ABQ - Help my chromis please - pic

[Scooter12ga]

Hey guys,

I posted this over in the fish disease forum but thought I would reach out to the local scene as well for assistance.

A full description of symptoms and behavior is here:
http://archive.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=9344350#post9344350

Eric (if you see this) - Though we spoke in the store today, some of the information I gave you was out-of-date. Upon closer inspection tonight the chromis is moving slow and seems skinny compared to the other two chromis in QT.

Pics:
http://vtx.homeip.net/images/SaltTank/closeups.jpg

[Dangerous Ace]

Hey Scooter,

That looks a lot like a vibrio infection, a bacterial infection very common in chromis (vibrio damsela). Your best bet is kanamycin or which is easy to find or a little bit stronger antibiotic nitrofuazone. A UV sterilizer might help the infection from spreading in an aquarium, but since they are already in QT I think the antibiotics will probably be enough. Unfourtunately this is a really fast moving bacterial infection. Try to get it taken care of as soon as possible. There is a possibility that the infection could come from a parasitic infection too, so keep an eye out for that too. Good luck and let me know if there's anything I can do.

Brian

[asfullax]

I will look into this more tomorrow but I would guess three ideas after a quick search:

brooke
velvet
or attack from others.

Check out here: http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=16&cat=1992&articleid=2428

This is some info on Marine Velvet Disease.

I will look into more tomorrow.

[Scooter12ga]

Thanks Brian,

I think I'll give the antibiotics a shot. After reading a bit about vibrio this seems to be a good possibility. Any advice about where I can find either of these antibiotics?

[Dangerous Ace]

You should be able to find Kanamycin in just about any LFS. nitrofurazone is a little tougher to find. I think Clark's used to have it. Ask Aaron Michael at the Lomas store if he has any.

[Scooter12ga]

Ok, my friend has some medication for his FW tank that contains nitrofurazone but it doesn't say whether or not it's safe for a marine tank. Here are the ingredients - can you tell me if this is safe to use?

Sodium Chloride (salt - yes I know this one is safe)
Nitrofurazone (obvious)
Furazolidone (Safe?)
Potassium dichromate (Safe?)

Also for reference it's a bright yellow crystaline powder.

Thanks again!

[Dangerous Ace]

I found this saltwater safe medication with those ingredients so I'm assuming they are safe for saltwater fish (not for inverts though) If I remember right that med will turn the water bright green for a little while. QT is a great place for using this med, just know that it is a gram negative and gram positive antibiotic and will definately kill any biological filtration you have.

from http://www.thehiddenreef.com/saltwater_aquarium_supplies/aquarium_supplies_reef_products/medication_aquatronics.htm

Aquatronics: Nitrafura G 10 Capsules
Colorless antibiotic for: Sores, swelling, body distortion, fin rot, gourami disease & bacterial infections. Safe for fresh and saltwater aquariums, Do not use with invertebrates. Contains 200 mg of furazolidone methylene blue and potassium dichromate

[Scooter12ga]

Fantastic! Thanks for the info. Bummer, though, about the bio filter. I spent so many weeks waiting for the bio filter to stabilize so that I could bring some fish home and now I'm going to kill it off.

[asfullax]

You could take some tank water and load it up in another small tank to keep it going, especially since you may wind up nutralizing it for some time after the dosage. once the dosing is done, make sure and clean out the tank real good. Its a pain, but could save you some time later on "possibly"

Good luck. :D

[Scooter12ga]

Regrettably, the chromis died yesterday. I inspected it close with an eye loupe and couldn't find anything other than the ulcer on its head. The gills looked great, the eyes looked great, the skin looked great.

The other two fish are still fine and dandy.

I suspect that I simply didn't start antibiotics soon enough.

[Dangerous Ace]

Sorry to hear about the chromis. I've been dealing with that infection for a few years now. It's a nasty one. It's very common in chromis and 3 or 4 striped damsels and it really is fast moving. There isn't a whole lot that seems to stop it, but running ozone in the new systems seems like it helps it from spreading to the other tanks. UV sterilization helped a little when I was at Clark's. At least they were in QT before hand and you didn't have to worry about it infecting the main tank.