Fairy Wrasses and Antibiotics

alg · Jul 30, 2015

Just curious if anyone has any tricks for administering antibiotics on wrasses, especially the sensitive fairies. In the past two months I've lost a lineatus, a flame, and a mccosker's to skin infections in quarantine (distinct white-ish patch / protruding scales / scale erosion). Now one of my scott's is showing symptoms. Usually seems to happen when they are first introduced to copper (but not always). I've been treating with Furan-2 in a separate hospital tank but they all seem to last about 48 hours once symptoms set in :/ Was going to try Kanamycin + Furan-2 + Metro this time, but worry about their sensitivity. Anyone else have luck treating this kind of thing in a wrasse?

@3FordFamily you seem to have a lot of experience with fairy wrasses!

4FordFamily · Jul 30, 2015

alg said:
Just curious if anyone has any tricks for administering antibiotics on wrasses, especially the sensitive fairies. In the past two months I've lost a lineatus, a flame, and a mccosker's to skin infections in quarantine (distinct white-ish patch / protruding scales / scale erosion). Now one of my scott's is showing symptoms. Usually seems to happen when they are first introduced to copper (but not always). I've been treating with Furan-2 in a separate hospital tank but they all seem to last about 48 hours once symptoms set in :/ Was going to try Kanamycin + Furan-2 + Metro this time, but worry about their sensitivity. Anyone else have luck treating this kind of thing in a wrasse?

@3FordFamily you seem to have a lot of experience with fairy wrasses!

I've actually never treated any wrasses with them before, only prazi and cupramine.

Humblefish would be a good resource but he's gone, I'll bet our other wrasse experts would know [HASHTAG]#reefsquad [/HASHTAG]

I would say you should be fine if they're eating prior and you treat in a tank by themselves.

kschweer · Jul 30, 2015

Not too sure myself, maybe @evolved can chime in

evolved · Jul 30, 2015

alg said:
Was going to try Kanamycin + Furan-2 + Metro

That sounds fine to me.
@eatbreakfast?

eatbreakfast · Jul 30, 2015

I don't think the antibiotics are the issue, I think it's the copper. They are sensitive to copper and any external injury exposed to copper makes it's affects worse. I wouldn't treat them with copper unless you actually saw ich present.

alg · Jul 30, 2015

I keep a lot of tangs, so I don't take any chances with ich. Any fish I buy gets treated even if they don't show white spots. Wrasses can carry ich in their gills just as easily as any other fish, without any obvious symptoms. Put them in a tank with a powder blue and bam! ich everywhere!

TTM is probably the best method for wrasse QT but Cupramine (which is what I use) has a pretty safe track record even with sensitive fish. Obviously any fish in copper is more susceptible to infection / other diseases because copper is an immunosuppressant. Wrasses tend to be jumpers and seem to injure themselves more easily, so while the copper itself may not be an issue it can become an issue when another problem sets in. I remove the wrasses from copper when I treat with antibiotics, but usually the damage is done. I've had tangs recover in the same circumstances, but almost never wrasses. I've had terrible luck with TTM in the past, but maybe will have to try again with wrasses. And CP, forget it, every wrasse I've used CP on has died within 3 days.

But I definitely would not be recommending that aquarists not treat new wrasses for ich unless they SEE ich. That is a surefire way to cause an outbreak. Unless you're talking under a scope.

evolved · Jul 30, 2015

FWIW, I don't ever treat wrasses with copper, and advise others avoid it as well. Other proven/classic methods are much safer here.

And with wrasses I don't bother with ich treatments either, unless it becomes apparent in QT.

eatbreakfast · Jul 30, 2015

evolved said:
FWIW, I don't ever treat wrasses with copper, and advise others avoid it as well. Other proven/classic methods are much safer here.

And with wrasses I don't bother with ich treatments either, unless it becomes apparent in QT.

I agree completely, there are other, safer methods.

kireek · Jul 31, 2015

I have quarantined many wrasses in a low salinity system.I prefer to treat all my sensitive fish this way.

4FordFamily · Jul 31, 2015

Problem is ttm and hypo do little if anything to curb velvet and other somewhat common parasites:

That said I will probably only TTM my wrasse tank when combining it with my tang tank when I get my ten foot reef tank in the next few years.

I do little to prevent ich in my wrasse tank, they're very hardy against it. I've even had wrasse survive velvet for months.