Seasoned fw but new reef keeper question

[absowry]

So I noticed my cycle Molly has a pretty ragged looking head and face. Honestly it looks like dead skin coming loose but I'm not sure. Fish is eating fine, moving about quite a bit. Not breathing heavily or clamping fins. I did notice it was doing some barrel rolls earlier, however it looked like it was going after the tentacle from my galaxea. Don't know if maybe it got a shock. Hasn't done it since.
I was planning on getting my first pair of clowns this weekend, but I don't want to do that if there's a disease running rampant.

Salinity is 1.025-1.026
Ammonia is 0
Nitrites less than 0.02
Nitrates less than 2

Tank mates are snails, a freshly molted blood shrimp, porcelain crab, and several corals (paly, zoa, Duncan, galaxea) who are all doing perfectly well.

Thanks in advance for any information you guys can provide me with!

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Is this a new tank? Fresh cycle? If that was on a clown I’d suspect Brooklynella tbh.
Can you give us the history on the tank?

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Livebearers are prone to columnaris infections that I didn't think they would get in full saltwater, but that's what it looks like. It looks pretty advanced from the photos and probably too late to intervene. Here's a link with more info though:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/columnaris-disease-in-aquarium-fish-1378480

 

[absowry]

Is this a new tank? Fresh cycle? If that was on a clown I’d suspect Brooklynella tbh.
Can you give us the history on the tank?

Newer tank. Established for about a month now. Cycle completed before adding the Molly.

All other inhabitants are doing very well. The Molly is very active as I said before. Eating and defecating normally. No heaving breathing or anything like that.

 

[absowry]

Livebearers are prone to columnaris infections that I didn't think they would get in full saltwater, but that's what it looks like. It looks pretty advanced from the photos and probably too late to intervene. Here's a link with more info though:

https://www.thesprucepets.com/columnaris-disease-in-aquarium-fish-1378480

I thought about that, but it seems it will not survive a SW environment. Flexibacter maritimus is the sw equivalent but I'm having trouble finding identification pictures to help ID it.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Tbh I don’t know what to tell you after reading @S-t-r-e-t-c-h post above. I looked at his link and this could be a FW bacteria but how it could survive in SW idk. I’m curious though because that rock looks well seasoned, did you get this from someone else’s tank and it stayed wet? Are you going to QT new fish before adding? After seeing this I would QT new fish and leave this tank fallow for 42 days which should be about your QT period anyways. The 42 days would eliminate the possibility of brook and velvet.
Maybe we can get more thoughts on this.
@HotRocks @4FordFamily @ngoodermuth @Big G

 

[absowry]

Tbh I don’t know what to tell you after reading @S-t-r-e-t-c-h post above. I looked at his link and this could be a FW bacteria but how it could survive in SW idk. I’m curious though because that rock looks well seasoned, did you get this from someone else’s tank and it stayed wet? Are you going to QT new fish before adding? After seeing this I would QT new fish and leave this tank fallow for 42 days which should be about your QT period anyways. The 42 days would eliminate the possibility of brook and velvet.
Maybe we can get more thoughts on this.
@HotRocks @4FordFamily @ngoodermuth @Big G

I don't actually have a qt tank. Heresay I know. After doing all this research, I have a torn down 29 gallon fw tank that I'm going to set up for a qt tank for sure.

Rock came from two different LFS. Well seasoned. I'm pretty sure the initial die off from the rock being out of water a tad too long is what kick started my cycle so quickly. Within the first week I had the ammonia spike and the subsequent nitrite/trate spikes. Tank had no fish in it for another week or so after that. I put my Molly in to help buffer the cycle and prepare for more fish.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I don't actually have a qt tank. Heresay I know. After doing all this research, I have a torn down 29 gallon fw tank that I'm going to set up for a qt tank for sure.

