I Need Help Please!

[sparklefuzz]

Well, it's like the title says, my angel has a white fluffy patch around 1/2" in diameter on her side. I have no means to take her out of the tank, because we've been selling everything, the tank etc is next... and now I've noticed this.. should I / can I dose the whole tank? If so, with what? If not, what can I do? I've not got any corals, just LR and inverts. I've got 2 clowns, a bangaii cardinal and a royal gramma in with her. 40ukg tank.


Please help!!

 

[SkiFletch]

Humm, anyway you can take a pic? Could be any number of infections...

 

[sparklefuzz]

Thanks Ski I will do... Nice to see you

 

[sparklefuzz]

This is the best I could do. The area around the outside looks like the scales are grey.. then the middle is whiter, and kinda fluffy. Everything else on her is fine, eyes, fins etc. No grains or anything else... and she's eating fine.

She keeps going to see the cleaner shrimp, but when he tries to pick at the patch she swims away as if it is irritating her?

 

[SkiFletch]

Looks almost like flukes or brooknella, both of which are parasites and both of which are to be treated with either copper of 0.2-0.3ppm or hyposalinity of 1.009. Either can be performed with other fish in the system, but both are difficult to perform in tanks with large amounts of sand and LR. It's really better to QT if possible.

 

[sparklefuzz]

The angel died this morning. I got up and found he was swimming upside down and erratic. His body was grey and his tail was half eaten/rotted. I drained some water out of the main tank into a large container with a heater and transferred him, but within minutes he'd gone. I swear he was 100% fine 2 days ago. I've looked at alot of different websites and can't seem to find anything that fits what has happened. He didn't have any redness or salty spots. The closest I can find is Marine Velvet... and even then the gills didn't seem affected at all.

I'm just worried the others will be next. I've checked them all over and they seem absolutely fine.. but should I be treating the tank with anything??

 

[SkiFletch]

Tough to say. Could have been he cut himself on a rock, thus allowing a bad infection in that other fish won't get...

How long was it between when you first noticed the mark and his passing?

 

[sparklefuzz]

Well.. he was fine on sunday.. monday early evening I noticed that patch.. he passed this morning about 11am. So, at most.. 36 hours? I was out all day yesterday so didn't see him.

Hubby had a good look at him before getting rid of his body.. and it just looked like he'd lost his colour on the blue.. the yellow seemed fine.. but both sides were covered by today. When we left him 12 hours before he still just had that little patch.

 

[SkiFletch]

Oh, that's probably marine velvet then, few diseases are faster acting and it's very rare to hear of someone beating true marine velvet. Sorry for your loss

 

[sparklefuzz]

So am I going to lose my other fish Ski?

 

[SkiFletch]

Heh, sadly I'm not omniscient so I can't tell for sure

Having a much faster course of the disease, its USUALLY pretty obvious with Velvet if other fish are infected. The parasite is almost too good as it kills its host very quickly . I can't give you a "yes your fish will be fine" or "no they're in trouble" diagnosis, but I'd lean towards them being OK. The only way to be 100% would be a 1.009sg QT...