Should I medicate?

[Brian Kennedy]

My powder brown scratched himself on a rock two days ago. Should I medicate tonight of give it another day?

 

[Humblefish]

Looks like he has an infection starting up (small gash on his side).

Is he in your DT or in a QT??

 

[Brian Kennedy]

Display. I have several meds on hand. Metro, Kano, GC, Hydro, Paraguard and Prazi. No corals, tank is getting upgraded in a few months so I'm not concerned about dosing in food.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

For my education, what about the wound indicates an infection?

 

[Humblefish]

For my education, what about the wound indicates an infection?

I can see that something is eating away at the skin. Usually harmful bacteria, but there are two parasites (Brooklynella, Uronema) which can cause a similar initial reaction. Have you added any new fish lately? Is that clownfish in the background new?

 

[Brian Kennedy]

I added a leopard wrasse a few weeks ago that died. Everyone else in the tank had been for a while.

 

[Humblefish]

I added a leopard wrasse a few weeks ago that died. Everyone else in the tank had been for a while.

Are any of the fish breathing heavy, twitching their head, scratching on rocks, etc.?

I'm prying because oftentimes an infection is secondary to a preexisting parasitic infestation (ich, velvet, etc.) The infection will actually sometimes manifest before evidence of the parasite.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

The leopard.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

I'm definitely in ich management and wouldn't be surprised if there was velvet still in the tank too. I made some really bad choices with this tank. Everyone else seems to be acting normal. Maybe the midnight blenny has been a little less active lately, but not enough to raise concern. I did have an outbreak of something two months ago, possibly ich and velvet.

 

[Humblefish]

I'm definitely in ich management and wouldn't be surprised if there was velvet still in the tank too. I made some really bad choices with this tank. Everyone else seems to be acting normal. Maybe the midnight blenny has been a little less active lately, but not enough to raise concern. I did have an outbreak of something two months ago, possibly ich and velvet.

I'd pull the Powder Brown and dose Kanaplex + Metroplex into a QT. Biofilm, which is probably present in your DT, will eat up the antibiotics before they could do much good. If you do have ich (or especially velvet) in your DT, this sort of thing is gonna just keep happening until you go fallow.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

I mixed the metro and Kana into the food and let it soak for a while. I have a complete new system on the way with qt and hospital. So I'll be starting over with a very strict QT process. Plan is to do a complete long cycle then QT and treat everyone before going into the new system.

 

[Brian Kennedy]

Thanks Humblefish