White stuff on tail fin of first fish ever, in QT, day 5

SmallHobby

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Hello,

I’m BRAND NEW to the hobby and have spent the past 2 months cycling my biocube 32. I set up my QT and ordered 2 ORA Ocellaris clowns from LiveAquaria.com. One arrived dead and the other looked good and is in QT. He is the ONLY thing in QT, no other fish or invertebrates. Today is day 5 and I noticed his tail fin seems to have white opaque spots and torn? bits. He is swimming near the top and seems to be flitting his tail against the surface of the water. I have copper and Seachem Paraguard available at home but don’t want to give potentially harmful meds unnecessarily. Salinity is 1.023, temp 80.1, did 20% water change yesterday with the Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water, ammonia read is 0. Fish hasn’t eaten well yet (offered frozen mysis, frozen brine,PE pellets saltwater fish food - saw him eat one pellet so far). I am feeling so anxious for our new guy and my big concern is that the replacement clownfish for the one who died in shipping is coming tomorrow and will be going in the same QT! Please help me ID and tell me what to do for my new family member! Also, I have little kids who were already upset about opening a bag with a dead fish so I feel I can’t let anything happen to this one! Thank you so much for any feedback and assistance!!!

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Big G

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Hello! Sorry for the loss of your new fish.

Your clown looks like it has fin rot. It is best treated in a QT with Sulfaplex aka Triple Sulfa.
 
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Thank you! I will order on Amazon but says it will take a week to get here. Is that too long to wait? Maybe I can find a LFS that has it and has re-opened. Petco online says they don’t have it. I appreciate the response and will do more reading about fin rot.
 

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Fin Rot is but one presentation of Bacterial Infection. Here's a thread that can help you best treat your fish.

 
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So it is Day 3/4 of the triple sulfa treatment and the tail fin looks worse and now there is a new spot on the side fin. Do I stay the course or should I try something else? Could it be something else?

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Big G

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Are the spots on the tail and on the fin raised a bit, cottony, fibrous and or cauliflower like in texture or are they flat and smooth?
 
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They are flat and smooth, like a white opacity within the fin that then erodes.
 

Big G

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They are flat and smooth, like a white opacity within the fin that then erodes.
That's bacterial infection. Antibiotics are very slow working on fish. Changing meds is always your choice. Baths are more concentrated and usually work quicker than treating in a QT.
Best antibiotic for a bath is Ciprofloxacin. Here's a thread with both baths and QT treatments for you do choose from depending on meds that are readily available to you:

 
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Thank you so much. Trying to convince the hubby to hang in there and let me keep trying the hobby. He thinks it costs to much for “just fish”!
 

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I agree on bacterial and if no results in 24 hours as BIG G gave you a good recipe, you can try giving fish a freshwater bath for a couple of minutes in water the same temp as tank and try melafix which works very good on tail rot issues
 
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Will do. Just bought the Cipro on Chewy.com. Will start the baths after I finish the triple sulfa, then if Cipro doesn’t work, will try freshwater bath and finally the melafix. Thank you all for the help. Learning a lot and hopefully helping our new family members get healthy. Good news is the little guy seems to be eating better even though fins are looking worse. Is it possible that using the Imagitarium Pacific Ocean Water is the culprit?
 
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By the time the Cipro + 3 gallon hospital tank came for the 1 hour treatments, his fins were looking better. I finally got the SeaChem Sulfaplex in the mail so will do treatments for the next few weeks before they move to DT. But dang, that second clownfish is a BULLY! It has nipped the littler (first guy with the white on fins) and shredded his under fins. It’s awful to watch. I’m hoping they work it before going into DT or moving into a space with more caves will help! Also, now I’m worried about adding more fish and invertebrates. Was going to do wrasse, dottyback, gramma but I just read a thread about “fish you regret buying” and they were all on there! Now I have no idea what to add next. I don’t want any fish wars, just colorful beautiful pets and a peaceful family tank. Any suggestions for next tank mates for my 32 gallon biocube?
 

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Blue Sapphire Damsels are beautiful and very peaceful. Pygmy, Pink-Stripe, Possum Wrasses are incredible looking and very peaceful.
 
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Man we’re those cool looking fish you suggested. I accidentally clicked on the pink face wrasse and totally loved it!..until I saw it was aggressive and required 70g tank and then I realized LiveAquaria calls the pink stripe a pink “streaked” wrasse. Still cool but not as cool as his big bro. My dream fish are angel fish, mandarin goby and puffers. I love the vivid colors and wild patterns. I’m hoping to have variety of color in the tank so may go with the Pygmy wrasse but he’s kind of demonic looking! Someone suggested I get a lawnmower blenny, diamond goby + pilot shrimp next. Another a helfrichi firefish (which I love) next but, yikes the $$$). Thoughts on these suggestions?

QT will be vacant next week so looking to restock soon!

Also, when do I get a cleaner crew?!? I know they need to quarantine separately because some fish treatments can kill them.
 

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