2 Chromis dead, 1 female bartlett anthias gasping

[somechinesereefer]

Hey all,

Over the past month, I've lost 3 chromis slowly. One would start acting oddly, self isolating, not eat, and start gasping. After about a week they would die. I thought this was due to bullying from the other Chromis and did not think too hard on this. After my third chromis death, my female bartlett anthias is now exhibiting similar behaviors, self isolating, laying in the rock work and gasping. She started doing this yesterday afternoon. I don't see any ich on her. Any ideas on what this could be? Oxygenation shouldn't be the issue in the tank, however I am going through a cyano outbreak, and this is about week 3 of an initial reeflux dose to get rid of hair algae. No other fish are showing any signs of distress and coral and anemones are all looking healthy. Tank is several years old. No other major changes in the tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey all,

Over the past month, I've lost 3 chromis slowly. One would start acting oddly, self isolating, not eat, and start gasping. After about a week they would die. I thought this was due to bullying from the other Chromis and did not think too hard on this. After my third chromis death, my female bartlett anthias is now exhibiting similar behaviors, self isolating, laying in the rock work and gasping. She started doing this yesterday afternoon. I don't see any ich on her. Any ideas on what this could be? Oxygenation shouldn't be the issue in the tank, however I am going through a cyano outbreak, and this is about week 3 of an initial reeflux dose to get rid of hair algae. No other fish are showing any signs of distress and coral and anemones are all looking healthy. Tank is several years old. No other major changes in the tank.

What other fish are in the tank? Can you post a pic (not sure it will show much, but it might help). There is of course the possibility that the chromis and anthias issues are unrelated. I've never used Reef Flux, did it cause an algae die-off?

Jay

 

[somechinesereefer]

There's still 2 chromis, 2 clowns, a mandarin goby, a male anthias, an african leopard wrasse, and a barnacle blenny. The reeflux did kill off all the hair algae in the tank

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The presence of the other anthias is interesting - no symptoms with it (yet)? That tends to take things away from a systemic tank-wide issue, and more of an individual fish issue. Sorry - more questions: have you been monitoring your ammonia level through the algae reduction process? Do you have a tank that you could use to isolate the female anthias?

Jay

 

[somechinesereefer]

The presence of the other anthias is interesting - no symptoms with it (yet)? That tends to take things away from a systemic tank-wide issue, and more of an individual fish issue. Sorry - more questions: have you been monitoring your ammonia level through the algae reduction process? Do you have a tank that you could use to isolate the female anthias?

Jay

Yes, no other fish have any symptoms right now. I haven't monitored ammonia as this has been an established tank for several years, i bought the full setup from someone about 6 months ago in the middle of him fighting a hair algae bloom. I didn't think to test for ammonia, just nitrates and phosphates, which are nominal. I have a tank i could use, but i dont have any kind of seed filter to prevent NTS in the quarantine tank. I could throw some live rock from the sump into the quarantine tank, but then those rocks would be contaminated with whatever I dosed in there...

 

[Jen1978]

Hey all,

Over the past month, I've lost 3 chromis slowly. One would start acting oddly, self isolating, not eat, and start gasping. After about a week they would die. I thought this was due to bullying from the other Chromis and did not think too hard on this. After my third chromis death, my female bartlett anthias is now exhibiting similar behaviors, self isolating, laying in the rock work and gasping. She started doing this yesterday afternoon. I don't see any ich on her. Any ideas on what this could be? Oxygenation shouldn't be the issue in the tank, however I am going through a cyano outbreak, and this is about week 3 of an initial reeflux dose to get rid of hair algae. No other fish are showing any signs of distress and coral and anemones are all looking healthy. Tank is several years old. No other major changes in the tank.

Besides the suggestion that you already have of checking the ammonia, I wonder if the reeflux has anything to do with it. I recently used chemiclean on my tank and even used a huge air bubbler with it. Even though it's supposed to be reef and fish safe, my orchid dottyback now looks like she has some type of burn or bad patch of skin on her side and a spot on her head. But yes, if you bought the tank from someone, moving it and stirring things up could have caused a mini cycle and ammonia issues. Rule it out first.

 

[somechinesereefer]

I just tested for ammonia and it's 0, so that's out...any other ideas or treatment options?

