getting worse

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Hey guys,

I had a thread in "New to The Hobby" section detailing what is happening with my flame angel.

Quickly: bought about 2 weeks ago. she ate at the store and in my tank for a few days. She then stopped. She'd come to the feeding corner and swim through the food, but never taking a bite. My father and I thought maybe she was being picky or fasting due to the new environment.

Fast forward to a few days ago and I saw her flashing her gill against the rocks. yesterday she began "shaking" her head, going up to the peppermints and angling the gill she was flashing towards them. I figured she wants it cleaned of some irritant.

Did a bunch of research and came to the conclusion it's flukes. I'm currently on day 1 with prazipro. I however just noticed her dorsal fin is eroding. You can actually see the bone on the first spike....

Could this be a symptom of the long fasting/flukes, or is something larger at play here?

[ThRoewer]

A few other options besides flukes:

Brooklynella - would fit the eroding fin and gill infection, but I would also expect rapid breathing, whitish skin patches and clamping of fins at this point. It is usually a quick killer and usually shows up quickly.

Amyloodinium - fits the gill infection, flashing and not eating, but you would also see rapid breathing and likely apathy. It is usually a quick killer but sometimes can take a while to show up.

Chryptocaryon - would fit almost everything except for the fin and probably the not earing. Usually you see white spots, but not necessarily. Can be progressing very slow at first (= weeks), but once it hits the critical numbers the fish can go down fast.

A bacterial infection - would fit the fin rot but not necessarily much else. Secondary bacterial infections often accompany the parasites above.

Assuming that this fish wasn't quarantined, it could be a lot of different things and even a combination of several.

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I have 2 small os. clowns, and a solar wrasse in the same tank. Those three are happy, eating and showing no signs of infection (although probably just have a stronger immune system or are less stressed).

If I take the infected flame angel out now, does it improve the odds my other 3 fish survive?

My thinking: the tank will still be infected, but it will lower the amount of parasites in the water column as there won't be an easy host anymore to replicate off of. Maybe the other fish can fight off dozens, but not hundreds if I wait a couple days...

*day2 of prazipro: no imporvment, increased fin rot and increased hiding.

[Deinonych]

Agree with ThRoewer that it could be a combination of things. I would remove the flame angel and treat in a hospital tank. I would start by treating for a bacterial infection. A broad-spectum antibiotic like Furan-2 or Kanamycin would be the recommended route. You can also combine those two medications for a "super antibiotic" if you want to broaden the spectrum.

Removing the flame angel neither helps nor hurts your other fish at this point in time. But, you are correct in assuming your tank is infected with something.

[FullBoreReefer]

How would you go about treating a reef tank? Or do you just wait it out in hopes it dies off in the DT?

I have a sick mandarin that I'm treating in my QT for fin/tail rot. Assuming its bacterial, that's how I started. But I do have five other fish that came in contact for two days before I was able to net her back out of the DT.

How it all started...

When I brought the fish home I had her in QT for only eight days, which I rushed I know. By day three in QT she was eating frozen brine and smaller mysis. So then on day eight I felt comfortable knowing I could atleast supplement the diet of pods with frozen foods. So I tossed her in, the next day, honestly the next day, the tail looked a little rough like someone might have been bullying. Still eating fine. Morning of day two I could see the fin barbs(?) and no flesh on the actual tail. So I netted her out and back into QT.

Today marks eleven days. First seven days was Melafix. Water change per instructions , and now I've been dosing kanaplex. I've seen no visual improvement, and it has totally taken the tail fin and now entered the body.

Today also marks day three that she hasn't accepted any frozen foods, although I've been lightly supplementing Copepods and some amphipods just to make sure, but who knows if she's eating because ever since she accepted frozen she would eat every feeding no problem.

She really does look terrible, how long do I wait before I take the pain from her? I don't want to but I also feel horrible and don't want the fish to suffer.

I don't get it, my other fish are years and years old fat and happy. I hope I haven't risked all my work all these years.