Possible bacteria infection

1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
I have a newly setup QT.
Here are the numbers:
20H, back and bottom painted blue
PVC structure
supplied with water from DT
Emperor 280 filter with standard carbon filter
65W PC lighting
81.3 F
ammonia 0 (2 gallon water change 2 hours after feeding)
nitrite and nitrate 0
PH-8.2
ordering a refractometer, plastic swingarm hydrometer says 1.024
Here's the deal-I have one blenny in there and added 5 blue green chromis on Thursday.
2 have died within 3 days, not sure why. Now I see one that may have a bacterial infection. It has red showing through the body. Are they too stressed or am I missing something?
I'll try and get some pics of them soon.
:help:
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
I wasn't able to get any good pics, the redness is only on one side of the fish and it won't turn around for me.
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
Originally Posted by bunnyl99
Maybe HLLE?? Check the disease forum. Thats what it sounds like to me
It does look like it could be HLLE. Of the 5, the smallest 2 died first (no red spots) leaving 3. This is the smallest of the 3. I have 3 different kinds of fish food...for variety. I'm going to get some background paper and put on the sides, maybe that will help with the stress. I've read up on QT but not sure what is going on. Could it be my filter? Am I leaving the small amount of uneaten food/fish stuff for too long? I haven't seen any ammonia spikes.
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
Originally Posted by HappyVac
HLLE is caused by nutritional deficiency...what are you feeding?
flake food and pellets and i tried to feed garlic but they haven't been eating it as far as I can tell.
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
Originally Posted by Beth
Why did you add all those fish? Is that QT cycled?
I used 100% water from my DT, I understood that to be cycled. I added the blenny to get him out of my DT, leaving the DT void of all fish. This was due to the only other fish, a blacktail damsel, getting ich. I built a "fish wishlist" and the blue green's are the first to be introduced. Should have I only got them one at a time?
This morning the chromis with the redness was floating, I quickly removed it. The other 2 looked sick as well with discolored scales. I started thinking maybe I wasn't feeding them enough. I removed the dead fish and fed the others a little bit of 4 different fish foods. When I came home from work today they all looked great, I fed them again with a little less portion and they all munched down. My blenny doesn't seem to want the food though. I have seen him grazing around though. I bought some Algae wafers, haven't seen the blenny eat any of that yet though.
Thanks for any advice.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
So you are saying that your fish tank has ich? All the fish exposed to ich, will need to be treated. Unfortunately, a newly set up QT, even with the 100% water from the display is not a cycled tank. What size and what filters do you have on that QT?
Please take a look at the posts on ich as well as hyposalinity in the FAQ Thread. Does your tank have LR?
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
Originally Posted by Beth
So you are saying that your fish tank has ich? All the fish exposed to ich, will need to be treated. Unfortunately, a newly set up QT, even with the 100% water from the display is not a cycled tank. What size and what filters do you have on that QT?
Please take a look at the posts on ich as well as hyposalinity in the FAQ Thread. Does your tank have LR?
OK, I have one Marineland Emperor 280 HOT filter with carbon pad filter insert.
My DT has 80 pounds live rock. There are currently NO fish in my DT.
The following fish are in my QT:
2 blue green chromis
1 lawnmower blenny
I have already read your FAQ thread on diseases, pics, garlic treatment, homemade food, hypo, and QT setup.
Like I said, from the info I gathered on here from several people I understood that using water from my DT would be cycled water therefore no need to cycle tank. Your response lets me know I'm wrong. I am slowly bringing down my salinity for hypo. What action do I take now? I can't just put those fish in my DT as they are not quarantined yet.
P.S.-It looks as though I may have not been feeding them enough times/per day. After I feed them within a few hours they look fine...it's in the mornings after they haven't eaten for several hours that they look sickly.
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
Originally Posted by bunnyl99
Oh my goodness! You've opened up a can of rotten worms on this forum :scared:

