Please help Biggie! (my Starry B)

DrNickk · Oct 8, 2024

Our starry blenny Biggie seems to be sick. It started with what looked like finrot about 5 days ago. It also looked like extra white areas on the inside of his pec fins. He often changes color a little deopending on mood, and its hard to tell if it's normal coloring or something else. He suddenly became hidden for a couple days and hes hiding in a bottom cave, obviously not doing great.

Parameters look ok, tank is 100 days old (36 gallon), cycled fine. The other couple of clowns and Midas blenny appear to be fine. On a side note, it was really cool seeing the progression from day 1 to day 7 after we got him. Biggie came in a little hot and stole the Midas' cave, and they bickered for a day or two. After that, they became inseperable and always want to hang out together, its the coolest thing ever.

3 days ago I dosed the tank with Kanaplex, made a batch of medicated food. He honestly looked like he wasn't going to make it and I was just waiting to walk up and see some nassarius heading to that cave. After 2 days of that I also dosed Prazi, and now we're at the day after that. He came out a little, but I still see a lot of white. Took a vid and had trouble with the focus but you can see a bit.

I'm just wondering next steps. I removed carbon, turned UV off, and the tank is loaded with meds now. Added air to be safe. Can anyone tell what disease it might be? I'm just getting back into the hobby after 10 years off, have to learn the meds and diseases again. I did use Metro a month ago when the Midas seemed ill, and that fixed it quick (looked like blaoting and discolored in the middle).

Should I just leave it for another day or two, then do a 50% wc and remedicate?

DrNickk · Oct 8, 2024

Here's the vid

vetteguy53081 · Oct 8, 2024

Very hard video to detect from and partial fish shown but preliminarily looks to be bacterial. Fish also appears to be breathing heavy and can be due to injury or aggression but also needs to be determined. Will need a longer playing video and under white light intensity

MnFish1 · Oct 8, 2024

I think it's really difficult since you've done a bunch of things simultaneously. I would not dose kanamycin or neomycin in a display tank - and what medication are you giving 'in the food'. Unfortunately - I cannot see your video - but - I would strongly recommend the standard quarantine protocol with copper, and in this case given the damage you describe - you can add kanaplex to that. Followed by Prazipro. It's generally not a good idea to treat with more than one drug - but in your case you could also add prazipro. I would not use medicated fool for a number of reasons 1) since you don't know how much they are eating, you cant tell the dose. 2) I didn't hear any evidence for an internal parasite, etc

DrNickk · Oct 8, 2024

He just came out an hour ago, after being hidden for 3-4 days. I have a better video, it looks like the bigger white spots went away but you can see the damaged fins a lot better. I'm assuming this bacterial?

I only fed them the medicated food once, Kanaplex, as per directions. But I didn't like that idea either, and having everything else eat it too. He was barely moving when I added the Prazi, I'm not sure which is working.

I'd like to add the charcoal back, do a wc and get the meds out of the water, but should I do another dose of the Kanaplex to be safe? Let me know your thoughts on the vid, and very much appreciate the input!