Dwarf angel bacterial infection?

jsanchez · Jan 5, 2016

Hello, I recently bought a tiny flame angel from a LFS and now notice while its in QT that the tail fin seems to be split with white "growths?" around the tears. I assume this is a bacterial infection. I ran out of my melafix and paraguard so i'll need to go get more. Can anyone confirm my assumptions?

I've also noticed that the fish swims mostly in an angle, not as extreme as in the first pic but in that position. I wasn't able to get it to eat the first 3 days I got it, but not it seems to at least be tasting the food and eating some. Feeding LRS,PE mysis/cyclops

JadeM · Jan 5, 2016

yeah looks like that I would try the medication feed good quality food and try a variety if fussy go with the medication and I would say it had a torn fin when at the store due to other fish and is probably fin rot best to get on to it before it gets to the point where it has no tail or other fins

goodluck melafix is good

jsanchez · Jan 5, 2016

Yeah my fiance said she noticed the tail was torn when we get it. Wish she had told me at the time haha...

JadeM · Jan 5, 2016

I would say its fine and keep an eye out if it gets worse tho because it has white that is a definite sign of bacteria so go with the medication

JadeM · Jan 5, 2016

hahaha yeah always inspect the fish for any symptoms I was so eager to get a lyretail angel but it wasn't in the greatest condition so got a different fish instead lol never leave my LFS empty handed

jsanchez · Jan 5, 2016

The bacterial will be easy to fix. Now I need to research why it's swimming with its head up

JadeM · Jan 5, 2016

yup research and research and you will get there

melypr1985 · Jan 5, 2016

Might I suggest using an antibiotic such as Kanaplex or Furan 2 for that infection instead. Or at least keep those in your back pocket in case the fish can't heal itself. The Melafix may help the fish accomplish that on it's own, but these herbal remedies dont have a lot of healing power on their own.

Humblefish · Jan 5, 2016

My 2 cents on Melafix/Pimafix: First off, I haven't used the stuff in over 20 years so maybe they've improved the formula. But we tried it on a variety of bacterial infections on both SW and FW fish (<<--fungal infections too). It did pretty good with the FW fish, but not so well on the SW fish. It may be because fungal infections are much more common in FW fish, whereas with SW fish you are much more likely to encounter a true bacterial infection. Using tea tree oil to treat fungus does line up, as some have had success using melaleuca to cure fungal toenail infections in humans.

Or you could argue FW fish are just hardier and easier to treat than their SW counterparts - I mean, you can just raise temp or add some salt to the water to beat FW ich.

People I know who use Melafix today continue to report success with it to treat their FW fish. However, it seems to only work on SW fish with a mild bacterial infection - one you could argue the fish's natural immune system can deal with anyway. For moderate to severe bacterial infections, I highly recommend true antibiotics i.e. Kanaplex and/or Furan-2.

I actually received a bottle of Melafix from a friend just yesterday, so perhaps I'll give it another try in the near future.