Evansi Anthias - slowly dying in QT

[Leon.NYC]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

Hi guys, I received a shipment of anthias last Wednesday & setup a 20 gallon QT tank. They seemed healthy although 1/5 died during transport. I’ll chop that up to 24-hour delay in shipment.
In QT they were doing well until a 30 minute formalin bathe. After the tank swap, they moved to a new 20-gallon.
The formalin dip was .90ml in 1-gallon.

Note: I setup a brute trash 50 gallon with water so I have fresh mixed water ready to go.

In the new tank they are laying on the bottom, overnight their fins are all frayed. I’m noticing some lesions on their bodies as well. There’s no aggression & prior to this they were all schooling together. One died earlier this morning and the Others are just laying at the bottom. Water salinity tested fine. I have an air pump & small 20-gallon since pump at the top to circulate the water.

Given that these are anthias, I’m very hesitant with what they can have.

The photo of them as a trio was just after the formalin dip.

I added metro & kanaplex to the water column. I have neoplex & nitrofurazone on hand as well as safety stop, formalin, Malachite green, copper power & methylene blue as well.

I don’t trust those lesions at the base of their tail as it seems under the skin. I don’t think they’re salvageable unfortunately.. can you provide your thoughts & opinions?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

Hi guys, I received a shipment of anthias last Wednesday & setup a 20 gallon QT tank. They seemed healthy although 1/5 died during transport. I’ll chop that up to 24-hour delay in shipment.
In QT they were doing well until a 30 minute formalin bathe. After the tank swap, they moved to a new 20-gallon.
The formalin dip was .90ml in 1-gallon.

Note: I setup a brute trash 50 gallon with water so I have fresh mixed water ready to go.

In the new tank they are laying on the bottom, overnight their fins are all frayed. I’m noticing some lesions on their bodies as well. There’s no aggression & prior to this they were all schooling together. One died earlier this morning and the Others are just laying at the bottom. Water salinity tested fine. I have an air pump & small 20-gallon since pump at the top to circulate the water.

Given that these are anthias, I’m very hesitant with what they can have.

The photo of them as a trio was just after the formalin dip.

I added metro & kanaplex to the water column. I have neoplex & nitrofurazone on hand as well as safety stop, formalin, Malachite green, copper power & methylene blue as well.

I don’t trust those lesions at the base of their tail as it seems under the skin. I don’t think they’re salvageable unfortunately.. can you provide your thoughts & opinions?

The one in upper pics has evidence of aggression and tail nipping and likely the issue. I also recommend quarantining to avoid chances of Uronema and building up their immune system. Prevention is the best method to avoiding anthias issues and can be triggered by low salinity levels as well as excess food waste on tank bottom which this protozoan can feed on. Prevent overfeeding.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

Hi guys, I received a shipment of anthias last Wednesday & setup a 20 gallon QT tank. They seemed healthy although 1/5 died during transport. I’ll chop that up to 24-hour delay in shipment.
In QT they were doing well until a 30 minute formalin bathe. After the tank swap, they moved to a new 20-gallon.
The formalin dip was .90ml in 1-gallon.

Note: I setup a brute trash 50 gallon with water so I have fresh mixed water ready to go.

In the new tank they are laying on the bottom, overnight their fins are all frayed. I’m noticing some lesions on their bodies as well. There’s no aggression & prior to this they were all schooling together. One died earlier this morning and the Others are just laying at the bottom. Water salinity tested fine. I have an air pump & small 20-gallon since pump at the top to circulate the water.

Given that these are anthias, I’m very hesitant with what they can have.

The photo of them as a trio was just after the formalin dip.

I added metro & kanaplex to the water column. I have neoplex & nitrofurazone on hand as well as safety stop, formalin, Malachite green, copper power & methylene blue as well.

I don’t trust those lesions at the base of their tail as it seems under the skin. I don’t think they’re salvageable unfortunately.. can you provide your thoughts & opinions?

One thing to understand; with one out of five fish dying during the delayed shipment, since they are all the same species, that means the other four ALMOST died, and are likely to have residual issues from that episode.

The concentration you used is 250 ppm, that’s too high for tropical temperatures, it should only be used in fish below 50 degrees f. I know there are some web sites out that that say dose at 250, but they are wrong, that’s just too high. The standard tropical dose is 167 ppm for one hour with good aeration. I tend to use 150 ppm for 45 minutes for an added safety margin. All formalin dips must be heavily aerated.

Actually, I don’t suggest using formalin due to human health concerns (I’ve done thousands of formalin dips over the past 50 years, I hope I don’t end up with health issues).

That said, I’ve never seen an overdose of formalin cause fin damage like that. Typically, that comes from tankmate aggression or netting/handling issues.

 

[Leon.NYC]

One thing to understand; with one out of five fish dying during the delayed shipment, since they are all the same species, that means the other four ALMOST died, and are likely to have residual issues from that episode.

The concentration you used is 250 ppm, that’s too high for tropical temperatures, it should only be used in fish below 50 degrees f. I know there are some web sites out that that say dose at 250, but they are wrong, that’s just too high. The standard tropical dose is 167 ppm for one hour with good aeration. I tend to use 150 ppm for 45 minutes for an added safety margin. All formalin dips must be heavily aerated.

Actually, I don’t suggest using formalin due to human health concerns (I’ve done thousands of formalin dips over the past 50 years, I hope I don’t end up with health issues).

That said, I’ve never seen an overdose of formalin cause fin damage like that. Typically, that comes from tankmate aggression or netting/handling issues.

Thank you Jay & vette for the input. I always have a nanny cam looking at my qt tanks but never seen any aggression. Just went back and looked at the video. I do see some “charging” but the fish swim away or try and bolt Upwards (I have a loose fitting mesh on top from a tank I’m tearing down.

Fully understood on the formalin. I put it outside & have big gloves & heavy duty mask on when handling. I typically go with H2o2, but with them being anthias I figured I’d at least do the first dip in formalin.
I haven’t netted the fish but captured by hand since they were first in a 20 gallon brute tote then going into a 20 long. Unfortunately I lost all the remaining. Deep blow to my ego as I’ve been pretty good with QT as of late, even curing some fish. In the photo, they had some white patches developing under the skin at the base of the tail, could that be something?

I think for fish like anthias where I want to qt in batches, I’m going to have to reach out to the pros for that.. I can do 1-2 at a time but it gets difficult handling 5.

When they came in, they darted away to the pvc pipes so I didn’t get much eyes on them and i Wanted to leave them alone for 24 hours to acclimate properly. They did get delayed so they were in the shipping box for over 48-hours.