Fin rot can I dose Maracyn 2 to "DT"

[BurtG]

So.... ive learned something new... even if the tank looks relatively clean and you are doing 50% water changes every 7-10 days... You should probably still do water testing more than once every 3 months...

My wife noted that our blue velvet damsels fins are starting to deteriorate... we've had this fish for around 15 years from when we first started dating. Needless to say, since it's the only fish we've had that whole time, we are very attached to it. She will be devastated if we lose it... so I need to do everything possible to not let that happen.

Anyways, details time. The fish is too aggressive to be around any of my other fish so he earned himself a final retirement home In a 20 gal tank all to himself now. This tank has been up and running with him in it for about a year now. We had an algae blenny with him for about 2 years (they didnt really get along but tolerated each other and didnt hurt each other), but I found the blenny dead maybe 4 months ago. It looked like blue started showing signed of flukes at the same time. I didn't find the blenny until he was pretty well rotten, so the water quality had plummeted at that point. I did a couple heavy water changes and I treated the tank with prazipro (the first time I've ever used a fish medicine...). It seemed to work as after a couple weeks he seemed back to normal.

Since then he's been acting normal, eating like a pig as normal and not shown any issues.

Side note: idk if it's bad luck, something in the water I can't detect, or blues murderous rage... but I havent been able to keep any snails alive in the tank... I haven't tried a ton of them. But on 2 separate occasions in the last year when I added QTd snails they died within a couple days...

So anyways... long story short. I believe he has fin rot from the Parameters being so bad. I did a large water change last night and have more water being made right now (thank god I keep some mixed at all times for emergencies). The Parameters I'm showing below are what the tank was at before the water change. I will need to test again to get the current ones.

Meds on hand: prazipro, coppersafe, fluconazole ( I think I actually bought this on a whim for an algae issue that I never used it for...), and selcon.

Last night I ordered: Maracyn 2, Ruby Reef Rally Pro, Methylene Blue, Metroplex, Neoplex, and Nitrofurazone.

I know I don't need all these for this currect issue... but after spending a couple hours combing through this form I just started making a list of things I may need for this and future use. Since it seems having to wait a couple days for stuff to Ship could be the death of the fish.

So basically... after all that. My questions are. Am I right that it's fin rot and I just need to get his water a lot cleaner and dose the Maracyn 2 to try to get him better? And can I dose it straight to his tank since there are no other fish, corals or snails in it? Should I dose something else?

I'd put him in the QT Tank I have... except I just put a new tang and blenny in it for copper treatment. After the fluke incident where the blenny probably brought them in and almost cost us blue when the water went south, I started doing qt on all fish coming into the house.

Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only, just the solo velvet devil damsel, no crabs, corals or snails
Aquarium water volume: 20 gal
Filtration type: hang on back filter and sponge filter
Lighting: some cheap marine led strip
How long has the aquarium been established?
Digital image of the aquarium under white light

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature 78.5 f
pH: 7.7
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.024 sg
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: 30.1 ppm
Phosphate: 2.50++ too high for Hanna checker to read
Copper: 0 (didnt actually test, but have never dosed it to this tank)
Other: dkh 7.0

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? No
Respiration rate of affected fish (in gill beats per minutes, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4): will have to count later when the lights are on and he's out.
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? 70% water change last night.
Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light - attached
- if needed, indicate by drawing a line around the area in question.
Short video of the fish: attached

 

[vetteguy53081]

So.... ive learned something new... even if the tank looks relatively clean and you are doing 50% water changes every 7-10 days... You should probably still do water testing more than once every 3 months...

My wife noted that our blue velvet damsels fins are starting to deteriorate... we've had this fish for around 15 years from when we first started dating. Needless to say, since it's the only fish we've had that whole time, we are very attached to it. She will be devastated if we lose it... so I need to do everything possible to not let that happen.

Anyways, details time. The fish is too aggressive to be around any of my other fish so he earned himself a final retirement home In a 20 gal tank all to himself now. This tank has been up and running with him in it for about a year now. We had an algae blenny with him for about 2 years (they didnt really get along but tolerated each other and didnt hurt each other), but I found the blenny dead maybe 4 months ago. It looked like blue started showing signed of flukes at the same time. I didn't find the blenny until he was pretty well rotten, so the water quality had plummeted at that point. I did a couple heavy water changes and I treated the tank with prazipro (the first time I've ever used a fish medicine...). It seemed to work as after a couple weeks he seemed back to normal.

Since then he's been acting normal, eating like a pig as normal and not shown any issues.

Side note: idk if it's bad luck, something in the water I can't detect, or blues murderous rage... but I havent been able to keep any snails alive in the tank... I haven't tried a ton of them. But on 2 separate occasions in the last year when I added QTd snails they died within a couple days...

So anyways... long story short. I believe he has fin rot from the Parameters being so bad. I did a large water change last night and have more water being made right now (thank god I keep some mixed at all times for emergencies). The Parameters I'm showing below are what the tank was at before the water change. I will need to test again to get the current ones.

Meds on hand: prazipro, coppersafe, fluconazole ( I think I actually bought this on a whim for an algae issue that I never used it for...), and selcon.

Last night I ordered: Maracyn 2, Ruby Reef Rally Pro, Methylene Blue, Metroplex, Neoplex, and Nitrofurazone.

