Medicated QT - Fish not eating

dhof · Feb 20, 2019

So I purchased 3 blue reef chromis and 1 pink streaked wrasse. I'm doing my first quarantine and introduced all 4 to a 20 gallon tank with CP in it. Ammonia has been well under control with Dr. Tims and sump sponges.

One of the Chromis passed away a few days ago. The wrasse has always eaten. The other 2 surviving Chromis have not eaten for 8 DAYS now!!!! I've tried every concievable food (frozen brine, formula 2, Marine cuisine, all sorts of pellet foods including sustainable aquatics, flake food, squid, mysis shrimp), and I've tried both medicated and non-medicated on all of the food types. I've also tried garlic-guard and no-garlic guard. The chromis just will not eat anything.

Any advice? How long can these 2 chromis survive without eating? I'm only 5 days into the trifecta and I have 5 more days to go.... The chromis are still active, but are beginning to be a bit more lethargic and staying in one corner rather than swimming around all over. Any help is appreciated.

Day 1
1. Large Chromis had popeye in only 1 eye
2. All 3 chromis had stringy white things coming out of their underside
3. All 4 fish ate food
Day 2
1. Large Chromis' popeye got worse in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 1 cloudy eye
3. All 3 chromis had stringy white things coming out of their underside
4. All 4 fish ate food
Day 3
1. Large Chromis popey got very bad in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 1 cloudy eye
3. All 3 chromis had stringy white things coming out of their underside
4. Metroplex+Focus in food
5. All 4 fish ate food
Day 4
1. Large Chromis' popeye is very bad in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 2 cloudy eyes
3. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side and cloudy eye on 1 side.
4. Dosed Metroplex in tank.
5. All 4 fish ate food
Day 5
1. Large Chromis' popeye is very bad in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 2 cloudy eyes
3. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side and cloudy eye on 1 side.
4. Metroplex+Focus in food
5. Only the wrasse ate food
Day 6
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 2 cloudy eyes
3. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side and cloudy eye on 1 side.
4. 50% water change with CP
5. Dosed Epsom Salt into tank
6. Dosed Metroplex in tank.
7. Dosed Erythromycin in tank
8. Metroplex+Focus in food
9. Only the wrasse ate food
Day 7
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 2 cloudy eyes, and fin rot on tail fins
3. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side and cloudy eye on 1 side.
4. Dosed Erythromycin in tank
5. Dosed Furan 2 in tank
6. Metroplex+Focus in food
7. Only the wrasse ate food
Day 8 - Started trifecta
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Medium chromis showed 2 cloudy eyes, and worsened fin rot on tail fins
3. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side and cloudy eye on 1 side.
4. 50% water change with CP
5. Dosed Metroplex
6. Dosed Furan-2
7. Dosed Kanaplex
8. Metroplex+Kanaplex+Focus in food
9. Only the wrasse ate the food
Day 9
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side (getting smaller) and cloudy eyes on both sides.
3. Dosed Furan-2
4. Metroplex+Kanaplex+Focus in food
5. Only the wrasse ate food
6. Medium Wrasse died
Day 10
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side (getting smaller) and cloudy eyes on both sides.
3. 25% water change with CP
4. Dosed Metroplex
5. Dosed Furan-2
6. Dosed Kanaplex
7. Metroplex+Kanaplex+Focus in food
8. Only the wrasse ate the food
Day 11
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side (getting smaller) and cloudy eyes on both sides.
3. Dosed Furan-2
4. Metroplex+Kanaplex+Focus in food
5. Only the wrasse ate food
Day 12
1. Large Chromis' popeye is EXTREMELY SEVERE in the 1 eye
2. Small chromis showed a white spot on one side (getting smaller) and cloudy eyes on both sides.
3. 25% water change with CP
4. Dosed Metroplex
5. Dosed Furan-2
6. Dosed Kanaplex
7. Metroplex+Kanaplex+Focus in food
8. Only the wrasse ate the food

Big G · Feb 20, 2019

dhof said:
Chromis have not eaten for 8 DAYS now!!!!

Gotta be honest here. Chromis have a very fast metabolism. They are living off of their internal fat stores. Not good. The only things left to try are live foods: brine shrimp, blackworms, whiteworms.

dhof · Feb 21, 2019

Big G said:
Gotta be honest here. Chromis have a very fast metabolism. They are living off of their internal fat stores. Not good. The only things left to try are live foods: brine shrimp, blackworms, whiteworms.

