Help!!!

[petcrazy213]

My butterfly fish seems to have something majorly wrong with it. I noticed it the past few days rubbing around the back of the tank in between the tank and some rock. Everytime I got close it would run and hide in one of the many caves in the tank. I just got a look at it and it looks HORRIBLE!!!! It looks all torn up, fins and tail all ragged. It has red blotches all over it and it's eyes look cloudy. It speeds off whenever I get close but I managed to get a couple pics ... not great. I'll put them up in a minute once I get them hosted somewhere.

WHAT"S GOING ON??? HELP!!!

[OrionGirl]

Sounds like septicemia--what are water conditions? Could be a parasite or louse problem as well--have you looked at the tank at night?

[gbolton]

The pictures should help some waht but it sounds like some sort of parasite. Is this a reef or FO tank?

[petcrazy213]

here are the pics I got, like I said ... the fish doesn't seem to want to be seen.

http://saltwaterfishies.freehomepage.com/images/sick_butterfly.jpg

http://saltwaterfishies.freehomepage.com/images/sick_butterfly_2.jpg

Any help on what to do would be greatly appreciated. I did notice that one of my clowns has a small red blotch spot on it's side up near the gill area. I', guessing it's the same thing the butterfly has. I just did a 10% water change yesterday because the nitrates were a little high, about 30. Ammona was 0, nitrite was 0, pH 8.2, temp. 78, spec. grav. 1.023/1.024.

Please advise!

[OrionGirl]

Looks like an infection to me--but what caused it is a bigger concern for the moment. It doesn't sound like it's from water quality issues, which leaves me thiking you have a parasite of some kind. Going to be tough, but you'll need to look at the fish closely to see if there are fish lice on it--you'll also seen them in the substrate after the lights go off, and swarming on the sleeping fish.

Knowing what caused this condition will help cure it.

[gbolton]

If this is a reef I highly reccomend Kent RxP it worked on ich for me and claims to work on other parasites. But first do look at night with a red light and see if you see anythingon the fish like Orion stated.

[petcrazy213]

should I get any kind of medication or will it heal on it's own? how do I get rid of fis lice, if that is what the fish has?

[gbolton]

well if it is a parasite you will probably need medication judging by the damage done to the fish already by whateverit is. Is this tank a reef or fish only?

[petcrazy213]

the tank is a combination of a few fish, Live rock, inverts, and a colt coral, some mushrooms and green star polyps.

I managed to isoloate the butterfly to get a good look and I don't see anything moving (lice) on it. It's eyes are partially cloudy and all the fins/tail are tattered. All around and inside it's mouth looks like blood and it's having trouble swimming now. On the body some of the scales seem to have worn away or been scraped away? I just witnessed the fish make a heafty swimming movement to keep itself righted and I saw a big scale come off it's body. Does any of this sound like something fixable? I don't think it's lice, not even sure it's a parasite the way things look but I'm pretty new to saltwater. I have Melafix, should I treat with that? :shake: :sad


... just looking at my dying butterfly ...
the fish is now on it's side, it's tail weakly twitching like it's trying to get moving to right itself but doesn't have the strength. This is so sad. :sad What happened to my beautiful fish!