Sick Royal Gramma Basslet Captive Bred

[fandaga]

I purchased a royal gramma basslet from Biota and received on Nov 27th along with several other fish. A couple weeks after he started showing signs of fin decay. All other fish haven’t shown any diseases. I thought possibly a bacterial or fungal infection. So I isolated separately in QT and treated with several antibiotics. At first just API General Cure for 1 week, but after seeing no improvement I switched to Fritz Maracyn and Seachem Paraguard for 5 days. At the end of treatment he started floating at the top of the tank with likely swim bladder disease. I pulled him out of QT and put him in an acclimation box in my main tank since I was worried about lack of eating and water parameters (albeit I didnt see any ammonia spikes in QT). Now he’s floating around for several days. He did eat a piece of LRS reef frenzy this morning which just happened to drift next to his mouth. Any ideas on what else, if anything, I should try at this point?

Below are some videos.

After 1st realizing the fins were decaying:


After treatment and now in acclimation box:

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I purchased a royal gramma basslet from Biota and received on Nov 27th along with several other fish. A couple weeks after he started showing signs of fin decay. All other fish haven’t shown any diseases. I thought possibly a bacterial or fungal infection. So I isolated separately in QT and treated with several antibiotics. At first just API General Cure for 1 week, but after seeing no improvement I switched to Fritz Maracyn and Seachem Paraguard for 5 days. At the end of treatment he started floating at the top of the tank with likely swim bladder disease. I pulled him out of QT and put him in an acclimation box in my main tank since I was worried about lack of eating and water parameters (albeit I didnt see any ammonia spikes in QT). Now he’s floating around for several days. He did eat a piece of LRS reef frenzy this morning which just happened to drift next to his mouth. Any ideas on what else, if anything, I should try at this point?

Below are some videos.

After 1st realizing the fins were decaying:


After treatment and now in acclimation box:

Weird - in the first video the gramma seems negatively buoyant and in the second video it seems positive...not sure what to make of that. The fin damage seems to be from tankmate aggression - what fish were in with it?

Jay

 

[fandaga]

Weird - in the first video the gramma seems negatively buoyant and in the second video it seems positive...not sure what to make of that. The fin damage seems to be from tankmate aggression - what fish were in with it?

Jay

Yeah, the tank mate aggression is what Biota said. But I didn’t see anyone nip the basslet, and I noticed a green-grey discoloration of the dorsal fin that made me worried it was more thank aggression. The other tank mates are a pair of snowflake clowns, pair of mandarins, yellow tang, watchman goby and Randall’s goby. The tang is the largest but doesn’t bother anyone.

 

[vetteguy53081]

There is a lot of staining on the glass to clearly see the fish in whole but I do see blemish on the skin suggesting either aggression or scratching from flukes which they susceptible to.
Do you see heavy breathing, loss of appetite, itching, sudden darting and loss of color?

 

[fandaga]

There is a lot of staining on the glass to clearly see the fish in whole but I do see blemish on the skin suggesting either aggression or scratching from flukes which they susceptible to.
Do you see heavy breathing, loss of appetite, itching, sudden darting and loss of color?

Heavy breathing yes, but not really for the others. The API general cure has prazi for flukes. I do have a UV sterilizer on the tank and haven’t had other fish with flukes in the past.

-Ryan

 

[fandaga]

The basslet managed to escape the acclimation box since the lid wasn’t fully closed after this mornings feeding. He’s now surprisingly hanging out on top a rock and looks okay, albeit with a bit heavy breathing. I really don’t understand why he was floating for 4 days in two different tanks.

Video from this morning:

 

[rtrdeuce]

Am I crazy or do I see flukes on the head?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Am I crazy or do I see flukes on the head?

Unless neobendendia type, you wont see flukes but signs mentioned will be noticed

 

[Tamberav]

I know he’s floating but almost look like he was trying to. Did he have anywhere to hide in the acclimation box? I have had some fish act weird when they can’t hide.

 

[fandaga]

I know he’s floating but almost look like he was trying to. Did he have anywhere to hide in the acclimation box? I have had some fish act weird when they can’t hide.

Yeah, I have a piece of pvc pipe in the box.

I put him back in the acclimation box last night. It looked like my bluestreak cleaner wrasse that I got in the same biota order was “harassing” him. At least he didn’t seem to want cleaning and was moving along the bottom all over the tank. The wrasse does clean my yellow tang regularly, and none of the other fish have nipped fins. So I don’t know if the wrasse was the ultimate culprit.

Anyways, I’m going to keep in the acclimation box for a while longer to see if the basslet continues to improve. If not, I may try again with prazi.

Thanks everyone for the advice!