Bacterial infection

[Eric88]

So unfortunately I lost half of my fish to what appears to be a bacterial infection. Started with a Pajama Cardinal on Sunday, lost my Domini tang on Wednesday and my Azure damsel yesterday. I have 5 fish left now. My Purple tang did have it but appears to be getting better. None of the other fish are showing any symptoms.

My question is, if that is what it is, what can I do to prevent the spread? Do I Just wait until I lose all of them and start all over?

I did treat the entire tank with API General cure with no luck. I did that because I could not catch any of the infected fish and I think I may have stressed them all out in the process.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It is VERY unusual for bacterial infections to cause acute fish loss rapidly, across multiple species of fish. API General Cure is mostly effective against fluke parasites, with some benefit seen in limiting the spread of protozoans. I suspect that your fish have one of the protozoan infections....

What were the symptoms the fish showed?

Jay

 

[Eric88]

The fish had all been eating normally. The purple tang was the first to show a dusty salty covering all of him. One of the pajamas had small specs on his fins. The Tomini never showed any signs and was found dead in the morning. The damsel showed a blotchy patch on the middle/upper side of his body. He was swimming in low flow areas of the tank which is unusual for him. The purple tang body now looks good but his eyes look cloudy. But the cloudiness is getting better.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Pictures, if clear, would really help. The small specs on the fins does not sound like a bacterial infection. The blotchy skin could well be Uronema, or it could be bacterial. Cloudy eyes are often a symptom of Neobenedenia flukes.

How familiar are you with ich? I can't really rule that out based on the symptoms, can you? Also, it is unfortunate, but fish often have multiple disease issues at the same time - this makes diagnosis and treatment almost impossible, especially after some fish loss has already taken place.

Jay

 

[Eric88]

Thanks for the help and advice Jay. I do not have any photos unfortunately. Wasn't thinking about that at the time.

I am not too familiar with any diseases other than what I have found online.

My LFS said the 2 most recent fish I bought from them had been treated with copper. One of them is what started this and he was the first to die.

So far this morning the fish survived the night.
I will get a photo if the rest of the fish show any symptoms.
I guess I am in a wait and see mode.