Benny314 Posted January 10, 2015 Share Posted January 10, 2015 Hi all, I'm hoping this is nothing, but my Kole tang I got last week hasn't really settled yet. Think he might have had a bit of white spot when I got him or brought on by the stress of the move, but that seems to have cleared. However his slime coat now seems to be peeling on his face across the bridge of his nose and down one cheek. He is eatting, but not like I would expect. I have built him a cave today as I think he was struggling to find cover and feel secure in my tank and he seems better than he was, but the peeling started soon after the cave went in. He has been digging in the sand in his new home, just to get things where he wants them I assume. Any one seen anything like this before? I will try and get a pic. But he isn't what you'd say co-oprative. He's been skittish since I put him in, again I'm wondering if it has just been because he has felt inscure in the tank. Cheers in advance people. Link to comment
Bingo1213 Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Tough to say without a good pic. My first though is maybe lateral line (hole in head) disease, see pic below for example. But once again we would really need a pic to know for sure! What size tank is he in? Also how was he acclimated? And finally what are your current water parameters? Link to comment
Jake.g Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Also what's the size of your tank and what other fish do you have? What have you been feeding him? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Hi all cheers for the responses. Still working on a pic. He's in a 330l system with 50l in the sump. 3 clowns, 7 blue/green chromis, and a six line are his current tank mates. He was drip acclimated floating in my sump, but catching him proved stressful for him. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 15 ish PH 8.2 Alk was 10.2 last check (don't have my own kit yet lfs tested for me) He's not as skittish today (don't know if his own personal cave has helped). But more slime has peeled down onto his body. I'm about to try eSHa oodinex to see if that helps. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Update, one of the smaller chormis is looking very sick this morning. No sign of spots or slime coat loss, but clamped fins, rapid breathing and difficulty swimming. I've just done the first does of oodinex and I guess we'll just have to see what happens. Link to comment
Jake.g Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Is there a stray electrical current in the tank by any chance?. There some talk that that can lead to health issues especially in less robust fish like tangs. Had your salinity and temperature been stable ? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Yeah temp is on an STC-1000. 26 degrees dropping by .3 before the heaters kick in again. Salinity is stable at 1.025. Stray current wise, I've just taken my hands out of the sump and haven't had a shock, I'll just google how to test with a multi meter as I too have seen a lot of posts lately revolving around stray current, but I'm not sure if it's bluster or a real issue. Link to comment
Jake.g Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 Its pretty strange then what your fish are sick since you water seems to be okay. Could be unlucky and your tang has spread some funkiness to your chromis Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Yeah, that was what I was concerned about. My own fault, I picked the fish up from another reefer who is slowly shuting down his system. 3 of the chromis came from him before christmas as well as the six line. They have all been fine. But I didn't get the tang until last saturday, and he had said the tang hadn't been himself that day. Maybe I should have walked away then. The tang then proved a pain to catch stressing it out quite a bit, but I did as we all do when we want something and hoped for the best. The sick chromis lasted about 20 minutes after I put him in the sump to keep an eye on him, I'm not sure if it was one of the 3 that came from this guy or one of the 6 I already had from someone else. But as said, the chromis have been in the tank for some 4 weeks with no signs of ill health. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Ok so after some careful peering at the fish, 2 of my 3 clowns seem to have a dusty fine coating of white ish spots, this is very similar to how the tang looked first night and the next morning. The tang now no longer has this, it went maybe 3 days after introducing him. None of the other fish apear to have this dusting of spots. But the chromis all seem to be unhappy now. The six line has no sign of upset or this dusty covering. Looking at the instructions to my oodinex the first thing listed in common illnesses is oodinium (marine velvet) which fits a lot of the symptoms (rapid breathing, the dusty spots). Just going to google velvet now as the instructions don't give me much info. Anyone got experiance with velvet? Is it likely to be killing fish (chromis currently) with very little outward signs other than the fish looking clamped and breathing rapidly? Is the dusty spot symtom not always present? Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 I'm sad to say the Kole has passed this afternoon, we'll see where this disaster ends. The 2 male clowns were not looking happy, one of them isn't showing any signs of dusty spots. Link to comment
