Something wrong with my rabbitfish. Fins rapidly deteriorating!

[Perpetual Novice]

It’s so extensive I don’t know how I didn’t see it before now. I just noticed my rabbitfish has decaying or degrading fins with white blotches on them. The fish has all the damage on on side and some on the top fin while the other side is clean as far as I can tell. It is avoiding using the injured pectoral fin as it swims around the tank. Other than that, it’s behavior is still normal.

I don’t see any of the same symptoms on any of my other fish. My powder blue acquired a mark/bruise/cut/rash (not really sure what it was) about a week ago but that was on it’s skin and looked nothing like the rabbitfish. It is also healing and the tang is behaving normally so I don’t think the two are related.

can anyone help identify from these pictures what disease this is? How can I treat it. Is it contageous? And can I dose a tank with lps with a medication or do I have to quarantine the fish? Help... I’m only familiar with ich but know nothing about other diseases.

 

[Gareth elliott]

@HotRocks @pathot984 @4FordFamily
I am not seeing any parasites on the dark part of the fish. Ime fins like that is bacterial in nature.
I would qt and use a broad spectrum antibiotic.
Or combination of kanaplex, neoplex and furan-2.
Doxycycline works also works well on fins and is readily available at big box stores, but is a lot harsher, and do not mix witg any other treatments.

There could be a primary cause like aggression or a parasite that was infected. Would keep a close eye in qt.

 

[LAReefer4Life]

The powder blue looks like a small injury, perhaps scrape on rock work. Do you have any stinging coral? The rabbitfish looks like it has lympho, which is a viral infection that tends to heal on its own accord with good water quality and diet.

Read the thread below to confirm this is what you're seeing.

Lymphocystis

Lymphocystis What You Need To Know: * This is a virus that many fish carry for life. The white nodules (cauliflower-like growths) can grow both externally and internally; so symptoms are not always visible. * There is no known cure for Lympho. However, feeding vitamin-enriched foods and...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Perpetual Novice]

The powder blue looks like a small injury, perhaps scrape on rock work. Do you have any stinging coral? The rabbitfish looks like it has lympho, which is a viral infection that tends to heal on its own accord with good water quality and diet.

Read the thread below to confirm this is what you're seeing.

Lymphocystis

Lymphocystis What You Need To Know: * This is a virus that many fish carry for life. The white nodules (cauliflower-like growths) can grow both externally and internally; so symptoms are not always visible. * There is no known cure for Lympho. However, feeding vitamin-enriched foods and...

www.reef2reef.com

I have a magnificent anemone torches and elegance corals. Those are the only real stingers.

And lymphocystis was my best guess but there’s some on the skin and the fin looks tattered not just stuff on it. And they’re stringy and not blobs.

How long should I wait before removing the fish for quarantine and treating with a broad spectrum of antibiotics.

glad to know I don’t have to worry about the powder blue.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Fin and tail rot. May have begun with injury. Melafix is very effective in treatment as is teramyacin. Water quality is a must so start with water change and remove carbon for now

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

NFG in a hospital tank asap!

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Fin and tail rot. May have begun with injury. Melafix is very effective in treatment as is teramyacin. Water quality is a must so start with water change and remove carbon for now

remove carbon?
Do you mean that I can dose the medications straight into the display tank?

 

[Perpetual Novice]

NFG in a hospital tank asap!

I don’t know what NFG is. Can you tell me more???

 

[LAReefer4Life]

remove carbon?
Do you mean that I can dose the medications straight into the display tank?

Never recommended to dose medications in display even if they are deemed reef safe, its always best to administer in separate QT tank.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Never recommended to dose medications in display even if they are deemed reef safe, its always best to administer in separate QT tank.

That’s what I thought. But then then why remove carbon? Wouldn’t carbon improve water quality?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

That’s what I thought. But then then why remove carbon? Wouldn’t carbon improve water quality?

