I have a 34 gallon RSM, about 3 months in. Noticed recently that my maroon clowns tail has begun to deteriorate a little recently, with some indents. This is the only symptom, and I assume it is in fact tail rot. Tank is clean and parameters are all perfect. He eats his food, and all other tank inhabitants are fine. The only other fish in my tank is a wrasse, and I don't believe the clown is getting nipped by him. What can I do?

Hmm, woulda thought someone would have chimed in by now.

It's bacterial. I use melafix
http://www.drsfostersmith.com/Product/Prod...fm?pcatid=11269



Some people use peroxide.
http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/1...your.html?cat=6

I have never tried to do that though, and so I can't really recommend or help you there. : /

I would have to set up a quarantine tank for this right

Not necessarily, but I am from the better safe than sorry school of thought and I would personally treat in a QT/Hospital.


"Is Melafix and Pimafix reef safe? Yes -- up to a point. I was told that in its proper final reef-tank concentrations, some corals may retract during the treatment period. This doesn't mean the corals are dead. It usually means they have become irritated by this chemical's presence. So far, I have been assured by API that when this occurs, the coral will survive the treatment and come out again after the treatment, without harm. API knew/knows of no other reef concerns. But, like the bacteria issue, API hasn't tested the product on a wide spectrum of corals, invertebrates, and marine life."

http://www.reefland.com/forum/marine-fish-...-dont-work.html

That's a very good article should you care to read it.

Strangely enough I had fed my maroon some extra high quality flake food yesterday, and today his tail is a lot better. The indent line that was basically missing in his tail yesterday has pretty much filled back in...Is it possible I'm not feeding him enough, and he isn't getting enough nutrients or something?

Hmm. Well better is always a good thing. I have never known poor nutrition to have an effect like that.

There is no white film on the injury, he is eating. Nipping generally looks like tearing not horizontal lines. I wish you could get a pic up.

Keep an eye on it (duh I know) and step up the water changes for a week or two.

Things to look for:

Not feeding
Clear stringy poop
White dots/fuzzy spots
"slimey" speckles or spots
black spots

I do a water change once a week, so by stepping up you mean doing a WC twice a week?

Yes. At least. If after a week or two you are confident that whatever was going on has passed, go back to weekly.

My concern is that he does have something fungal or bacterial but isn't showing all the symptoms. If that's the case the water changes will insulate the wrasse to some degree (not a lot, but every little bit helps).

Hmm yea, I'll try it out and monitor him closely. Thanks for the advice

Update: His tail is much better and he seems to be doing fine. The only other sign of tail rot I noticed are a few very faint whitish dots on one side of his body. There are only maybe 2 or 3, and they are pretty hard to see...But the horizontal tears in his tail are gone...