Treatment

Is This Fin Rot, or Is It Just a Longfin?

Many of our fish are longfin. A healthy longfin has fins that look ragged, split, spiky and uneven. That is the whole point of the fish and it is what makes it valuable.

Read this section before reporting a ragged fin, so we are not treating healthy fish.

Which fish are longfins

A longfin has fins that are obviously much longer than a normal clownfish, and the tail often trails behind the fish. If the fins are short and rounded, it is not a longfin and any ragged edge is a problem.

The three tests

Test 1: Do the splits run along the fin, or across it?

A fin is made of thin rods called rays, running from the body out to the edge, with thin skin webbed between them.

Test 2: What colour is the very edge?

Test 3: Has it changed since the last photo?

This is the strongest test, and it is why we photograph the fish.

Damage that is not infected

Longfins tear their fins easily on pumps, rockwork, and in transit. A torn longfin is common and is not the same as fin rot.

• A clean tear that stays the same size is old damage. It will grow back. Report it, but it is not treated.
• A tear that gets bigger, or goes white or fuzzy at the edge has become infected. Treat it.

A torn fin is the most common way this infection gets into a fish, so any fresh tear is watched daily until it stops changing.

What to do when you are not sure

1. Photograph the fish under a white light, from the side, with the fin spread.
2. Compare it with the photo from three days ago.
3. If it has not changed, it is the longfin's normal shape. Write it in Observations and carry on.
4. If it has changed, or if there is any white or stringy edge, tell Michael the same day.

Moving a Fish

This applies every time a fish is moved, anywhere on this page.

1. Guide the fish into the net.
2. Keep the net under the water.
3. Bring a cup down into the water and scoop the fish out of the net with the cup, so the fish stays in water.
4. Carry the fish in the cup.
5. Lower the cup into the destination and let the fish swim out on its own.

Making the Medicine

All doses on this page are measured out of a stock solution. Make the stock first.

What you need

• One 500 mg Ciprofloxacin tablet
• 500 mL of RO/DI water
• A clean bottle with a lid

Steps

1. Pour 500 mL of RO/DI water into the bottle.
2. Drop the tablet in whole. Do not crush it.
3. Leave it to sit until the tablet has dissolved. It does not take long.
4. Write the date on the bottle.
5. Put the bottle in the fridge, out of the light.

Every time you use it

1. Swirl the bottle before you pour.
2. Read the dose table for the animal you are treating.
3. Measure out the same number of millilitres as the table gives in milligrams.

The two numbers are always the same. There is nothing to convert.

Treating a Fish

When to start

Start the same day you see any of these:

• A fin edge that has gone white, cloudy or fuzzy
• Stringy or slimy threads hanging off a fin
• A fin that is shorter or more damaged than it was three days ago
• A white haze on the body

Do not wait to see whether it gets worse. Once a fish is breathing fast, lying on its side or refusing food, the medicine usually cannot save it.

Checking a pale fish

On white and pale fish, damaged tissue is white and does not show against a white fin.

1. Hold a white light behind or below the fish.
2. Look for a change in texture and thickness, not a change in colour.
3. Photograph every pale pair once a day from the same angle, and compare today's photo with the one from three days ago.

What you need

• A bare tank or bin. No sand, no gravel, no rock.
• A heater
• An air pump and airstone
• A lid or cover
• One clean pot or mug per pair
• Ciprofloxacin stock solution
• A measuring cylinder or syringe
• A net and a cup
• A siphon
• