kyley
Active Member
Hi All,
Lynn requested I post here about my BSJF that was on the brink of death and has come back with a lot of trial and error and eventual success in treatment. To be clear, I am no expert on this at all (just started reef keeping in December), but I've learned a lot through this process. I'm just sharing my experience which was guided by Lee and Boomer on this forum and I thank them for their support. This post is a summary (albeit a long summary) of my experience. The full panic, experimentation, and eventually correct treatment is fully documented in this thread:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/56918-bsjf-dying.html
It sounds like a lot of people who have recently acquired a BSJF have lost it within days or weeks to disease. I was afraid mine was headed for the same fate as white blotches and protrusions (the protrusions apparently were created by the fish, and not a parasite themselves) started appearing on it after it had been in my DT for over 3 weeks. I first found it sick when I returned from vacation on March 13th. Here are pictures of my BSJF ("Spot") at his worst on April 4th and 5th (after the disease had been beaten back and came back with a vengeance):
Here's Spot today (April 23rd). He's camera shy right now, so I'll revise this with a better photo when I get a chance - but protrusions, white blotches are gone and his color is again vivid and normal (for the past week+):
What did Spot have?
I don't think we know for sure, but what Boomer and Kevin thought was that Spot had two parasitic diseases at the same time "Ick" and either Brook (Brooklynella) or Amyloodinium (Marine Velvet); more likely the former (Brook) according to Boomer. Ick didn't seem to show up until later in the treatment.
What was done for treatment?
This is just sharing what worked for me - what was recommended by Boomer and Lee. Note, from various LFS recommendations (and when we didn't really know what we were treating), I first tried API PimaFix, Maracyn 2 Antibiotics, SeaChem ParaGuard, PraziPro, and multiple FW dips - some of these seemed to help, but did not get rid of it. Follow the 3 treatments below to be sure you get rid of this - Cupramine, Formalin Dips, and KanaPlex antibiotics to prevent infection:
A note on the Formalin / FW dips. From reading on this board (most of this is in Lee's Freshwater Dip process), I've found it best to do these by:
1. Capturing the fish with a large plastic bag instead of a net - doing them multiple times with a net is risking injury.
2. Pouring the bag of fish / water into a bowl with colander. Lifting the colander out and placing into a separate bowl with the FW or Formalin dip water already in it.
3. After the dip, lift the colander out and set the colander into the QT for the fish to swim out.
Note - try to get a colander with a lot of square holes. I got one with slots only and my fish ended up getting his tail fin caught in the slot and damaging it...
I wanted to post this before reintroducing Spot to the DT because I know there's a chance that the parasite is still in the water or on the other fish - in which case he may get sick again. That won't change the fact that this process worked and cured the fish
Ideally I should be treating all fish in the DT - and I may end up having to do that if this comes back (but all fish in the DT have been symptom free for at least 6 weeks - so fingers crossed). Wish me luck with Spot back in the DT. I only quarantined one of my fish b/c I kept having ammonia issues in the QT. I didn't quarantine Spot, but will be quarantining from now on. I hope this process helps some of you! Take care,
--Kyle
One more thing - here are photos of Spot when first discovered as being sick - the first one shows the white blotches on his back half more clearly than the photos above of him at his worst. The second one shows what the protrusions first looked like:
Lynn requested I post here about my BSJF that was on the brink of death and has come back with a lot of trial and error and eventual success in treatment. To be clear, I am no expert on this at all (just started reef keeping in December), but I've learned a lot through this process. I'm just sharing my experience which was guided by Lee and Boomer on this forum and I thank them for their support. This post is a summary (albeit a long summary) of my experience. The full panic, experimentation, and eventually correct treatment is fully documented in this thread:
http://www.reefsanctuary.com/forums/fish-diseases-treatments/56918-bsjf-dying.html
It sounds like a lot of people who have recently acquired a BSJF have lost it within days or weeks to disease. I was afraid mine was headed for the same fate as white blotches and protrusions (the protrusions apparently were created by the fish, and not a parasite themselves) started appearing on it after it had been in my DT for over 3 weeks. I first found it sick when I returned from vacation on March 13th. Here are pictures of my BSJF ("Spot") at his worst on April 4th and 5th (after the disease had been beaten back and came back with a vengeance):
Here's Spot today (April 23rd). He's camera shy right now, so I'll revise this with a better photo when I get a chance - but protrusions, white blotches are gone and his color is again vivid and normal (for the past week+):
What did Spot have?
