Powder blue tang appears to have bruising all over body

[kierstin1993]

Hello, I recently had my fish in quarantine due to an ich outbreak. Unfortunately, after five weeks, my quarantine tank began leaking, and I had no choice but to move them back to the main tank. The fish did get a bacterial infection after the move, but have been recovering well (or so I thought).
Today my powder blue tang didn’t come out for food and I found him hiding, breathing heavy, with tears in his fins and what appear to be bruises. It’s possible one of my other things attacked him. But I’m not sure if he was attacked or if he’s sick, does anyone have any ideas?

additionally my wrasse has a gash in his side and I can’t imagine how he got such a deep cut…

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello, I recently had my fish in quarantine due to an ich outbreak. Unfortunately, after five weeks, my quarantine tank began leaking, and I had no choice but to move them back to the main tank. The fish did get a bacterial infection after the move, but have been recovering well (or so I thought).
Today my powder blue tang didn’t come out for food and I found him hiding, breathing heavy, with tears in his fins and what appear to be bruises. It’s possible one of my other things attacked him. But I’m not sure if he was attacked or if he’s sick, does anyone have any ideas?

additionally my wrasse has a gash in his side and I can’t imagine how he got such a deep cut…
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Honestly from the shredded fins and body- Looks more like bite marks rather than an infection. Before this becomes a bad infection, I recommended placing these fish in quarantine and treating with Seachem Kanaplex. before moving fish over, if they are eating, please set your cell phone on video mode for about 40 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a jerk at feeding time.
Review the video and see who it may be

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello, I recently had my fish in quarantine due to an ich outbreak. Unfortunately, after five weeks, my quarantine tank began leaking, and I had no choice but to move them back to the main tank. The fish did get a bacterial infection after the move, but have been recovering well (or so I thought).
Today my powder blue tang didn’t come out for food and I found him hiding, breathing heavy, with tears in his fins and what appear to be bruises. It’s possible one of my other things attacked him. But I’m not sure if he was attacked or if he’s sick, does anyone have any ideas?

additionally my wrasse has a gash in his side and I can’t imagine how he got such a deep cut…
View attachment 2993619View attachment 2993620View attachment 2993621

See my reply- I revised it

 

[kierstin1993]

Honestly from the shreddedfins and body- Looks more like bite marks rather than an infection.

That’s what I was thinking too as it looks like it was attacked but wanted to be sure since I do have the bacterial infection going on still.

 

[kierstin1993]

Honestly from the shredded fins and body- Looks more like bite marks rather than an infection. Before this becomes a bad infection, I recommended placing these fish in quarantine and treating with Seachem Kanaplex. before moving fish over, if they are eating, please set your cell phone on video mode for about 40 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a jerk at feeding time.
Review the video and see who it may be

It’s my yellow tang I’m almost sure, he’s a jerk to almost every fish. For now I put seaweed near where the blue tang is hiding, I’m only on a work break so I’ll be moving him to QT once I’m home for the night…if I can catch him.

 

[vetteguy53081]

It’s my yellow tang I’m almost sure, he’s a jerk to almost every fish. For now I put seaweed near where the blue tang is hiding, I’m only on a work break so I’ll be moving him to QT once I’m home for the night…if I can catch him.

Best time to catch is to approach after lights out or you may have to place rock in bucket with tank water giving it no place to hide

 

[MnFish1]

The fish looks extremely sick - and antibiotics are in order. ASAP. Of course - a picture does not tell how it's moving - is it swimming around the tank - or just lying there? If you didn't put it through a QT period - I would do the usual things for that.

 

[kierstin1993]

The fish looks extremely sick - and antibiotics are in order. ASAP. Of course - a picture does not tell how it's moving - is it swimming around the tank - or just lying there? If you didn't put it through a QT period - I would do the usual things for that.

It’s swimming in place under that rock, won’t leave the spot but not laying down on its side. Breathing heavy, definitely looks attacked but it was fine and eating last night so it’s a pretty dramatic change.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It’s swimming in place under that rock, won’t leave the spot but not laying down on its side. Breathing heavy, definitely looks attacked but it was fine and eating last night so it’s a pretty dramatic change.

If it was fine last night, then I'd have to suspect that some other fish just turned on it and tore it up bad. That's pretty rare - you usually see signs of this coming on - a torn fin here or there that gets worse over days.

The first hurdle is to see if it can overcome the actual damage. There isn't much you can do for that except isolate this fish and lower the specific gravity a bit to help with osmotic stress. Then, if it survives the initial injury, you need to worry about secondary bacterial infection.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

If it was fine last night, then I'd have to suspect that some other fish just turned on it and tore it up bad. That's pretty rare - you usually see signs of this coming on - a torn fin here or there that gets worse over days.

The first hurdle is to see if it can overcome the actual damage. There isn't much you can do for that except isolate this fish and lower the specific gravity a bit to help with osmotic stress. Then, if it survives the initial injury, you need to worry about secondary bacterial infection.