I know I don't need all these for this currect issue... but after spending a couple hours combing through this form I just started making a list of things I may need for this and future use. Since it seems having to wait a couple days for stuff to Ship could be the death of the fish.

So basically... after all that. My questions are. Am I right that it's fin rot and I just need to get his water a lot cleaner and dose the Maracyn 2 to try to get him better? And can I dose it straight to his tank since there are no other fish, corals or snails in it? Should I dose something else?

I'd put him in the QT Tank I have... except I just put a new tang and blenny in it for copper treatment. After the fluke incident where the blenny probably brought them in and almost cost us blue when the water went south, I started doing qt on all fish coming into the house.

Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only, just the solo velvet devil damsel, no crabs, corals or snails
Aquarium water volume: 20 gal
Filtration type: hang on back filter and sponge filter
Lighting: some cheap marine led strip
How long has the aquarium been established?
Digital image of the aquarium under white light

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature 78.5 f
pH: 7.7
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.024 sg
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: n/a
Nitrate: 30.1 ppm
Phosphate: 2.50++ too high for Hanna checker to read
Copper: 0 (didnt actually test, but have never dosed it to this tank)
Other: dkh 7.0

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? No
Respiration rate of affected fish (in gill beats per minutes, count for 15 seconds and multiply by 4): will have to count later when the lights are on and he's out.
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? 70% water change last night.
Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light - attached
- if needed, indicate by drawing a line around the area in question.
Short video of the fish: attached

While it has no real impact on bacteria, it may on inverts and I would not advise doing such. If any products - would be ruby rally pro but any treatment is best in a quarantine setting and a QT tank can be as simple as an aquarium starter kit from walmart which has most of the essentials

 

[threebuoys]

In essence, based on your description, the 20 gallon DT tank with the damsel is a QT also. No other fish, no invertebrates, no coral, etc. So medicate as you would in a QT then when healed, do water changes to reset water quality to normal.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

How ironic - a blue velvet damsel with ripped fins!
pH is a bit low and the PO4 is high (you can do a dilution with RODI to a sample to get it back into range for your Hanna)

Has this been a chronic issue (longer than a month)?

15 years is a very good run for a Neoglyphidodon damselfish, I've never kept one anywhere near that long. I ran a search on an aquarium database. Not a lot of samples because these fish are so nasty, few aquariums keep them. I did see one reportedly alive since 1998, but that could be an artifact, The rest are all younger than 10 years.

The pectoral fin damage is different, but see how the anal fin damage is rounded? That is more a sign of a chronic, or healing issue.

My gut feeling is that this is old age combined with a Mycobacterium infection (one of the common causes of death in old fish). There isn't any effective treatment for that though.

Jay

 

[BurtG]

In essence, based on your description, the 20 gallon DT tank with the damsel is a QT also. No other fish, no invertebrates, no coral, etc. So medicate as you would in a QT then when healed, do water changes to reset water quality to normal.

Thanks, so you don't think there will be a weird reaction or problem between the Maracyn 2 and having rock and sand in the tank? I guess that is my main concern since I know that's a big issue for copper. Idk if other meds have similar issues?

 

[BurtG]

How ironic - a blue velvet damsel with ripped fins!
pH is a bit low and the PO4 is high (you can do a dilution with RODI to a sample to get it back into range for your Hanna)

Has this been a chronic issue (longer than a month)?

15 years is a very good run for a Neoglyphidodon damselfish, I've never kept one anywhere near that long. I ran a search on an aquarium database. Not a lot of samples because these fish are so nasty, few aquariums keep them. I did see one reportedly alive since 1998, but that could be an artifact, The rest are all younger than 10 years.

The pectoral fin damage is different, but see how the anal fin damage is rounded? That is more a sign of a chronic, or healing issue.

My gut feeling is that this is old age combined with a Mycobacterium infection (one of the common causes of death in old fish). There isn't any effective treatment for that though.

Jay

I dont believe it's been longer than a month, but honestly life's been hectic the last few so its possible I missed it for awhile.

So I should try to bump the ph up as well as medicate?

I will get a better po4 reading tonight.

So do you think treatment with Maracyn 2 could still help or could it just make the situation worse with stress? I've been kinda thinking it might just be an age break down issue... but ive heard of other species going longer in captivity before like 25 years. So I was hopeful we can go longer.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I dont believe it's been longer than a month, but honestly life's been hectic the last few so its possible I missed it for awhile.

So I should try to bump the ph up as well as medicate?

I will get a better po4 reading tonight.

So do you think treatment with Maracyn 2 could still help or could it just make the situation worse with stress? I've been kinda thinking it might just be an age break down issue... but ive heard of other species going longer in captivity before like 25 years. So I was hopeful we can go longer.

If this an artifact of a myco infection, there really isn’t any treatment. Improving the water quality offers supportive care.
Personally, I would improve the water quality and then see how it responds before adding Maracyn 2 to the tank.
Jay

 

[BurtG]

Did another big water change and got Nitrates down to 5.5ppm, phos to 1.13ppm and the ph is at 7.9

I took your advice and am not medicating yet. But I have started feeding him mysis soaked in selcon and phyto to boost his nutrition. There are no further signs of fin loss. How long would it typically take to see new growth if they are going to come back?