one sic fellow (w/ pic)

Hello,
I got one sic fellow here. Pic below. Introduced into tank last week and went downhill fast.
- Popeye in both eyes, with a hole in left
- white spots on mouth
- white spot on fin near body
- ragged rear fin

All other inhabitants are fine: 2 clown, 1 pygmy angle, 1 gobi. Water parameters are spot on.

I am currently treating for ick since I thought that's what this was at first. But now thinking bacterial, not fungal. Thoughts? I don't have a hospital tank so at a loss here. Do I need to setup a emergency quarantine tank? Would hate to loose a clown who are both 7+ yrs old.
Any advice appreciated. Had tanks for about 15yrs. but never had to deal with this problem.
_Seth

I would set up a quarantine tank asap, and treat him in there. I do not know what medicine you are using and how your tank is set up, but it messed mine up(corals, and a fish).

I'm very skeptical about moving any fish in that kind of shape into a quarantine. That kind of move is going to put a lot of stress on an already very sick fish. I've never had a sick fish survive being moved to QT, I have however had fish make come backs when left in the DT to heal.
If I were to guess why your fish got so sick so quick is because of stress. If I remember right, the RSM 130D is a 34 gallon tank? That's not a lot of space for 2 different angels. They are extremely aggressive to their own kind, especially if they're added to a tank at different times. I wouldn't be surprised if the fin tearing is from the other angel, and the stress it's causing your Flame has it breaking out with ich and popeye. Just my opinion.

Hello,
Both the dwarf flame and the pigmy were added at the same time. I have not seen any aggression at all. The pigmy is about a 1/3 the size of the flame so really no conflicts there. But certainly stress probably made him susceptible to the disease. The treatment I am using is No-Ich Marine No-Ich by FishVet, Inc.

Unfortunately, and ich treatment that says "reef-safe" won't kill the parasites. The only two ways to get rid of it are QTing the fish and running copper or hyposalinity. Both of which would put way to much stress on your fish right now.

Besides how it looks, how is it acting and eating?

Hey Brian,
Activity was fine until the second eye clouded over yesterday and started to pop out. Unfortunately, I just did a feeding and the flame could not see well enough to eat at all. So bummed for the guy.

I would add a vitamin additive like selcon to their food and try to spot feed him. I use an eye dropper when I feed my fish, and my clowns will actually put their mouths on the end of it and try to suck the food out.

If you put it right up to his mouth he may be able to smell and eat it then.

I read something about this somewhere I think it is some kind of brain infection that causes inflammation in the brain causing the eyes to pop out. I don't know what or how you treat it. I will try to look it up in one of my books.

Popeye can have different underlying causes, fungal, bacterial, parasites and brain tumors. Not sure what I have here, but based on the feedback I think moving him is out at this point, and I can't use anything toxic in the reef. So it looks like I will finish off the ick treatment and hope for the best.

Seth good luck; I hope he makes it. Poor little fellow. :(

dcantucson said:

Seth good luck; I hope he makes it. Poor little fellow. :(

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I put a Coral Beauty in my established reef tank, developed similar condition and I guess it was stress, never come out to feed, died one week after being put in tank, sorry cant be more helpful

Allen

Try to get some kent garlic & soak your food in it. Fish will be able to smell it & it strengthens immune systems. He may be able to fight it off himself.

Also add stresscoat to the water, it helps them add a mucous layer on their fins. When fish are stressed it is harder for them to make this coat themselves.