 

[Salty Rambler]

+1 on moving the fish to a quarantine tank. To be on the safe side, I'd also recommend adding an airstone to the DT tank to help replace the oxygen that has been lost from the algae die off, checking the DT temperature, and doing a series of larger water changes on the DT. If you can fill the QT with at least 75% tank water, that would help. (I keep extra sponges floating in my DT sump so that I can use them as a cheap QT sponge filter when needed.)

 

[somechinesereefer]

+1 on moving the fish to a quarantine tank. To be on the safe side, I'd also recommend adding an airstone to the DT tank to help replace the oxygen that has been lost from the algae die off, checking the DT temperature, and doing a series of larger water changes on the DT. If you can fill the QT with at least 75% tank water, that would help. (I keep extra sponges floating in my DT sump so that I can use them as a cheap QT sponge filter when needed.)

what would you recommend if i dont have any sponges or other media that has been left in the tank to place in the QT? i have some spare LR that i have kept in the sump that could possibly be used?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes, no other fish have any symptoms right now. I haven't monitored ammonia as this has been an established tank for several years, i bought the full setup from someone about 6 months ago in the middle of him fighting a hair algae bloom. I didn't think to test for ammonia, just nitrates and phosphates, which are nominal. I have a tank i could use, but i dont have any kind of seed filter to prevent NTS in the quarantine tank. I could throw some live rock from the sump into the quarantine tank, but then those rocks would be contaminated with whatever I dosed in there...

I would use the live rock, the fish itself is "contaminated" already, so no additional risk in also moving the rock over. Trouble is, I don't have any specific clear symptoms to use as a basis for a treatment - so the only thing to try would be a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like Kanaplex.

Jay

 

[somechinesereefer]

These red spots have just started appearing on her, i'm still working on getting a qt tank setup, should have it up and running in the morning, i needed to mix some fresh saltwater. Is this a bacterial infection?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Ah, unfortunately, THAT is a definitive symptom, Uronema or Uronema mixed with bacteria I'm afraid. Uronema is a protozoan that lives in the muscles of the fish, where it is difficult to treat. When it gets bad enough, the lesions erupt on the fish's skin like this. I've never been able to cure it once it reaches this stage. Uronema most often affects Chromis and Anthias and some wrasses. Attached is a copy of an article I wrote on this issue.

Jay

 

[somechinesereefer]

Thank you for this article, it was very informative. Unfortunately, my anthias disappeared in the night and i was unable to capture her, she's been missing for 2 days now so I assume she succumbed. I was unable to find her body even with shifting the rockwork, and just this afternoon, am now experiencing a bacterial bloom. I'm assuming this is the result of the anthias dying and decomposing somewhere, but honestly I cant find the body anywhere. I have hermits and 2 pistol shrimp who may have gotten to her body in the night, but would a bacterial bloom still occur when the body is gone? What should I do?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

You should test for ammonia, if that is zero, then the bacteria are doing what they should, and decomposing the body. If the ammonia is elevated, partial water changes are needed to keep it below 0.25 ppm. What happens is that the anthias' biomass is still in the tank, whether eaten by a shrimp and then excreted, or decomposed directly by bacteria...

Jay

 

[C. Eymann]

+1 on uronema

Chromis and anthias are incredibly common vectors of uronema.
If not doing a full recommended QT, a 45min formalin bath with heavy aeration before introducing into the display is recommended at the very least with these groups of fish

Sorry for your losses

 

[Hincapiej4]

Uronema....time to bleach everything.......

 

[vetteguy53081]

Treatment of choice is a 45 minute formalin bath such as quick cure followed by transfer to a QT. Once in QT, its important to do followup treatment to ensure all of the parasites have been eliminated. This can be accomplished by dosing and soaking food with metronidazole or seachem metroplex for 14 days.
Once a tank has Uronema, it must be assumed that the disease can survive in there almost indefinitely. There is no fallow period for it as ich has. If treating with Ruby Rally instead of formalin. . . do a 90 min bath. I mention this as they have red sores already and formalin may be too harsh for them in this state.
A 5 minute freshwater dip may provide temporary relief if you are unable to find these medications right away.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Uronema....time to bleach everything.......

Actually, Uronema can be isolated from almost every aquarium - in their "day job" they feed on bacteria. In some cases, with certain fish, in new tanks and at low salinity, the populations grow and they become facultative fish parasites. If you nuke the whole tank, they will just recolonize. The best defense is a strong offense - avoid susceptible fish and run copper quarantine on all new fish.

Jay