Mechanical filtration removes medications so it is advised halt use during treatment.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

Mechanical filtration removes medications so it is advised halt use during treatment.

so you don’t mean to remove carbon from the display. You mean to remove it from the quarantine tank? I agree carbon would remove medication. But it’s also not a good idea to use medication in the display tank. So why remove carbon from the display if I’m not medicating it?

 

[LAReefer4Life]

I have a magnificent anemone torches and elegance corals. Those are the only real stingers.

And lymphocystis was my best guess but there’s some on the skin and the fin looks tattered not just stuff on it. And they’re stringy and not blobs.

How long should I wait before removing the fish for quarantine and treating with a broad spectrum of antibiotics.

glad to know I don’t have to worry about the powder blue.

After closer inspection of the picture you posted of the powder blue tang it does look like raised ich spots. See the picture below...

 

[GoldeneyeRet]

Nitrofuracin green

Treatment Options 102

Treatment Options 102 The purpose of this article is to provide information on available options for treating diseases afflicting saltwater fish. Every treatment discussed will contain the following information: “What It Treats”, “How To Treat”, “Pros”, and “Cons/Side Effects”. Each treatment...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

remove carbon?
Do you mean that I can dose the medications straight into the display tank?

Melafix is reef safe. If you have a QT tank- by all means utilize it. Teramyacin may have an affect on bacteria.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

After closer inspection of the picture you posted of the powder blue tang it does look like raised ich spots. See the picture below...

unrelated I was messing with the skimmer and it was producing a lot of bubbles when I was tanking pictures. Some of them were sticking to the fish. But on top of that, the powder blue does have ich. Ich is in the tank and occasionally the powder blue will accumulate a dozen spots or so if something is stressing it out. I assumed the scrape on its side accounted for this minor ich flare up.

 

[Mical]

I wonder if your Foxface and Tang aren't at odds with one another? They're both herbivores and compete for the same foods. My Foxface had to be seperated from a Powder Brown after short time together. It was battle royal one morning, both were badly scarred and it took weeks to heal in two separate tanks.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

I wonder if your Foxface and Tang aren't at odds with one another? They're both herbivores and compete for the same foods. My Foxface had to be seperated from a Powder Brown after short time together. It was battle royal one morning, both were badly scarred and it took weeks to heal in two separate tanks.

there’s actually 3 tangs. The powder blue has been a model citizen and only occasionally chases the smaller hippo tang. The largest is a desjardini that keeps everyone in check. The rabbitfish is largely ignored. Maybe just because I feed heavy and keep an layer of algae growing on most of the rockwork. I agree that aggression from the powder blue would seem like a good hypothesis but I have seen them live together with zero issues for the 6 months the powder blue has been in the tank.

 

[4FordFamily]

I think that you may have lympho on the fox faces fin, perhaps an infection. With the powder blue tang I see a tang battle wound most likely. I’d leave it alone.

If they have ich and it’s not spots on the glass I’d treat for that as well.

 

[Perpetual Novice]

I think that you may have lympho on the fox faces fin, perhaps an infection. With the powder blue tang I see a tang battle wound most likely. I’d leave it alone.

If they have ich and it’s not spots on the glass I’d treat for that as well.

if you think the wound on the tang looks like it came from a scuffle I believe you but it does surprise me. The PB can be rascal with the hippo tang but I’ve never seen the dominant desjardini do anything but glide past with her fins extended. She never poses or shakes her tail fin or even chases. I hate to imagine what the Pb did to deserve her bad side but I’m sure he must have deserved it. If it is a wound from a tang fight I’m glad the pb was the one injured. It assures me that the tangs hierarchy is stable and my benevolent desjardini dictator remains firmly in charge.

but as for the rabbitfish. How contagious is his affliction? I don’t feel pressed to resort to quarantine and medicine unless the rabbitfish is a threat to other fish in the tank. Since the Pb was injured A little while before the rabbitfish’s disease showed up, I assume it can’t be that easy to spread or the Pb wound would have been infected too. No?