Blue Damsel dying

mhartley276 · May 25, 2021

Anyone have any idea what is killing this fish? Got this blue damsel about 5 days ago. 2 days in he started to look like he had white patches on top of head that looked almost like he was losing scales there. He wouldn’t eat so I moved him to quarantine tank because I thought he might have been bullied by my clowns. The white patches have turned into this brownish red color and it looks like skin is sloughing off. Still won’t eat and is breathing rapidly. I tried melafix for 2 days and today put Ichx in tank per LFS advice. If anything he looks worse now

Lost in the Sauce · May 25, 2021

#reefsqaud

Jay Hemdal · May 25, 2021

Hi, Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Melafix is more of a tonic than a cure for acute disease issues. Ich-X is malachite green and is used for freshwater protozoan diseases (less effective on marine fish).

This looks to me to be mechanical damage followed by a secondary bacterial infection. The not feeding and rapid breathing are really serious symptoms. The only thing I can suggest is to try a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic (like Maracyn 2), but to be honest, the way the fish is laying on the sand, and the symptoms it has, I don't think any treatment is going to be successful - sorry.

Jay

mhartley276 · May 25, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Hi, Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Melafix is more of a tonic than a cure for acute disease issues. Ich-X is malachite green and is used for freshwater protozoan diseases (less effective on marine fish).

This looks to me to be mechanical damage followed by a secondary bacterial infection. The not feeding and rapid breathing are really serious symptoms. The only thing I can suggest is to try a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic (like Maracyn 2), but to be honest, the way the fish is laying on the sand, and the symptoms it has, I don't think any treatment is going to be successful - sorry.

Jay

Thank you! I read that about the melafix, that it’s not really an antibiotic but an all natural treatment with tea tree oil. Unfortunately that was the only thing at Petsmart that said it would help with bacterial infections. I will probably just have to order something online antibiotic wise. But the little guy probably won’t make it until morning I guess it’s good to know though that it probably isn’t something that will affect my other fish. All other fish look great with no problems. I did see a pic of a tang with HLLE and it’s looks a lot like that. From what I read about that though it says it’s usually not fatal and this fish is definitely struggling. You don’t think it could be that do you?