Sick fish - help please :)

[Kongar]

I’ve got something going on with my fish that I can’t figure out. I could use some advice and help.

It started a couple of weeks ago with my sixline wrasse. After feedings, he would lose the ability to keep himself upright, and he’d twitch/flash. Clearly stressed. It would eventually pass, leading me to believe it was a feeding problem. No definitive results - thread here.

Sixline R2R help thread

Yesterday the wrasse went nose up in a corner, and nobody came out to eat (one sixline, two clowns). The fish have been in the tank for about 4 months, no prior issues. Usually, all three fish get quite excited when people are around, and start circling like sharks waiting to be fed. Today the wrasse is still nose up in the corner, one clown is now doing the same thing as the wrasse (with some extra twitching), and the other clown is in a spot he never goes to (under the rock) and is breathing erratically. None have eaten all day and the condition is worsening.

I cannot detect anything visibly wrong with the fish other than their behavior. Here’s a video:



I just tested my parameters and they are as follows:
KH 9.0
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 0
Phosphate .117
Salinity 34 ppm
Calcium 440
Mag 1680
Temp 85.2
PH 8.2
Oxygen 8.3

I’ve also recently lost 4 trochus snails, just found them dead. The four died within a one month period. I removed them and didn’t let them rot.

I’m going to do a 25% water change in an hour or so once the water comes up to temp.

The only thing “wrong” with the tank is an excess of GHA as I’m still going through the uglies, and I battled LA Dinos a little while ago. Clearly something is wrong as it’s now affected all the fish, not just one. I just don’t know what it could be? Any ideas? Thanks for the help

 

[Jay Hemdal]

This clown sure seems to have the same issue as the sixline! It still seems neurologic to me, but I can't tell what would cause that. I keep coming back to some toxin from the dinos, but the timing just doesn't seem to match up for that. If the trochus snails died all at once, I'd be worried, but over a month's time, it may not be related.

Have you used carbon on the tank recently?, you might want to if not If it is a toxin in the water, a 25% water change may not be enough to change things all that much. You might want to do 3x 25% over a couple of days, just to rule out some sort of toxin.

Are there any tank inhabitants that are unaffected?


Jay

 

[Bfragale]

Sorry to hear. Are you running a skimmer? I ask because could be low oxygen in the water? Or a toxin? Would run carbon like stated above.

otherwise I do not see anything your post that points towards anything specific unfortunately.

 

[Kongar]

I always run carbon. I always run a skimmer. Eshopps nano skimmer. My seneye says 8.2ish on O2 and it’s been stable for months. My inverts and corals seem to be fine - those are the only other inhabitants besides the three fish. The fish have all been in the tank for 4+ months.

I just saw white stringy poop on the wrasse. First time ever on any of the fish. I’m wondering if there’s an internal parasite. I don’t have any meds. Maybe I’ll go pick up some api general cure, and set up a QT tank for medication. I’m under the impression there aren’t any medications for that that are reef safe. And since they aren’t eating, it’ll have to go in the water.

It’s more than I had to go on before...

 

[Kongar]

Well, my wrasse bit the dust today. My clowns are in a hospital tank and I gave them api general cure last night. One or both of the clowns pooped out a bunch of little white dots - quite a lot of them actually. Yesterday the wrasse had this nasty long string of white poop. It looked more like white intestines than string. I’m assuming what the clown pooped out are the dead version of the wrasses white intestine/slime poop. The clowns have been medicated within 48 hours of first symptoms - MUCH faster than I acted with the wrasse. I guess now it’s a waiting game.

On a related note: can I trust my Red Sea ammonia test kit with api general cure in the water? Or do I need to buy one of those badge thingies I’ve seen linked somewhere. Thanks for the help.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Well, my wrasse bit the dust today. My clowns are in a hospital tank and I gave them api general cure last night. One or both of the clowns pooped out a bunch of little white dots - quite a lot of them actually. Yesterday the wrasse had this nasty long string of white poop. It looked more like white intestines than string. I’m assuming what the clown pooped out are the dead version of the wrasses white intestine/slime poop. The clowns have been medicated within 48 hours of first symptoms - MUCH faster than I acted with the wrasse. I guess now it’s a waiting game.

On a related note: can I trust my Red Sea ammonia test kit with api general cure in the water? Or do I need to buy one of those badge thingies I’ve seen linked somewhere. Thanks for the help.

As far as I know, the Red Sea ammonia test will work without interference from API General Cure.

Jay

 

[Kongar]

So an update. It's been a week since my three fish started going downhill. My two clowns were in pretty rough shape. Both ended up lying flat on their side for days on the bare bottom of the hospital tank - gasping and not swimming at all. I thought for sure they'd die like the wrasse. However, I think a recovery is in progress. They are now lethargically swimming around, not fast and lively - but upright, alert, and paired up again. Breathing has slowed considerably, but is not quite back to normal yet. They've pooped out lots of hard little white "things", but they still also have stringy white poop. I'll do another round of API general cure tomorrow (7 days since the first dose), and keep them in the hospital tank until they are better.

My issue now however is that neither fish has eaten anything in a week. I've tried soaking their favorite pellets in garlic to no avail. They just aren't interested. Any advice on getting them to eat? Should I be concerned about them starving to death? Or will they eventually get hungry enough where they'll eat just about anything.

Thanks

 

[Kongar]

Aaaaand they both just ate a little bit! Woot! We may just pull through this without a total loss. Very satisfying to start seeing progress nursing these sick lil buggers back to health! Thanks for the help. I'll post back a video of them happy if and when they pull through to a full recovery

 

[Kongar]

Just wanted to provide an update. Both my clowns have recovered and I've moved them back into the display tank. They are doing great! It's unfortunate I lost my sixline, but it's rewarding to have saved at least two of the three fish. I honestly didn't think they'd pull through. I did three weeks of general cure. I still saw one stringy white poop on my larger clown, so I did a third round of treatments. So far so good - it's been a week since then.

IF it comes back, and now that they are eating normal again. How exactly does binding the GC to the food work? I know HOW to do it (proportions and whatnot) but what happens if I feed that medicated food into my display tank and my cleaner shrimp, or one of my corals eats it? Death? Just trying to figure out what kind lengths people go to with target feeding medicated food in the display tank without killing their inverts or corals.

Thanks all for the help. My clowns say hi!