Desease diagnosis

[Lock]

Hi all, I'm posting this for a friend


Hi,
I've got a disease in my Marine Tank (35G). It's setup at my place of work. It has been running fine for 4 months or so. Initially with 2 Damsels, since then I have added an Angel, Coral Beauty, Clown and Hawke. (some basic coral as well)
The tank has a protein skimmer and uses a deep coral base for filtration with ~20lbs of live rock (no trickle or other). All parameters are fine.

I went on holidays for a couple of weeks and had other people looking after the tank. When I came back, the Angel was missing (dead) and the Coral Beauty had what looked like white spot - It died the next day.
I've started medication with Myxazin. Sine then one of the damsels has died. Now the clown and the remaining damsel are'nt looking so good. Their fins are slightly cloudy - I'm not sure it's white spot, looks more like a dusting of film over their body. The clown is swimming in the outlet of the power head all the time (maybe he is trying to get the water jet to blow whatever it is off).

Any advice would be appreciated. I've kept marines for 4 years and never had problems like this - not responding to medication. And I'm not sure I know what I'm treating yet !
Thanks

Pedro

[billsreef]

Odd's are whoever was watching the tank over fed and caused an NH4 spike that stressed the fish to the point of getting sick. That tank is rather young to have that many fish in it allready, also kind of small. Enought of the too many too soon lecture though ;)

I'm not sure of what Myxazin is, is it a local trade name or the actuall chemical? The symptoms sound much like some kind of protozoan infection quite possibly complicated with a secondary bacterial infection. I would be inclined to treat the fish in a seperate hospital tank with copper and a good antibiotic such as nitrofuran. Effective disease treatments tend to kill off the life on live rock hence the need for treatment in a seperate tank.

[Pfammy]

Pedro, i dont know, but i think the main problem started, like bill said by adding so many fish in at the begging of the tanks cycle. What could have happened is the live rock that you purchased could have not been cycled. The dead and decaying items on the uncycled live rock can kill fish, corals and pretty much anything that you put in thier. If that is the case, i think you should take your fish out, and just let the tank run for a while. Time will probobly fix the problem.

If thats not the case, then it could be the food issue like Bill was talking about, or it could be that you have so many fish in that reef tank, that the nitrite or ammonia could start killing things, but then your corals would also be lacking in health.

There are so many problems that this could be, And i think that it could be something viral. Try treating your fish in a seperate tank, and let your reef alone, dont treat it with anything, because you could loose your inverts, corals, and all or your coralline algae.

I hope that I was of some help to you. Post soon, and update us on the problem and solution if you would, im real interested.

[horge]

Hi, Pedro

What bill said about overcrowding and letting the live rock 'cycle' ;)

Now, the description you gave sounds an awful lot like either ammonia (NH4) burn and/or an infestation of the ciliate protozoan Amyloodinium ocellatum, a condition aka 'Marine Velvet'.

"Myxazin" is to my knowledge, simply a bactericide. While it can address secondary bacterial infections that opportunistically attend injury or infestation, it technically does little against either Marine Velvet or NH4 burn.

A series of water changes can dilute the ammonia out, and then you can attempt treating specifically for Marine Velvet. Hopefully the fishes aren't too far gone and can recover

hth
horge

PS:
Bill, I got two words for ya --blackfish pics.