Swallowtail Angel - Help Please

Beastie · Jun 5, 2015

I recently purchase 2 Swallowtails angels for my tank. Both the male and female have been in QT for about 10 days now. I left to go out of town Tuesday night for work and everyone was eating and looking good. Came home today ( wife feeds the fish when I am gone but not to good at observation) to feed them and spotted what looked like damage to the female head. Not sure it this is some kind of bruise or an infection.

Can someone help me out. Hopefully since it just happened I can take care of it before it gets worst.

Here are a few pictures I took today.

4FordFamily · Jun 5, 2015

@Humblefish is your guy. I'm not sure

Humblefish · Jun 6, 2015

Could be a cut or infection. Personally, I wouldn't take any chances and begin antibiotic treatment immediately. Optimally you'll want to treat with this concoction of meds: Furan-2, Kanaplex and Metroplex (or Metro-MS). Both Kanaplex and Metroplex are made by Seachem.

If you can't find all 3, use whatever you can... but you at least want the Furan-2 or Kanaplex.

Beastie · Jun 6, 2015

Thanks for the response. Going to see what I can get to today at the store and will order the rest.

Humblefish · Jun 6, 2015

Beastie said:
Thanks for the response. Going to see what I can get to today at the store and will order the rest.

If you can't find any of the meds I listed, then there are some alternatives listed here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacterial-infections.191511/

Beastie · Jun 6, 2015

I was only able to find EM Erythromycin.

Would it be alright to start will this? I am going to order the meds you have listed above online but will be Monday before they get here.

Humblefish · Jun 6, 2015

Beastie said:
I was only able to find EM Erythromycin.

Would it be alright to start will this? I am going to order the meds you have listed above online but will be Monday before they get here.

Erythromycin is a good antibiotic, but it is limited in spectrum to only treating gram positive bacterial infections. No way of knowing for sure whether you are dealing with a gram positive or gram negative without a scope check. If you do decide to switch over to those other antibiotics, run carbon first to pull out any residuals from the erythromycin.