Early signs of illness?

[babyfish]

My Sailfin is acting very strange. I noticed scratch marks on him 2 days ago where he had been scraping himself against the rocks. Today he refused to eat which is very unusual. He is breathing very rapidly and laying on his side too. There are no spots on him and no fin damage but again this is very early in the illness. The tank is not his home tank because we needed that tank to treat 9 other fish for ick. It is a 29 gal ht that has just recently cycled. Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate 0. Does anyone know what this might be and what should I do?

 

[beth]

Was the sick fish at any time in the same tank as the ick? For instance, the tank that you currently have the sick fish? Is that the tank where the other sick fish with ick was in?
If so, that is your problem. Any tank were fish with ick were in will continue to have ick.

 

[babyfish]

Hi Beth! Thanks for responding. This fish has at no time had any contact with any other fish or the tanks they are in. In fact this is the first fish to be in this perticular tank. I have also noticed his snout has turned pink. He almost looks like he is running a fever. This fish is like my best buddy. He is sooo smart too. He loves to eat out of my hand. I really don't want to loose him. Oh I never really so him scratching himself on the rocks but he has one long scratch mark on his side and several other small ones all over his body. I have also noticed that his gills look swollen. He is looking very skinny and this is only the first day that he hasn't eaten. Does anyone know what is causing this?

 

[babyfish]

Hi Beth! Thanks for responding. This fish has at no time had any contact with any other fish or the tanks they are in. In fact this is the first fish to be in this perticular tank. I have also noticed his snout has turned pink. He almost looks like he is running a fever. This fish is like my best buddy. He is sooo smart too. He loves to eat out of my hand. I really don't want to loose him. Oh I never really saw him scratching himself on the rocks but he has one long scratch mark on his side and several other small ones all over his body. I have also noticed that his gills look swollen. He is looking very skinny and this is only the first day that he hasn't eaten. Does anyone know what is causing this?

 

[beth]

Are these "scratches" like reddish streaks? Or are they actually scratches with open skin woundns.
Reddish streaks = bacterial infection. You will need to setup a hospital tank to begin treatment if your fish's tank has live rock, live sand, inverts or corals. I would suggest using Maracyn2 double dose, if, in fact these are streaks, and not wounds.

 

[babyfish]

The scratch marks are looking a bit red. I also think he has ick. This morning I did notice salt like spots all over him. I plan on putting him in a hospital tank, treating with maracyn 2, and performing hyposalinity on the tank. I've also noticed him hanging out in the current. It sounds to me like we are dealing with bacteria and ick. What do you think. Oh yeah! I plan on doing a fresh watter dip on him to immediatly give him a little releif. There is a problem with the hypo though. I only have a swing needle. This is the only thing my lfs has so I have ordered a refractometer but it won't be hear in time. Any suggestions? How long should I let him go with out eating.

 

[beth]

Tanks frequently get red sticks at the first sign of problems. The swing type hydrometer is fine. I would move him to the hospital tank ASAP and begin the hyposalinity. If you are going to do a FW dip, then I would wait a day or so before beginning the Maracyn2 treatment. The streaks may improve when the ick improves.
I don't know what you mean about letting the fish go wo eating. You should feed the fish garlic soaked food. Are you withholding food, or is the fish not eating on its own?

 

[babyfish]

The fish refuses to eat on it's own.
Before I jumped into treatment for ick I wanted to research it a little more just to make sure I was doing the right thing. I am glad I did that too because I don't think it's ick now. I beleive it is amyloodinium unfortunatly. The spots are more like a fine powder than salt and there are way to many of them in such a short period of time for it to be ick imo. This is my first experiance with the disease but I feel pretty confident in the diagnosis. I have formalite 1 which I plan on doing a dip with. Should I still treat with copper and maracyn 2?
Again I would like to reiterate that the fish is refusing all food. I have given him a variety to try and he won't even look at it. I will try again after the dip but if he refuses how long should I let it continue before taking action?

 

[babyfish]

Ihave another ?. After I do the formalite dip do I need to put him in a seperate ht. I have read that your tank needs to go fish less for 2 months to get rid of amyloodinium.

 

[babyfish]

He's dead and I'm crying. I guess it was all to much for him.

 

[babyfish]

Ok. I've calmed down some now so I can give more details to the people who are intrested and maybe it will help save someone elses fish. The very first sign that I knew something was wrong was when I saw how rapidly he was breathing. It was quicker than I have ever seen in a sick fish. When I offered him food at his usual feeding time he wouldn't touch it. That really scared me because he always looked forward to feeding time. He would swim up to the top of the tank and wait for my hand. He loved to eat out of my hand. The only fish that has ever done that. His snout started turning pink and I noticed scratch marks on him. It took me a while to figure out what was wrong with him unfortunatly and by the time I did it was to late. I kept looking for spots but Ididn't see them until the day he died and it looked like millions of very small almost dust or powder like spots. I figured I didn't have much time if I was going to save him so I opted for a formaldehyde dip but it was too late. He was already shaking frantically and even shoving his face in to the sand uncontrolably. He died about an hour after the dip. If this ever happens again which I hope it doesn't, then at least I know what to look for. Oh well, at least I tried. Refractometer is on the way.

 

[babyfish]

Babyface's husband here. This Sailfin tang has been with us for about 3 months now. My wife is very upset that he is dead. So am I - I wish we could have saved him! He was originally in my 55 gal aggressive setup - 1 st fish too - no other fish yet! We moved him to a 29 gal. quarantine so we could use his tank to treat 9 other community fish for ick with copper. 8 made it 1 died, 1 still sick with Maracyn2 treatment as we speak (Black spot and redness/rapid pacing and breathing). Other 7 are back in their 75g tank and eating and doing fine. Sailfin has been in 29 g tank for like 28 days now when we decided to move him to another tank 29g that we will be using as a hospital/ quarantine that has cycled in under a month with just base rock. 20 lbs of it. The sailfin has been doing fine all this time until this last change. He has been in a tank by himself for the last month or so. How did he get this disease? - did he have it all along and the stress of moving him to a new environment like that was too much for him? I wish he was still with us!

 

[babyfish]

[ September 24, 2001: Message edited by: BabyFish ]