What disease is this?

[MandarinFish]

My fish scratches it's head against a rock and against a shell...

no exterior lesions, so it doesn't seem to be the dreaded ich.

It cannot possibly be good.

Feeding anti-bacterial flake food and Kyolic garlic, along with vitamins hasn't cured it.

What is it? What do I do?

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: MandarinFish ]</p>

 

[john f]

Gill flukes or early stage cryptocaryon........or amyloodinium.
Pray for the flukes.

John

 

[MandarinFish]

I already lost 1 fish recently (

)

Damn. Only the 2nd one I've ever lost, and first that I got established in a tank.

I am bummed.

I hate this.

What are the treatments for:
* Gill flukes
* cryptocaryon
* amyloodinium

Please help. I'm bummin' change here.

 

[john f]

I have never had gill flukes but I believe the treatment is several formalin baths.

Crytocaryon has no reliable reef safe cure. Neither does amyloodinium.
The fish need to be removed and treated in a seperate q-tank.
You can do a search to find out the best treatments.
I recently lost quite a few fish due to amyloodinium. I never once saw any external parasites.
Crytptocaryon kills fish slowly and you usually will see the fish covered in white pustules before they stop eating and die.
Amyloodinium kills fish VERY FAST.

Both can be treated with copper in the Q-tank and HYPOSALINITY can be used to treat if it's crypto.


If it's not gill flukes you should remove all the fish from the reef tank ( I know this is difficult) to treat them and not add any fish to the reef for 4-6 weeks.

John

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: john f ]</p>

 

[MandarinFish]

So I should set up a quarantine tank with low salinity and copper?

Should I use this quarantine tank for new fish/corals/feather dusters too?

I need to know, as I am having an order of corals, clams and dusters coming in.

I don't know what all suffers from copper; I want to quarantine anything I need to that can handle the low SG and copper.

 

[john f]

No inverts can tolerate either low salinity or copper treatments.
Strictly fish only and no rays or sharks.

I have two q-tanks, one for inverts and one for corals. Most people don't want to go to this expense. You could try and just buy inverts from LFS or online retailers that keep no fish in their invert section. This is hard to find but can be done.

As for low salinity and copper I have not tried it but Terry B says it's tricky to do safely.

If you are unsure of which disease you have cupramine would be your safest bet at normal salinities in the Q-tank.
Just be careful and don't add any Amquel along with it or you could nuke the fish (like I did)

John

[ April 15, 2002: Message edited by: john f ]</p>

 

[cubera]

Might consider high dose Vitamin C. HTH

 

[MandarinFish]

Vitamin C in tank or soak food in it?

My only problem with soaking food is, unless it's a dry food to start with it doesn't soak in at all.

Even then, when it hits the water the fish better be ready or I doubt the soaked in vitamins/garlic are giong to last.

That's my concern anyway.

I can't imagine you can successfully drop vitamins directly in the water, either?

 

[LeoR]

MandarinFish:

Forget about vitamins and other nonsense, even if it helped, it would take months for any effect.

Don't treat at all until and unless truly necessary.

The best thing to do now is:
-- Feed the fish real food instead of flakes.
-- Change the water frequently.
-- Reduce disturbance (stay away from the tank when you're not needed).

LeoR

 

[Terry B]

If you see scratching for more than a week and still don't see spots then it could be gill flukes. They usually don't affect all the fish at first. Formalin dips are the best treatment. AMyloodinium kills quickly and causes violent scratching and rapid breathing like panting. With ich you will see white spots that look like salt on the fish.
Terry B

 

[MandarinFish]

My grouper lost his appetite, breathed hard, scratched his head, and died maybe 2 weeks later.

My Coral Beauty doesn't scratch his head nearly as much but has 2 white patches on his right side, behind his gills...

what do you suggest?

 

[john f]

I'll repeat myself:

"If it's not gill flukes you should remove all the fish from the reef tank ( I know this is difficult) to treat them and not add any fish to the reef for 4-6 weeks."


John