Rotting Flesh?

FishyReef

FishyReef

Broke Reefer!
New theory about my tiny tank - fish disease.

Woke up this morning to find my orange striped prawn goby on his way out. His fins are completely tattered and it looks like the flesh around his head and mouth is rotting away and coming off in clumps. He's still alive but probably not for long (on his side breathing heavily, snails going for him). I have maracyn and maracyn II, should I try treating him?
 
At this point, i think it might be too late. But you could try treating anyways to see if it helps in identifying what is going on in your tank.
 
If I try treating (and if it is something bacterial then it might prevent it from spreading to my firefish which came out swimming and looks okay this morning), then should I try it in my DT? I know maracyn/maracynII has been used in DTs successfully before. I do have Dr Tims on hand as well that I can add back in to the tank. BUT I'm not sure how it would impact my inverts, esp. my starfish and sexy shrimp. On the other hand, it will take me hours to set up the QT (I need to really clean it out from the pink skunks). Or should I just let it be at this point.... whatever the problem is, its coming on quickly. Last night the OSPG looked healthy and happy, the night before the blenny looked healthy and happy, by morning both were dead/dying...
 
Its really hard to say, I know its been used in SPS tanks without much damage and I think that the starfish is on the same sensitivity as the SPS.

This could also be a stress thing, 3 fish in 10 gals is a lot and the continual stress from that might finally be taking its tole.

If this was me, i would go ahead and treat the tank to try and save the firefish. If you are worried about the starfish (is this a brittle star type or a linka/formia type) I would take it to your other tank.
 
Well, the 3rd fish has only been in the tank for a week, and I don't think its stress from 3 fish -- everyone else in the 10g tank contest has 3-4 fish and haven't run into the same troubles. My guess is that either the OSPG brought in a disease, or the pink skunk male that I very temporarily put into the 10g after the female died had a disease that it introduced. It was only in the 10g for about 8 hours before it too died. The starfish is a fromia type.
 
Well, if you think the skunk clown brought something in, then i would treat the tank. I have no idea about the starfish though. I know they are very susceptible to bacterial infections, so this might be good for it, or it might not.
 
Okay, I went ahead and put in a first dose of maracyn and maracyn II into the DT. This will be a huge experiment to say the least, but hopefully the majority of the tank will pull through. I'm going to also do 25% daily water changes throughout the treatment to keep water parameters in check and to compensate for any potential overdosing (the instructions on the packets are for 20g, so I'm obviously cutting that in half, but in case I accidentally add a little more than half a packet I want to be able to compensate for that). Nitrates have also been on the high side so I want to keep those in check throughout this process. Wish me luck, I'll let everyone know how it goes...
 
For what its worth, an hour after treating the tank and the OSPG is still hanging on, not breathing quite as heavily and is upright again. Poor guy looks horrific and I have no idea if he's going to make it or not - an hour isn't much time to tell anything, but if he's still upright and not breathing as heavily by tonight then I will have some hope.
 
RIP Simeon :(

I am now convinced this is some sort of disease. Purple firefish looked healthy earlier but I can clearly see flesh now starting to rot off (looks like stringy white stuff coming off its body). I'm hoping I began treatment soon enough to save it, but I think I'll know by morning. Even if the firefish doesn't make it I'm going to go through the whole course of treatment and then leave the tank fallow for quite some time before I add the next fish. I don't know which fish introduced the disease - could have been either the pink skunk or OSPG, but it has affected all three fish that were in my 10g in roughly the same amount of time, and I'm guessing the flesh sloughing off is just what I'm seeing in the final stages. Anybody have ideas as to what disease this might be?
 
So far so good. Corals are all open, starfish looks fine (hasn't moved but doesn't look like its deteriorating), sexy shrimp are moving around and content, snails are moving around, and even my presumed dead pompom crab came out tonight w/ both 'nems attached. Firefish ate mysis happily tonight, so I'm planning to keep up with daily water changes prior to dosing with antibiotics and see how this goes. I really have no idea what the outcome will be, but at the very least this should give all of us a better idea of how using maracyn/maracyn II works in a tank with mostly soft / lps corals and inverts, even if it doesn't cure the disease.
 
Oh, on a separate note, I'm breaking down the QT that had the pink skunks. If this disease did come from the skunks, what can I do to properly clean that tank out? Will water and vinegar and then letting it dry and stay dry do the trick? I have a powerhead in there that I wanted to move to the sump of my 90, but I'm pretty wary of introducing this disease there. How can I best clean that powerhead out to prevent moving the disease? (And for the record, treatment was never started in the QT so I don't need to worry about copper transfer).
 
FishyReef said:
Oh, on a separate note, I'm breaking down the QT that had the pink skunks. If this disease did come from the skunks, what can I do to properly clean that tank out? Will water and vinegar and then letting it dry and stay dry do the trick? I have a powerhead in there that I wanted to move to the sump of my 90, but I'm pretty wary of introducing this disease there. How can I best clean that powerhead out to prevent moving the disease? (And for the record, treatment was never started in the QT so I don't need to worry about copper transfer).
Click to expand...

I'd think that water and vinegar would be sufficient. And let everything thoroughly dry out before using it again.
 
The idea of using bleach scares me. I'd be leery of ever using a harsh chemical cleaner on anything that you're going to put in your tank. I think I'll try the water/vinegar solution and let it dry for several weeks before thinking about using it again.
 
Ive used a bleach water solution to clean my protein skimmer (i think it was my protein skimmer) with no ill effects in the tank. Just my 2c, I'm neither recommending nor condemning it.
 
Bleach is fine, as long as its rinsed well and rinsed with prime, let the tank dry out really well, its safe, as long as its rinsed really well , and dried well.
 
FishyReef said:
Would you use a 10:1 ratio of water to bleach, or something more diluted?
Click to expand...


That should be ok, It will kill any nasty bacteria in the tank, Just rinse and rinse and rinse, and then rinse with prime or some kind of chlorine nutralizer, let it dry in the sun if possible, cause you will be rinsing it again before you set it up again, follow the directions on the bleach bottle for per gallons, that would be your best bet
 

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