Purple tang damaged fins, bacterial infection?

schafon · Dec 22, 2021

Hi everyone,
I've purchased a purple tank from Live aquaria on Oct 20, and received him with a fin damage, I've contact Live Aquaria and they extended the live guarantee period because of that.
I've treated him with Melafix as instructed on the bottle and fed (and still do) with Selcon in the food.
I've QTd the fish (with fresh water black guppy) and a watchman goby, they are all now after a copper treatment (using copper power).
I can see fin damage on all 3 fish, I know that the purple tang is aggressive towards the watchman goby and I thought this is an explanation for the damaged fins on the goby and maybe even on the guppy but the fact that the purple tang has it too worries me.
Can the damaged fins be due to poor water quality / small tank? (15G)
Should I take any action or this will get better when I move them to the DT?

Picture of the purple tang the day I got him:

Picture of him from today:

Thanks.

LAReefer4Life · Dec 22, 2021

How are your water parameters? keeping the water quality pristine and vitamin enriched foods will go along way from preventing bacterial infections.

You can also grab tank dividers to help rule out aggression and reduce potential stress to help the fish recover.

90 min Ruby rally or 30 min methyl blue baths are great for aiding bacterial infections.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 22, 2021

Can’t picture goby as culprit but top dorsal has what looks like fin nip/damage
Melafix which is teak tree oil won’t do much
Ruby rally reef takes a little longer but works
Best would be Maracyn 2 if fin rot

Jay Hemdal · Dec 23, 2021

schafon said:
Hi everyone,
I've purchased a purple tank from Live aquaria on Oct 20, and received him with a fin damage, I've contact Live Aquaria and they extended the live guarantee period because of that.
I've treated him with Melafix as instructed on the bottle and fed (and still do) with Selcon in the food.
I've QTd the fish (with fresh water black guppy) and a watchman goby, they are all now after a copper treatment (using copper power).
I can see fin damage on all 3 fish, I know that the purple tang is aggressive towards the watchman goby and I thought this is an explanation for the damaged fins on the goby and maybe even on the guppy but the fact that the purple tang has it too worries me.
Can the damaged fins be due to poor water quality / small tank? (15G)
Should I take any action or this will get better when I move them to the DT?

Picture of the purple tang the day I got him:

Picture of him from today:

Thanks.

See how the dorsal fin margins are smooth edged but also scalloped? Have they always looked like that, or were they jagged and rough at first? The reason I ask is that fins looking like this means one of two things: fin damage that is gradually healing, or in Zebrasoma tangs, smoothly notched fins is a sign of head and lateral line erosion.

Jay

schafon · Dec 27, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
See how the dorsal fin margins are smooth edged but also scalloped? Have they always looked like that, or were they jagged and rough at first? The reason I ask is that fins looking like this means one of two things: fin damage that is gradually healing, or in Zebrasoma tangs, smoothly notched fins is a sign of head and lateral line erosion.

Jay

Hi Jay!
You can see 2 pictures here, the first one is from the day I got him, the 2nd is the latest.
I would say head and lateral line erosion is probably taking place since the fish won't eat sea weed and I wasn't the best at keeping the water parameters perfect in this tank.
Do you think it will be a risk to move him to the DT?

Thanks

Jay Hemdal · Dec 27, 2021

schafon said:
Hi Jay!
You can see 2 pictures here, the first one is from the day I got him, the 2nd is the latest.
I would say head and lateral line erosion is probably taking place since the fish won't eat sea weed and I wasn't the best at keeping the water parameters perfect in this tank.
Do you think it will be a risk to move him to the DT?

Thanks

I agree, this may be HLLE. However, I wouldn’t risk moving it to the DT unless it has gone through a copier treatment, they are fairly prone to ich and you don’t want that n your DT.
Jay