Frayed tail fin and white area on pictorial fin

Melinda01 · Mar 31, 2019

I have a McCosker wrasse and a Midas blenhy who have been in QT just over a month together. During that time I fed GC for two weeks, tomorrow will be two weeks in spectrogram, and 4 weeks in therapeutic copper. They have also had selcon mixed in with most of their food. I’ve noticed the blenny chasing the wrasse but didn’t see nipping. However, over the past few days I’ve noticed that the wrasse is losing chunks of his tail fin. Today I also noticed a white patch to his pectoral fin. I separated them because I think that the Midas is the culprit. What is the white patch? It looks too big to be ich, plus he’s in copper and has been for almost a month. Is it bacterial? Shouldn’t the spectrogram have prevented this if so? What should I do to help the little guy get better? Any advice is appreciated. He is still swimming and eating well. Otherwise appears healthy.
Sorry, those were the best pics I could get of the pectoral fin.

Big G · Mar 31, 2019

Consider separating the two fish with some eggcrate, might also need to zip tie some 1/4" plastic mesh on the eggcrate to keep the blenny away from the wrasse. Worked pretty good keeping my Starry Blenny away from a Pink Spot Goby it was trying to kill in QT. Now in the big tank they are fine together.

Is the "white patch" cottony or cauliflower like or flat and filmy looking? The pic is a bit fuzzy on this end.

4FordFamily · Mar 31, 2019

Big G said:
Consider separating the two fish with some eggcrate, might also need to zip tie some 1/4" plastic mesh on the eggcrate to keep the blenny away from the wrasse. Worked pretty good keeping my Starry Blenny away from a Pink Spot Goby it was trying to kill in QT. Now in the big tank they are fine together.

Is the "white patch" cottony or cauliflower like or flat and filmy looking? The pic is a bit fuzzy on this end.

Agree, I don’t think that’s ich that looks like the victim of aggression to me.

Melinda01 · Mar 31, 2019

Big G said:
Consider separating the two fish with some eggcrate, might also need to zip tie some 1/4" plastic mesh on the eggcrate to keep the blenny away from the wrasse. Worked pretty good keeping my Starry Blenny away from a Pink Spot Goby it was trying to kill in QT. Now in the big tank they are fine together.

Is the "white patch" cottony or cauliflower like or flat and filmy looking? The pic is a bit fuzzy on this end.

Okay. Thanks for the advice! It looks fuzzy to me but it is hard to tell. Should I start metroplex when the copper is finished? I plan to do a large, possibly 100% change Thursday (my next day off). I was thinking about trying metro on Friday, the day after the water change to see if that helps. Or do you think that is too long to wait or wrong treatment?

Big G · Mar 31, 2019

If it is cottony and or cauliflower like its probably lympho; if it is flat and or filmy looking it may be a bacterial infection. Treat a bacterial infection with kanaplex or Furan2 or NFG.

Melinda01 · Apr 5, 2019

Big G said:
If it is cottony and or cauliflower like its probably lympho; if it is flat and or filmy looking it may be a bacterial infection. Treat a bacterial infection with kanaplex or Furan2 or NFG.

I changed about 90% of the water last night, added biospira, and ran carbon to try and get the copper and spectrogram out of the tank. I plan to add the furan 2 today. Was also going to add GC to the water as that was the original plan. Is it safe to mix them or would it be better to just add the furan since he needs to heal? Also, should I dose the furan per directions or add one day, then again in 5-7 like the GC? Thanks again for the help.

Frtdrmrose7 · Apr 5, 2019

Melinda01 said:
I changed about 90% of the water last night, added biospira, and ran carbon to try and get the copper and spectrogram out of the tank. I plan to add the furan 2 today. Was also going to add GC to the water as that was the original plan. Is it safe to mix them or would it be better to just add the furan since he needs to heal? Also, should I dose the furan per directions or add one day, then again in 5-7 like the GC? Thanks again for the help.

Furan 2 is dosed daily with a 25% WC every 48 hours for 10-14 days.