k4ndyk1ng Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 My yellow tang had exactly what you are describing, I also lost 2 clowns and a grammar, my source was stray voltage, tang recovered within 2 days Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Interesting, I will get round to testing, however I'm in the UK so our houses have to have RCD's fitted on all our ring mains in the house. So the moment there's a ground fault the house will trip. From my reading up adding a grounding probe cause more problems by allowing the current to flow and zap you and your fish. Link to comment
k4ndyk1ng Posted January 11, 2015 Share Posted January 11, 2015 I am also in the uk, I found the voltage when I was doing a wc and touched the tap and I got quite the shock Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 11, 2015 Author Share Posted January 11, 2015 Sorry thought you where one of the guys from across the pond. All I can currently say is everything was fine before the tang went in. Link to comment
Jstn Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I had/have the same problem (kole too). I think its brook in my case, look at my build thread I post some more info. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 14, 2015 Author Share Posted January 14, 2015 Cheers buddy, what ever it was it's bloody lethal. Only one loss yesterday and one today, a small chromis each time, however all that was left after Monday was 3 chromis and the six line out of a stock of 13. Monday was the worst day with me loosing 5 including all 3 of my clowns. It's really odd as it doesn't seem to kill over night. Only day time. 2 of the clowns were covered in this dusty spot Sunday night, but didn't go until mid Monday morning. It also seems to take bigger fish first. My six line had been fairly unscathed through the worst of it over the weekend, but he's not looking so good today. I'm still resigned to this becoming a total stock wipe out. But you never know, this last little chromis might yet prove to be some sort of super fish. Link to comment
afyounie Posted January 14, 2015 Share Posted January 14, 2015 I had something similar happen to my kole tang. 3-4 days after I purchased it, spots/light dusting appeared on its body. Swam about and was picking at the rocks. Next morning it was unable to swim correctly, laid on its side, rapid breathing, and splotchy coloring over the body. I chose to put the fish down since it seemed to be too late to save it. I did not leave it in the tank very long once I realized it was in bad condition. I think that is what has saved my other fish. I pulled it out quick and now I'm feeding food that I soak in Metronidazole and Praziquantel(sp?). Seems to be working. No other fish are getting sick. Everyone is eating and healthy. I don't plan to buy anymore fish until I can QT new fish purchases. This was a great example of how if I had a QT, the kole tang would probably still be alive. For your fish, if they are still eating, I recommend trying the Metronidazole. Its known to help with Oodinium and Brooklynella. It is also fairly reef safe. Link to comment
Benny314 Posted January 15, 2015 Author Share Posted January 15, 2015 Thanks for that I'll look into it. As I said to start with, the kole started to look better (no dusting) after a couple of days. Then a week later my copper band butterfly which was fine in the morning, became lethargic and distressed in the afternoon and died less than 2 hours later with no outward signs, figured it was bad luck with a sensitive fish and just one of those things. Then the Saturday the kole started looking unwell again and it went from there. Having looked into brooklynella I am now unsure if it was that or velvet. Fish seemed to be displaying some symptoms of one but not the other. Some of my chromis had a dusty spotty covering, so did my pair of clowns and of course the tang for the first day or 2. Then the tang seemed to get excessive slime coat like brook and so did the clown pair. But other fish never got slime peal or dusty spots, and like I have already said that's is really baffling me is why they don't die at night, when you'd expect they were at their lowest ebb. I did read velvet was always believed to kill by preventing efficient use of the gills and suffocating the fish, but autopsies apparently never found much in the way of parasites in the gills after death of a fish and it was becoming suspected velvet releases some sort of poison or has some sort of toxic affect. I don't know anymore, but I am suspecting I will be fishless by the end of the week. Link to comment
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