Good thought. I’ll try to find something today. Unfortunately all I have locally is a pet smart and Petco and I don’t recall seeing any live food there. I’ll call my Las but i seriously doubt they have live food. Maybe a bait shop.... Hrmmm

dhof · Feb 21, 2019

So my LFS did actually have live blackworms!

I fed the live blackworms to the QT tank and the 2 Chromis inspected them closely several times. I put the worms in one at a time and after a dozen worms or so, the large Chromi (with the terrible popeye) actually ate 2 or 3 of the worms. The worms pretty much die by the time they hit the bottom of the tank and he only seemed to care about live ones that were squirming. After the initial 2 or 3 that he ate, he seemed to stop eating the worms, but was still very interested in the squirming and would swim right up to the worm but then turn away. I then put some frozen brine shrimp in there and the large chromis ate like 5 or 6 of the frozen brine too. So this is definitely progress.

Unfortunately the small Chromis ate nothing at all, and this time the wrasse didn't eat anything at all either. But, I think I'm on the right track here again. Thanks for the advice!

Frtdrmrose7 · Feb 22, 2019

dhof said:
So my LFS did actually have live blackworms!

I fed the live blackworms to the QT tank and the 2 Chromis inspected them closely several times. I put the worms in one at a time and after a dozen worms or so, the large Chromi (with the terrible popeye) actually ate 2 or 3 of the worms. The worms pretty much die by the time they hit the bottom of the tank and he only seemed to care about live ones that were squirming. After the initial 2 or 3 that he ate, he seemed to stop eating the worms, but was still very interested in the squirming and would swim right up to the worm but then turn away. I then put some frozen brine shrimp in there and the large chromis ate like 5 or 6 of the frozen brine too. So this is definitely progress.

Unfortunately the small Chromis ate nothing at all, and this time the wrasse didn't eat anything at all either. But, I think I'm on the right track here again. Thanks for the advice!

What do you have the CP dosed at?

dhof · Feb 22, 2019

Frtdrmrose7 said:
What do you have the CP dosed at?

CP is (and has been) dosed at 45 mg/gal

Fed again tonight. Large Chromis ate well (live blackworms and frozen brine) and is looking super active in the tank again. His popeye is no better at all, but he sure behaves much more healthy.

Wrasse did eat frozen brine shrimp tonight, so that is good and he has been eating all along.

The Small Chromis is now on day 10 without having eaten anything at all, and he didn't even try for the live worms. He's pretty lethargic hanging out in a corner of the tank at the top. I'm not sure he will make it if he doesn't eat something soon.

dhof · Feb 24, 2019

The small Chromis died on Friday night. I think both the small and medium Chromis deaths were due to lack of eating. I've noted the importance of having live food available the next time I mess with antibiotics and CP.

The pink streaked wrasse behaves just fine, and has been eating all along. He genuinely looks pretty happy. Aside from the 1 day where he didn't appear to eat, he has been doing great.

The large Chromis with the terrible Popeye has been eating (alot) ever since I got the live blackworms, but the popeye is still pretty bad.

The Large Chromis' back lower fin today shows some fin rot, which he has not had at all until today. Both of the other 2 chromis got tail rot about a day before they died, so this doesn't look good for Popeye...

Tomorrow will be day 10 of the trifecta so I'll have to decide tomorrow if I stop at 10, or continue on to 14 days. I guess if the tail rot is still progressing, I should continue on to 14 days?

dhof · Mar 9, 2019

So here I am at the 30 days in CP mark. I lost 2 of the 3 Blue Chromis (likely due to appetite suppression and not getting them live worms soon enough).

The 1 remaining blue Chromis:
1. Had white stringy, and then black stringy poop until about a week ago. I haven't observed any more unusual poop hanging from him.
2. His Popeye was severe for about the first 20 days, and in the past week has finally become normal (although I suspect he is blind in that eye)
3. Both of his eyes are still cloudy
4. He has severe tail fin rot now (started about 10 days ago), and his entire tail fin tissue has been lost. The tail section has a fairly large open red sore on it. I've been treating for 4 days with Erythromycin with no apparent improvement. I just put Melafix and Pimafix in tonight to see if that works (I'm getting desparate).
I have the pink-streaked wrasse who never had any problems at all. No spots, no weird behavior, and pretty much ate every single day.

Question: Obviously I will not be placing the Blue Chromis in my DT anytime soon. Would it be unwise to put the apparently healthy pink-streaked wrasse in my DT, or should I leave him in QT with the Blue Chromis until the Chromis' tail rot and cloudy eyes resolve?