Rock came from two different LFS. Well seasoned. I'm pretty sure the initial die off from the rock being out of water a tad too long is what kick started my cycle so quickly. Within the first week I had the ammonia spike and the subsequent nitrite/trate spikes. Tank had no fish in it for another week or so after that. I put my Molly in to help buffer the cycle and prepare for more fish.

Well first off welcome to R2R! And we won’t hold that over your head for too long that you don’t have a QT! Lol. Seriously though I would set up a QT for your incoming clowns, pull the molly and leave that fallow for 42 days while you QT the clowns.

 

[HotRocks]

That is Brook on the Molly.

There are several people who buy FW mollies and convert them to SW for the exact reason of "testing" a tank or a batch of newly QTd fish for disease.

Molly's that have never been exposed to SW have zero resistance to the pathogens in SW so generally something present will show up immediately.

If you have recently started the tank, added snails, LR, Live sand etc there is a large possiblity that is how it was introduced.

 

[S-t-r-e-t-c-h]

Well first off welcome to R2R! And we won’t hold that over your head for too long that you don’t have a QT! Lol. Seriously though I would set up a QT for your incoming clowns, pull the molly and leave that fallow for 42 days while you QT the clowns.

Agree with this advice. On the off chance the molly has brooklynella, you definitely don't want the clowns going in the main display...

 

[absowry]

That is Brook on the Molly.

There are several people who buy FW mollies and convert them to SW for the exact reason of "testing" a tank or a batch of newly QTd fish for disease.

Molly's that have never been exposed to SW have zero resistance to the pathogens in SW so generally something present will show up immediately.

If you have recently started the tank, added snails, LR, Live sand etc there is a large possiblity that is how it was introduced.

I will look into this. This Molly was the last one my LFS has so it had been acclimated for a bit. Thanks for your insight!

 

[ngoodermuth]

I agree, it looks like brook to me as well. Was this a freshwater molly that you acclimated to salt? Or was it already a “saltwater” molly? How long did you acclimate it from fresh to salt, if you did so?

If the tank cycled a month, the fallow period for brook is 6-weeks... so it’s possible there was brook latent in the rock that wasn’t starved out.

Edit. Apparently I was too slow in typing my response haha... what they said^^ [emoji12]

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

I will look into this. This Molly was the last one my LFS has so it had been acclimated for a bit. Thanks for your insight!

Either way you’ll need to pull the molly and either treat him or euthanize him. Run your tank fallow for 42 days and this is a perfect example to show you how rampant disease is in the SW hobby right now.

 

[absowry]

Thanks so much everyone. Instead of spending money on the clowns, I'll set up a qt tank this weekend.

Will a hob filter be ok for a bare qt tank?

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Thanks so much everyone. Instead of spending money on the clowns, I'll set up a qt tank this weekend.

Will a hob filter be ok for a bare qt tank?

Hob filter, heater, powerhead, etc basically a cheap FW setup is what everyone uses

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Instead of trying to cycle traditional methods just get a filter sponge and add a bottle of biospira to it. Your QT will be pretty much fish ready.

 

[4FordFamily]

Additional brook diagnosis confirmation from me!

 

[Hemmdog]

Sorry about your molly.
Welcome to reef2reef though !

 

[absowry]

Thanks everyone for the help and welcomes! Sorry my first post was such a downer.

 

[absowry]

That is Brook on the Molly.

There are several people who buy FW mollies and convert them to SW for the exact reason of "testing" a tank or a batch of newly QTd fish for disease.

Molly's that have never been exposed to SW have zero resistance to the pathogens in SW so generally something present will show up immediately.

If you have recently started the tank, added snails, LR, Live sand etc there is a large possiblity that is how it was introduced.

After doing some research, it seems that it doesn't take very long for this to kill it's host.

My Molly has looked like this for a little while. I think it might be worse now, but at first I thought the white patch was just a color variation.

Would that change you thoughts on it being Brook? Should I get another Molly that is healthy looking to verify this and treat them both?