. With this many deaths, I would never add fish until fallow period is complete.

Many LFS do use copper and such but often not at therapeutic ranges or they add new fish before the previous fish complete 30 days QT or they cross contaminate because many employees catching/cleaning tanks and so on.

Unless they QT the fish in the back in a separate system with separate equipment and strict protocol for the minimum required time (30 days if not transferring to clean system).... then there is no reason to believe their fish are disease free.

Yeah that what I’m going to do at this point. I have 3 fish left. I got a simple 20 gallon setup to be my quarantine. The shop that I got almost all my fish from do good quarantining. They have a back room where they quarantine all fish except captive bred fish like my clowns which they said the facility they get from is very strict on health(idk how accurate that is tbh). The one clown I got from another shop says the QT all new arrivals but the clown I picked up was in their display tank(never seen if they have a back room or not) and they treat with copper in the tanks. Still skeptical on that since I did see inverts in some of the tanks that have fish. I think that’s where I may have gotten it from tbh. The clown I got from that shop died first within the week, (my main lfs) followed by white bristletooth that I had for 3 weeks and now the clown that I had when I got my tang. Now my carpenter wrasse and my 2 Benggai cardinals are what’s left and they were all purchased from my original LFS so the pattern tells me I introduced something from the second LFS.