Lyretail Anthias not eating/ich?

familiar1985 · Nov 22, 2016

I have 6 lyretail anthias in QT. Ammonia creeped up and I was using ammolock to detoxify. After about a week I noticed one of the anthias stopped eating. I transferred them to larger tank with new water and other bio filtration i pulled out of sump. Next day I noticed he has white spots on him that look like ick to me.

Kinda difficult to capture pics of the spots on body but you can see them pretty well on face and fins. I just wanted to confirm that this is ick so I can start treatment. I will most likely be doing hypo if I cannot obtain CP.

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melypr1985 · Nov 22, 2016

You got it. Confirmation of ick. I have had great luck with these anthias and CopperSafe. Just FYI. I dont like hypo since it's so hard to keep it at exactly 1.009 for the full 30 days and then there's the fact that some strains of ick are hypo resistant. Just my 2 cents

familiar1985 · Nov 25, 2016

Thank you for the fast confirmation. I will be starting a CP treatment on Tuesday, hopefully he will be ok until then. He hasn't eaten in a few days while the 5 others show no signs of ich and eat well.

melypr1985 · Nov 25, 2016

familiar1985 said:
Thank you for the fast confirmation. I will be starting a CP treatment on Tuesday, hopefully he will be ok until then. He hasn't eaten in a few days while the 5 others show no signs of ich and eat well.

I hope so too. Oh and Welcome to R2R! I wish is was under better circumstances, but we are glad you are here.

familiar1985 · Dec 7, 2016

Chloroquin Phosphate "CP" treatment was started about 1 week ago.

I am worried because the one anthias is still not eating and others have stopped eating as well. I have 1 or 2 that are still eating well. Ammonia has been an issue, I have been doing large (75%) water changes every 2-3 days and dosing ammolock. What do you think the best way to proceed is? Should i abandon treatment to try to get them eating again and get ammonia under control, should i keep up with the treatment and continue with water changes/ammolock, or could something else be causing them to not eat?

jcdeng · Dec 7, 2016

are u sure the ammolock is not reacting with the Chloroquin which is stressing the fishes out more?

melypr1985 · Dec 7, 2016

I always say not to use ammonia reducers with any medication. It's usually only a problem with copper, but why risk it?

You can abandon CP for TTM. That will still treat for Ick but without the chemicals.

familiar1985 · Dec 10, 2016

I abandoned CP treatment and placed all of the anthias into a 10gal and will be transitioning to TTM. I figured going into TTM from CP makes a lot of sense to not start treatment over. I have had them in CP for a little over a week so if the Trophont (attached to fish) stage lasts 3-7 days and the CP is effectively killing all Theronts (free swimmers) then the fish should currently be fully ich free. I will continue TTM for a couple transfers 3 days apart to be on the safe side.

All but one anthias are eating well 1 day after being transferred out of tank treated with CP and look better, with more energy. Prior to dosing the tank with CP these same anthias were eating very well and looked healthy so I must assume that the CP was the cause for their slight lethargy and not eating. I was dosing ammo lock with the CP so it is a possibility that the combination was the cause of the result as well.

I originally treated for ick because one fish was showing ick and not eating while others were doing fine. This same fish is still not eating, looks very weak and skinny (hasn't eaten in about 3 weeks). I think I am running out of time with this fish. I think it may have flukes at this point possibly? I was considering doing a freshwater bath tomorrow prior to next transfer. He also has a white fleshy bump on head right above his eye and a little back that developed over the last day, not sure what it is or if it was caused by other anthias. If anyone has any suggestions what this is or what the best option for treating it or getting the fish eating, let me know.

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familiar1985 · Dec 10, 2016

jcdeng said:
are u sure the ammolock is not reacting with the Chloroquin which is stressing the fishes out more?

Thats a possibility, I read on one of the CP threads that ammo lock should be ok to use with CP. However, I think its just the CP that had the negative effect, when doing 75% water changes (30gal QT tank) i did not notice any improvement in the fish and I wouldn't dose ammo lock for a day or so after doing the water changes. Also, when I initially placed the fish into the CP tank i did not dose ammo lock right away and it seems like the following day they were looking worse and eating not as well if eating at all.

melypr1985 · Dec 10, 2016

He's pretty skinny., and 3 weeks is a very long time not to eat. I'd say you could do the FW dip to confirm/rule out flukes before treating and further suppressing his appetite. If they show, then treat.... but your priority needs to be getting him eating. I see a bump on his head, but that's not something that I'm worried about. Food! I forget what all you've tried, but it's time to break out the big guns. Live foods, black worms, white worms, brine even, garlic..... try anything and everything until he eats even one piece then keep going with that one until he starts eating more. Then you can try adding other things to his diet. Be sure to add vitamins to everything you feed him since he will need every single advantage each bite can give him.

familiar1985 · Dec 29, 2016

melypr1985 said:
He's pretty skinny., and 3 weeks is a very long time not to eat. I'd say you could do the FW dip to confirm/rule out flukes before treating and further suppressing his appetite. If they show, then treat.... but your priority needs to be getting him eating. I see a bump on his head, but that's not something that I'm worried about. Food! I forget what all you've tried, but it's time to break out the big guns. Live foods, black worms, white worms, brine even, garlic..... try anything and everything until he eats even one piece then keep going with that one until he starts eating more. Then you can try adding other things to his diet. Be sure to add vitamins to everything you feed him since he will need every single advantage each bite can give him.

Unfortunately I lost that fish, could not get him eating. I finished with the ich treatment and one round of prazi pro. All fish are eating. I noticed black spots on the male Lyretail Anthias. I am not sure but it looks like Black Ick. Let me know what you think

melypr1985 · Dec 29, 2016

familiar1985 said:
Unfortunately I lost that fish, could not get him eating. I finished with the ich treatment and one round of prazi pro. All fish are eating. I noticed black spots on the male Lyretail Anthias. I am not sure but it looks like Black Ick. Let me know what you think

almost looks like black ich, but not quite. When did this show up? After the prazi and after the copper?

familiar1985 · Dec 29, 2016

melypr1985 said:
almost looks like black ich, but not quite. When did this show up? After the prazi and after the copper?

Showed up after TTM I believe, prior to starting Prazi and Prazi did not seem to do anything.

melypr1985 · Dec 29, 2016

familiar1985 said:
Showed up after TTM I believe, prior to starting Prazi and Prazi did not seem to do anything.

OK, then I'd say it's definitely not black ich..... I'm leaning more towards an infection of some sort, or just pigments in the skin that are coming out. Probably an infection though.

familiar1985 · Dec 29, 2016

melypr1985 said:
OK, then I'd say it's definitely not black ich..... I'm leaning more towards an infection of some sort, or just pigments in the skin that are coming out. Probably an infection though.

Should I treat with anything to aid infection healing or just let it run its course and keep in QT until it clears?