Disease

Spink · Dec 9, 2021

Dear Sir/Madam

I have noticed symptoms on my fish which makes me think they are ill. I am not sure but I would like help, because I have no idea what could it be. If it turns it they are ill and you identify the disease may I get help to how to cure them?

Many thanks!
Spink

Jay Hemdal · Dec 9, 2021

Spink said:
Dear Sir/Madam

I have noticed symptoms on my fish which makes me think they are ill. I am not sure but I would like help, because I have no idea what could it be. If it turns it they are ill and you identify the disease may I get help to how to cure them?

Many thanks!
Spink

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I wish we could have met under better circumstances - your fish has an external protozoan disease. Most likely Cryptocaryon (saltwater ich) but it could also be Amyloodinium (velvet). Both are treated the same way. If the fish are breathing rapidly and not eating, it is velvet. If the fish are breathing more normally and are still eating, it is more likely to be ich.

Treating this is going to be difficult, but the treatment is pretty straightforward. If you have invertebrates in your tank, you can't treat the fish there, you would need to move them to a treatment tank. The normal treatment is copper; Coppersafe, Copper Power or Cupramine. You need to get them into full copper right away. this anthias has a pretty severe case and if you don't treat right away, it will likely die (copper takes a couple of days to start to work, and the disease will get worse during the meantime. Given the time difference, it is already late at night in Hungary. I'm not sure how that will affect your ability to get a treatment started....

Jay Hemdal

Spink · Dec 10, 2021

Dead Jay Hemdal

Thank you for your advice and treatment method! 4 anthias died already, I acted too late probably. I'm trying to catch all the fish out of the aquarium and treat them as soon as possible. The only remaining question I have is how many days do I have to leave the tank fish empty to be parasite free?

Jay Hemdal · Dec 10, 2021

Spink said:
Dead Jay Hemdal

Thank you for your advice and treatment method! 4 anthias died already, I acted too late probably. I'm trying to catch all the fish out of the aquarium and treat them as soon as possible. The only remaining question I have is how many days do I have to leave the tank fish empty to be parasite free?

Sorry to hear.

For an advanced protozoan issue such as this, you should leave the tank empty of fish for 75 days. There are ways to reduce this time by raising the water temperature, but given how severe the issue was, I think you should go for the full time period.

Jay