Jay

With no offense - could it just be a general bacterial infection - like vibrio - which (at least in humans) - can rapidly spread within minutes - this is not directly aimed at this fish - just a general question that may help others

 

[kierstin1993]

With no offense - could it just be a general bacterial infection - like vibrio - which (at least in humans) - can rapidly spread within minutes - this is not directly aimed at this fish - just a general question that may help others

Its possible. I’m planing to move him to QT tonight and I’ll be using kanaplex and metroplex in the food as well as garlic to get him eating. I’ve read melafix is good for helping them heal? Considering trying that.

regarding the other fish, I actually messed up when I said it’s a bacterial infection it’s lympho which I thought was a mild bacterial infection.

 

[MnFish1]

I meant a 'general ' answer

 

[Jay Hemdal]

With no offense - could it just be a general bacterial infection - like vibrio - which (at least in humans) - can rapidly spread within minutes - this is not directly aimed at this fish - just a general question that may help others

Not in minutes - maybe overnight.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

Not in minutes - maybe overnight.

Jay

Thanks Jay.

 

[kierstin1993]

If it was fine last night, then I'd have to suspect that some other fish just turned on it and tore it up bad. That's pretty rare - you usually see signs of this coming on - a torn fin here or there that gets worse over days.

The first hurdle is to see if it can overcome the actual damage. There isn't much you can do for that except isolate this fish and lower the specific gravity a bit to help with osmotic stress. Then, if it survives the initial injury, you need to worry about secondary bacterial infection.

Jay

There is some minor aggression over the seaweed if they all try and go for the same clip but I have 2 gourmet grazers so once they realize I filled both they usually stop fighting.
I did move him to QT and I’ll be using kanaplex, metro, and garlic in the food. I’m using marine melafix to treat the water. I’ll also be slowly lowering the salinity from 1.025 to 1.022.

 

[kierstin1993]

.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

There is some minor aggression over the seaweed if they all try and go for the same clip but I have 2 gourmet grazers so once they realize I filled both they usually stop fighting.
I did move him to QT and I’ll be using kanaplex, metro, and garlic in the food. I’m using marine melafix to treat the water. I’ll also be slowly lowering the salinity from 1.025 to 1.022.

Melafix is just a tonic, I wouldn’t rely on it to treat active disease.

While you can add a small amount of garlic to the food, don’t add kanaplex or metro unless you calculate the dose correctly!

Kanaplex can be toxic if overdosed and metro is bitter and will put fish off the food. Additionally, oral meds have almost no benefit to external issues like this. You need to dose an antibiotic in a treatment tank in the water.

Jay

 

[kierstin1993]

Melafix is just a tonic, I wouldn’t rely on it to treat active disease.

While you can add a small amount of garlic to the food, don’t add kanaplex or metro unless you calculate the dose correctly!

Kanaplex can be toxic if overdosed and metro is bitter and will put fish off the food. Additionally, oral meds have almost no benefit to external issues like this. You need to dose an antibiotic in a treatment tank in the water.

Jay

Do you have an antibiotic that you recommend? I was told melafix will help heal the fish and treat bacterial infections so I thought it would be a good choice. I was going to use metro and kanaplex in the water but I don’t have enough left till my shipment comes in…when I bought it my LFS told me to just add a scoop of each to the food and bind it with focus. I will say the fish don’t love the taste of it, hence the garlic.
He ate a little seaweed today but that’s it.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Do you have an antibiotic that you recommend? I was told melafix will help heal the fish and treat bacterial infections so I thought it would be a good choice. I was going to use metro and kanaplex in the water but I don’t have enough left till my shipment comes in…when I bought it my LFS told me to just add a scoop of each to the food and bind it with focus. I will say the fish don’t love the taste of it, hence the garlic.
He ate a little seaweed today but that’s it.

Melafix is a tonic, not a true antibiotic. Its attraction is that it can often be used in a display tank.

That whole "add a scoop" thing is all over the Internet, even here in older posts. I've been crusading for ever to stomp out that bad practice, but because it is easy, it seems to just live on (grin).
Here is my article on medicated foods:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Metro has little antibiotic effect, and then, only for anaerobic types - external bacteria are always aerobic by function of them being bathed in oxygenated water.

I would use either Neoplex or Kanaplex in the water.

Jay

 

[kierstin1993]

Melafix is a tonic, not a true antibiotic. Its attraction is that it can often be used in a display tank.

That whole "add a scoop" thing is all over the Internet, even here in older posts. I've been crusading for ever to stomp out that bad practice, but because it is easy, it seems to just live on (grin).
Here is my article on medicated foods:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

Metro has little antibiotic effect, and then, only for anaerobic types - external bacteria are always aerobic by function of them being bathed in oxygenated water.

I would use either Neoplex or Kanaplex in the water.

Jay

Thank you for the advice. I will stop adding it to the food since he won’t eat it anyhow.