I know, I'm a total newb to QT, I'm doing my best...for a first timer. Any more suggestions?
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
Originally Posted by 1911_Guy
I know, I'm a total newb to QT, I'm doing my best...for a first timer. Any more suggestions?P.S.-It looks as though I may have not been feeding them enough times/per day. After I feed them within a few hours they look fine...it's in the mornings after they haven't eaten for several hours that they look sickly.
if in fact these fish do have bacterial infections hypo is not going to be effective for that at all..
as far as feeding goes proper nutrition is very imprtant to your fish and you notice they tend to look better after a good meal then i suggest boosting their nutrients as well as feeding schedule adding vit to the water will also help with fish that are sickly i use selcon and garlic extreme for my fish daily
if they do have a possible infection if its not too late i would use melafix it wont be effected by hypo.just remove carbons and dose
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
The one LFS here sucks, they have a VERY small selection of meds and foods. I have to order everything online. I'm making up an order right now. It won't get here til next week though. Any suggestions?
The online distributer that I'm ordering from doesn't carry the type of Formalin that Beth recommends...with the 37% solution. I want that too since eventually I'm getting clowns.
Edit...Oh yeah, I am preparing for hypo cause one of the fish may have ich.
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
Originally Posted by 1911_Guy
The one LFS here sucks, they have a VERY small selection of meds and foods. I have to order everything online. I'm making up an order right now. It won't get here til next week though. Any suggestions?
The online distributer that I'm ordering from doesn't carry the type of Formalin that Beth recommends...with the 37% solution. I want that too since eventually I'm getting clowns.
i normally dont use formaline dips or hypo the last time i tried to do dips on new fish they died anyways so .beth and I have totally differnt treatments of just about everything.concidering you already have the fish in qt .you could copper treat the tank but no inverts can be in it.i personally use coppersafe and yes i catch alot of flack for suggsting it.but its usually readily available and inexpencive in any store that carries pet fish at all.it is a milder form of copper.i prefer it myself but thats my oppinion of it.but not knowing exactly whats going on with your new chromis doesnt help. try finding someplace that can deliver overnite alot of them will for a small amount extra. i know its not alot of help but im limited on what i can do here to help.
 
1911_guy

1911_guy

Member
I was just reading some advice you were giving yimmy. I can order selcon by american marine along with my online order. I was only getting the formalin to have it on hand for future use.
In between feedings the chromis gets a weird discoloration on his sides, like light and dark scales but goes away just after feeding. There are 2 of them in QT, this morning I gave 2 "pinches" instead of one...they ate it all. Am I not feeding enough? The flake food was all over the tank until they ate it.
There's no reason I can't treat with coppersafe, no inverts or LR in there. I just want to take it slow and make sure of what I'm doing before adding anything, ya know?
Thanks again for your help, what else do you need to know that I haven't already mentioned in the beginning of this thread that will help you help me?
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
That lawnmower is an algae eater, and unfortunately few will take to processed algae foods. Not too many make it in the aquaria. Most will starve.
You can lower salinity and that process will alleviate stress on the fish. How is the pH?
The "weird discoloration" on the chromis is chromis stress. Very typical for this fish species. Normally, the smaller one is the one that gets these discolorations more often.
Don't use coppersafe. It is not the best copper to use. Not that it won't kill ich, because it will, but because it is rather harsh on liver when compared to other coppers. In any case, for ich, you should continue with the ich. I feel strongly, as most who know me will attest, that there is no need to use copper with most ich cases. Save the copper for when you really need it. Like all medications, if you use it when you don't need to, they become less effective when you actually do need to use them. In the case of ich, it just is not necessary.
 
unleashed

unleashed

Active Member
i had a simular problem with lyretail anthias's .each one died within 24 hrs of each other no signs of illness until the day they died very weird but each one devoloped a cresent shaped color loss on one side .after alot of reading im still not exactly sure what it was .im thinking more of the lines of brooknylla due the fact it was so fast.i totally agreee with finding out the possible cause before any treatment i dont have illneses often to have alot of knowledge about treatments.so many of these show signs after its too late.majority of my fish last for yrs with an occational being eaten here and there I have had one fish die from illness that i had for a long time once in 2 yrs.none have ever died of ich - powder blue that died 2 days after i got it.. do you have any types of frozen foods? boost the feeding up to 3 -4 times daily..
when i purchased my majestic foxface i fed her all day long alage sheets kept in tank at all times fresh macro algae at all times to graze on 8 varieties.but to get her used to me and reduce stress(she was shipped to lfs from cali to mich the same day i pickered her up )i dropped a bit of food in each time i noticed she was stressed i gave her thera+A pellets about 6-7 times a day for 3 weeks plus seaweed selects at her disposal those ar the only foods she would eat.she never developed illness from stress i was lucky.those are an excilent food source for all fish .good luck i hope this has been somewhat usefull. plus added selcon and garlic extreme directly to the tank.
 
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