I don't think we know for sure, but what Boomer and Kevin thought was that Spot had two parasitic diseases at the same time "Ick" and either Brook (Brooklynella) or Amyloodinium (Marine Velvet); more likely the former (Brook) according to Boomer. Ick didn't seem to show up until later in the treatment.
What was done for treatment?
This is just sharing what worked for me - what was recommended by Boomer and Lee. Note, from various LFS recommendations (and when we didn't really know what we were treating), I first tried API PimaFix, Maracyn 2 Antibiotics, SeaChem ParaGuard, PraziPro, and multiple FW dips - some of these seemed to help, but did not get rid of it. Follow the 3 treatments below to be sure you get rid of this - Cupramine, Formalin Dips, and KanaPlex antibiotics to prevent infection:
- You need a quarantine tank setup per Lee's instructions. Note that this takes a lot of time to get the bio-filter going (and not charging the sponges long enough in the DT will cause ammonia problems later). There are ways to get a QT setup faster, but I don't have experience / knowledge of that so will leave it to someone else.
- One freshwater dip w/ [URL="http://www.thatpetplace.com/pet/prod/214325/product.web"]Methylene Blue as per Lee's instructions here[/URL] after the disease reappeared strongly was part of my process, but I'm not sure if it's necessary. Lee / Boomer may have opinions on this, but it seemed to bring some relief and started to beat the disease back. FW dips caused a lot more stress for my fish than the Formalin dips anyway. I did a few of these earlier and they just seemed to help - the disease came back.
- Add Cupramine to the QT as per the instructions on the bottle. See Lee's instructions for working with copper.
- During the Cupramine treatment, perform 5 consecutive Formalin dips following Lee's process here. This looks complicated, but don't be scared off. I was going to try just adding the Formalin to the QT, but that may not have been as effective and that and the copper combined may have been too much stress on the bio-filter and/or the fish... At Lee's encouragement, I tried one with the intent of adding Formalin to the QT afterward. It was easy enough that I did the full 5 dips. Make sure it's 37% formaldehyde - like FishVet Formalin-MS.
- Also during the treatment, I had SeaChem Kanaplex (Kanamycin) antibiotics added to the tank every other day as described on the package (5 doses I think). I got mine here. SeaChem NeoPlex (Neomycin) or Gentamycin were also recommended; both apparently more effective than Maracyn 2.
- Continue the Cupramine treatment for 14 days as described on the bottle. Near the end of treatment (while performing the last Formalin dip), I did a 100% water change in the QT and added Cupramine to the new water - not sure that was necessary, but if any parasite was still in the water, that may have helped to get rid of it.
- Spot went without eating for nearly a week at his worst (the FW dips seemed to cause this as they seemed the most stressful). I eventually got him to eat by trying another food (Bloodworms). Not the best source of nutrition, but at that point it was whatever would get him to eat...
A note on the Formalin / FW dips. From reading on this board (most of this is in Lee's Freshwater Dip process), I've found it best to do these by:
1. Capturing the fish with a large plastic bag instead of a net - doing them multiple times with a net is risking injury.
2. Pouring the bag of fish / water into a bowl with colander. Lifting the colander out and placing into a separate bowl with the FW or Formalin dip water already in it.
3. After the dip, lift the colander out and set the colander into the QT for the fish to swim out.
Note - try to get a colander with a lot of square holes. I got one with slots only and my fish ended up getting his tail fin caught in the slot and damaging it...
I wanted to post this before reintroducing Spot to the DT because I know there's a chance that the parasite is still in the water or on the other fish - in which case he may get sick again. That won't change the fact that this process worked and cured the fish
Ideally I should be treating all fish in the DT - and I may end up having to do that if this comes back (but all fish in the DT have been symptom free for at least 6 weeks - so fingers crossed). Wish me luck with Spot back in the DT. I only quarantined one of my fish b/c I kept having ammonia issues in the QT. I didn't quarantine Spot, but will be quarantining from now on. I hope this process helps some of you! Take care,--Kyle
One more thing - here are photos of Spot when first discovered as being sick - the first one shows the white blotches on his back half more clearly than the photos above of him at his worst. The second one shows what the protrusions first looked like:
Great work! 
