landlord

My latest impulse buy, may have bought myself a really big headache.



I couldn't resist. One thing I have always wanted to recreate in my SPS reef was a sense of movement. Let's face it, a stick is a stick, whether it's colored up like or crayon or not. My SPS tank is beautiful and I am, at the moment, quite pleased with it. There is however a serious lack of "movement". With the exception of a 12 inch Green BTA and a dozen heads of a duncan there is just nothing really moving around the tank. Sure, every few seconds a wrasse will swim out only to hide again. So it was about 10 days ago that I made a trip to what I'll call an "Underground Coral / Fish shop". When I say underground that is no understatement. The shop entrance is a pair of storm doors in the back parking lot of a vacuum store leading into a basement. Lots of great stuff down in there for sure. Anyways.... I got a really really good deal on some fish I have NEVER had much success with; 9 Pseudanthias tuka and 2 Pseudanthias squamipinnis. Yup 11 anthias, just couldn't resist giving them another shot.

In the past I was never much for QT but with the recent fish room that was built into my basement I figured I was long overdue for a dedicated QT tank. Nothing super specials just a 10 gallon, with a vastly oversized biowheel filter and a RIO 180 to get the water moving. So, I picked the fish up, hurried home, and tossed em in. I have kept sea goldies in the past successfully but have never had luck with the purple queens which I believe to be one of the most beautiful fish I have seen. So I have been trying to get these guys first of all eating. I have been luckily getting them all to eat BBS. It is rather disappointing that they will not take (or at least not much) frozen cubes, yet!

So after the first week I have no losses

....but I got something else

most of the fish in the tank are showing signs of some fish ailment. I am no expert in this area, yeah we've heard the term ick, velvet, brook thrown around by folks who we hope are "In the know" but without experience, how do I really know what is going on here. The fish are showing white external growths mainly on the gills. One fish had the same type of growth coming out of a spot on his head (looks like lymphocystis to me). After much reading it also seems to have some similar characteristics to flukes (gill flukes specifically). Without a very good sense of what to do I have (since purchase date) been treating the tank with the only thing available to me at the time, cupramine. Maybe it's me, but for as simple as they make the directions, I cannot get from them how much to dose into the water, so I have been adding 1ml every other day, oh yeah, I do not have a Copper test kit, I know, dumb on me.

I have seen no changes in the last week, in fact it seems to be affecting more of the fish. Today I started searching all the forums for anthias issues, and flukes seem to pop up more than once. I got online this morning and ordered some PraziPro, which in retrospect, is probably a good thing to have on hand. Should arrive by the end of the week. I'm just hopeful these guys will make it until them. For the meantime, I guess I'll be doing some quick FW dips to try and confirm flukes.

I am glad I didn't follow my normal fish purchasing routine. Buy 'em, temp acclimate 'em, and toss 'em in! Just too expensive nowadays to be so careless IMO.

I welcome anyone who has a clue about fish disease and treatment. Preferredly with some real world experience in QT and treatment of positively ID'ed ailments. It will be difficult with my camera to be able to take any detailed pictures of the affected fish. I tried for hours....

Thanks and Have a Fantastic Week!

Kurt

UPDATE - One fish has died on me so I decided to do a FW dip on the carcass to try and confim flukes. Nope. Nothing fell off in the freshwater. This particular guy has the worst of the problem on his gills. I snapped a photo if it may help positively ID anything.