Coral beauty need helping ID the problem!

1MCp · Oct 25, 2016

Hi folks,

I have had my first death in the tank. I am more disheartened than I thought I would be.

Can anyone help me identify what this is and how to prevent it from happening again?

It was in QT the last two days and nothing I did helped. Medication, food with garlic etc.

Any help is appreciated.

Brew12 · Oct 25, 2016

@melypr1985 @Humblefish

Can you provide more information? How long did you have him? What symptoms was he showing when you moved him to QT? What medications did you use?

melypr1985 · Oct 25, 2016

Brew12 said:
What medications did you use?

+1 I'd also like to know what all meds were used on him. It looks like it was a bacterial infection.

1MCp · Oct 25, 2016

@melypr1985 @Brew12 I had him for two and a half months. Couple days back had some fin damage but a day after it was healing so I left him alone.

Two days ago I started noticing white transparency on scales. It was like it was peeling off, so I took it to a 10G QT and treated it in a low salt water with Maracyn apparent good for fungus/bacterial infections. Water levels have been near perfect over the last two weeks. Temperature was a little up and down, due to funky weather. Other than that there was some dispute between the coral beauty and a clownfish of similar size. Let me know what other information I can provide.

melypr1985 · Oct 25, 2016

I remember that. It had an infection then as well. I think you needed a stronger/wider spectrum antibiotic for this- my favorites are kanaplex and furan 2. Bacterial infections are difficult to treat because the average person cant take a sample and ID the bacteria that needs treating. Some are gram negative and fast killers, some are gram positive and a little easier. The problem lies on when to let the fish try to beat it on it's own or to pull for treatment. Then how hard to hit it with meds. Sorry about your little guy. :( We just didn't make the right call or use the right meds.

Brew12 · Oct 25, 2016

1MCp said:
@melypr1985 @Brew12 I had him for two and a half months. Couple days back had some fin damage but a day after it was healing so I left him alone.

Two days ago I started noticing white transparency on scales. It was like it was peeling off, so I took it to a 10G QT and treated it in a low salt water with Maracyn apparent good for fungus/bacterial infections. Water levels have been near perfect over the last two weeks. Temperature was a little up and down, due to funky weather. Other than that there was some dispute between the coral beauty and a clownfish of similar size. Let me know what other information I can provide.

I'm sorry about the coral beauty, they have always been one of my favorite. Sounds like you did everything you could. The fact that this is the first fish you have lost shows you are doing so many things very right!

mcarroll · Oct 25, 2016

The original thread, for reference:

Bacterial infection?

Sorry it worked out this way! :( Mystery infections are the worst IME. I'd rather a fish have almost any external parasite any day of the week.

:(:(:(

4FordFamily · Oct 25, 2016

I agree that looks like an infection of some sort. I'm very sorry for your loss.

1MCp · Oct 25, 2016

@mcarroll @4FordFamily @Brew12 @melypr1985 any way to prevent this from happening? I really don't know the cause, other than a hunch that my clown fish harassed and the injury might have lead to the infection. But I want to see if anyone has seen this type of damage done and maybe know to prevent it, then I might now have to guess the exact bacteria to treat it.

Thanks for all the help y'all. Love this forum.

mcarroll · Oct 25, 2016

Generally,'s shredded fans are a sign of fighting weather by another finish or hitchhiker — something. Removing the fin-shredded fish is often enough the only way to go.

If you know who's doing the fighting and you can remove them instead, that is the other main option.

1MCp · Oct 26, 2016

mcarroll said:
Generally,'s shredded fans are a sign of fighting weather by another finish or hitchhiker — something. Removing the fin-shredded fish is often enough the only way to go.

If you know who's doing the fighting and you can remove them instead, that is the other main option.

I think my clown fish are the territorial fighters. So I reckon coral beauty are known to be semi aggressive too. Other tank mates which are pj cardinal which is the biggest in the tank slightly larger than the clownfish (its pair is a half size of the larger one and they stick to a pair of anemones by a pillar which the coral beauty insisted nesting near. And I think the fights broke out during the night. The other tank mate is a spotted sand sifting goby, who is the most chilled guy ever, when two hermit crabs fight over scraps, he just watches the fights like it's ufc. So all the inhabitants are pretty peaceful and the tank seems to be at peace for now.

What if I was to get a blenny instead of a coral beauty? I will be watching the tank making sure nothing was contagious. So far today everyone ate well and is swimming around normally. I will give it some time to settle down and test the water after my scheduled water change.

TLDR, coral beauty lost fight to the death with a clown fish. Is blenny a peaceful substitute?

Thanks for any inputs!

mcarroll · Oct 26, 2016

Blennies are the only other aquarium fish to make me bleed besides clowns. Yes, literally. ;)

It does depend heavily on what blenny you're thinking about though. Red-lipped blennies and similar will hold their own on about any reef. A red-lip has made me bleed twice.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Midas and Barnacle blennies. I don't know if it's a real grouping, but I call them plankton blennies since they have a similar MO of holing up in a rock and waiting for plankton to drift by. (Midas swim around a lot more than Barnacles though.) And there're are a range of mid-sized blennies that are also mostly timid. Some of those can be hard to keep, however.

1MCp · Oct 26, 2016

mcarroll said:
Blennies are the only other aquarium fish to make me bleed besides clowns. Yes, literally. ;)

It does depend heavily on what blenny you're thinking about though. Red-lipped blennies and similar will hold their own on about any reef. A red-lip has made me bleed twice.

At the other end of the spectrum are the Midas and Barnacle blennies. I don't know if it's a real grouping, but I call them plankton blennies since they have a similar MO of holing up in a rock and waiting for plankton to drift by. (Midas swim around a lot more than Barnacles though.) And there're are a range of mid-sized blennies that are also mostly timid. Some of those can be hard to keep, however.

I was thinking of getting a midas blenny. Just concern is fight between midas and the spotted sand sifting goby. Right now the goby is happy just on the ground sifting away. If the midas stays above ground I think it might be fine.

mcarroll · Oct 26, 2016

Midas will be a top-water fish vs bottom like the sand sifter, but might like a bigger system than you have.

Definitely one of my favorite fish to look at though!

4FordFamily · Oct 26, 2016

The fact that the "fight" may have broken out at night indicates to me it's probably a shrimp or something to cause the injury initially. What inverts do you have?

1MCp · Oct 26, 2016

4FordFamily said:
The fact that the "fight" may have broken out at night indicates to me it's probably a shrimp or something to cause the injury initially. What inverts do you have?

Cleaner shrimp, 4 astrea snails, 5 hermit crabs which are on the smaller side.