Help! Blenny suddenly very sick!

[Sonam]

This is our black Combtooth blenny. She has been doing great for over a year now. Even last night she (we don't know the sex, we just call it a "her") was feeding and swimming around as usual. Today we found her at the bottom of the tank (she usually hides in the rocks) looking terrible. Her color is washed out as in the photo. It is the same on both sides.

There appear to be tiny white dots also. None of the other fish have any spots and all look normal.

We did get a new 6 line wrasse yesterday from a LFS that quarantines their fish. The wrasse looks fine, energetic, eating and no spots.

We also had an incident overnight where one of the rocks was overturned - maybe by a snail? - could this be the result of an accidental trauma if the rock fell on her?

If there is anything we can do to help her please advise.

 

[polancoeddie]

Hard to see from the picture. If you can take more pictures. It looks like ich. Brought into your tank by the other fish you just got.

 

[Sonam]

Omg. Could it get that bad that fast?

Does this help:

 

[rworegon]

I'd be hesitant to say that is ich. Ich rarely kills fast or even shows that kind of discoloration. A fish with ich will usually show signs such as fast heavy breathing, irritability, and loss of appetite long before they would look very ill. It could be trauma from a falling rock, could be euranema, another nasty disease that will kill fish very fast. Good luck and please don't trust a LFS to QT your fish.

 

[fishroomlady]

I agree in that that does not look like ich nor sound like a typical ich outbreak. To me, perhaps it was the rock that scraped it? it almost like an injury vs. a disease......

 

[Eienna]

I don't know what it is, but definitely not holding out much hope. It looks awful. Let us know if you do ID it.

 

[reefwiser]

 

[Humblefish]

Could be ich or possibly marine velvet, which looks like ich but spreads much faster. Her color being "washed out" could be a secondary bacterial infection setting in; very common with fish suffering from parasitic infestations. You'll know if it's velvet within a few days; most or all of your fish population will be wiped out.

You can treat ich and velvet by catching all of your fish, setting up a QT and treating with either copper (ex. Cupramine) or Chloroquine phosphate. This is the only solution for velvet IME. If it is just ich, you may be able to manage that in the DT by soaking fish food in vitamin supplements (ex. Selcon, Zoecon, Vita-chem) to boost the immune system. Running a UV sterilizer helps to keep the free swimming stage of the parasite under control. Garlic may also help. But none of these will likely ever eradicate the problem, without going fallow for 72 days.

 

[polancoeddie]

It does look like it got hit. Maybe internal bleeding. I'm just thinking out loud. Keep an eye on her. If it got hit with the rock their is not much you can do but wait to see if she heals. Try to shut the lights off to reduce stress. See if she will eat tomorrow.

 

[polancoeddie]

You can also add some slime coat to the tank and try to add garlic to his food to build is immune system.

 

[polancoeddie]

It will help her heal faster

 

[Humblefish]

Those of you saying this is the result of an injury... how do you explain all the tiny white dots in the second set of pics? Only other possibility (other than ich or velvet) would be if the fish got sand all over it.

 

[polancoeddie]

Yup. That's why u said ich. But that could be sand. Only Sonam would know. Could be both

 

[Humblefish]

Yup. That's why u said ich. But that could be sand. Only Sonam would know. Could be both

Note to Sonam: Sand would "dangle" & be on top of the skin. Ich would appear to be under the skin.

 

[Sonam]

Thanks to all for the advice and help. Unfortunately she passed away this afternoon.
Looking at her more closely it does look like trauma. Her dorsal fin was torn and some of her scales dislodged. She also looked bloated. The white specs weren't noticeable either, maybe they were bits of sand as suggested - or mucus?
Hopefully others may learn from our misfortune. We are now putting reef safe putty tp secure the rocks. We didn't realize the snails could have such power.
Truly grateful for the help.

 

[Sully]

My first guess would be injury. I wouldn't think disease could set in overnight like that but maybe I'm wrong.

 

[Eienna]

Sorry to hear she passed. At least she didn't suffer long.

 

[fishroomlady]

so sorry for your loss