Mystery Diseases

[awhite21]

Hi Everyone-

Brand new to the forum but I'm posting because I'm at my wits ends trying to ID Diseases. I've attached two pics for review. The first is a blue tang that I lost 4 days after receiving. Arrived with 2 opaque white circles on its skin that I mistakenly thought were just blemishes. It never ate, hid in a cave for three days and on the fourth it started swimming in circles then laid down, heavy breathing and perished. When I pulled it out I noticed a large white discoloration on its belly.

2 days later I noticed a couple white small salt sized specs on my sailfins tail and yellow tangs pec fins...so I braced for an Ich outbreak. 2 days later my firefish unexpectedly died showing no symptoms so I setup a QT for all fish. 1 week into QT all fish are eating really well but I just noticed a strange darkish discoloration on my yellow tangs dorsal fin. It looks a little ragged and a little fuzzy. I'm dosing cupramine to fight what I think is ICH but am not sure what else is attacking.

Please help

 

[LAReefer4Life]

It could be secondary bacterial infection from the ICH. Since your fish are eating it wouldn't hurt to feed metro + kana + bifuran + focus for 2-3 weeks while treating with copper. You can also add directly to water column if needed. Just make sure you have plenty of water circulation.

 

[awhite21]

It could be secondary bacterial infection from the ICH. Since your fish are eating it wouldn't hurt to feed metro + kana + bifuran + focus for 2-3 weeks while treating with copper. You can also add directly to water column if needed. Just make sure you have plenty of water circulation.

Thank you for the advice. You've confirmed what my other research hinted at so I feel comfortable moving forward with that treatment plan. One follow up question: I've read mixed reviews on whether I can treat Cupramine and metro/Kana/Furan at the same time or if I have to wait out the copper treatment first before treating the bacterial infection.

Any advice in that respect?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

My advise would be to feed orally in addition. Combine the 3 meds and bind it with frozen fish food using seachems focus. To answer your question, it is safe to combine cupramine with the other meds discussed directly to the water column vs. feeding but just make sure you add additional power head for more aggressive surface agitation.

Remember not to use ammonia reducers such as prime and use a solid copper test to ensure proper dosing and that you’re holding at therapeutic levels. Where is your copper level currently and what test kit are you using?

 

[4FordFamily]

Those look like infections for certain. I generally treat infections in the water column as they work better.

Spectrogram and metroplex together or kanaplex, metroplex, and furan 2 together for 10-14 days would be my plan of attack. Feeding metro isn’t a bad idea during this time, just add seachem focus to the food to keep the food bound.

How long have they been in copper?

 

[awhite21]

My copper level is between .25 and .50. I'm using the API testing kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference between those two levels so I'm trying to error on the safe side and not push it. They've been in copper for 5 days so far. Just started the kana/metro in food this morning

 

[awhite21]

My copper level is between .25 and .50. I'm using the API testing kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference between those two levels so I'm trying to error on the safe side and not push it. They've been in copper for 5 days so far. Just started the kana/metro in food this morning

 

[awhite21]

My copper level is between .25 and .50. I'm using the API testing kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference between those two levels so I'm trying to error on the safe side and not push it. They've been in copper for 5 days so far. Just started the kana/metro in food this morning

 

[awhite21]

My copper level is between .25 and .50. I'm using the API testing kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference between those two levels so I'm trying to error on the safe side and not push it. They've been in copper for 5 days so far. Just started the kana/metro in food this morning

 

[awhite21]

My copper level is between .25 and .50. I'm using the API testing kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference between those two levels so I'm trying to error on the safe side and not push it. They've been in copper for 5 days so far. Just started the kana/metro in food this morning

 

[awhite21]

Copper level is between .25 and .50 (using the API kit and it's really hard to tell the color difference so I'm trying to error on the side of caution). They've been in copper for 5 days. Started metro/kana this morning in food but may switch over to water column in the next couple days.