Mouth Infection on Helfrichi Firefish

FlyPenFly · Mar 20, 2019

Any ideas on what to treat with? Bought a five gallon tank to start treatment.

Fish tries to eat still but mostly lays on the bottom of the tank.

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 20, 2019

What do you have on hand? That’s a pretty bad infection and in a terrible location. Is it all the way into his mouth?

Do you have any Ruby Reef Rally? Or Antibiotics?
I would do a RRR 90 min bath (antiseptic) and start dosing either the Trifecta (link below) or NFG (Nitrofuracin green) Unfortunately time is not on your side with this.
How long have you had the fish? Was he injured?

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/dosing-the-trifecta.386582/

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 20, 2019

Take a good look at the mouth I see two black dots in all of the pics. It would be pretty rare but make sure there isn’t a isopod attached to the fish near the mouth.

@ngoodermuth @Big G am I seeing things?

ngoodermuth · Mar 20, 2019

Hm, the one picture does look like it sort of has "eyes" but it could just be a trick of the camera. I think with the amount of "stuff" around the mouth and how small of a fish, its probably a very serious infection.

Here is the creepy crawler mentioned, just in case you can see something we can't:

FlyPenFly · Mar 20, 2019

I don’t believe it’s an isopod. I had the fish about 3 weeks

Frtdrmrose7 · Mar 20, 2019

FlyPenFly said:
I don’t believe it’s an isopod. I had the fish about 3 weeks

Ok, better picture and yes that’s just a bad infection

4FordFamily · Mar 20, 2019

I agree with NFG ASAP and a ruby rally bath.

If NFG takes a while to arrive (and it may) kanaplex metroplex and furan 2 mixed will help until NFG can send it packing!

Big G · Mar 20, 2019

FlyPenFly said:
Any ideas on what to treat with? Bought a five gallon tank to start treatment.

Fish tries to eat still but mostly lays on the bottom of the tank.

Pictures are just a bit out of focus. Can you describe the condition of the mouth: is it ragged and torn? or is it cottony or cauliflower like?

FlyPenFly · Mar 20, 2019

Ok I’ll call my lfs tomorrow morning and check what they have

FlyPenFly · Mar 21, 2019

Will it wipe out the biological bacterial filter if I use these antibiotics?

I was thinking grabbing some of my bacteria blocks and putting it into the hospital tank but that's pointless if it gets wiped out.

Big G · Mar 21, 2019

The effects on your biofilter will vary a bit. I like to dose Seachem Stability when dosing a tank with antibiotics to counter the loss of some of the good bacteria.
I did have an awful bacterial/algae bloom in a QT because I place one of my Marine Pure plates into the QT to counter act the meds. It was awful. The plate developed a slimey gooey coating that caused all kinds of problems in the QT. Removed it, lots of water changes, added a bubble filter, almost lost a couple of fish.
So now I just dose Stability. Works fine with plenty of aeration: small powerhead aimed up at surface, foam bubble filter with the foam soaked in Stability or soaked in my DT sump for a month; a bag of BioMax soaked the same; foam pad in the HOB soaked the same. But I still add Stability at water changes or a bit added as needed directly to the tank.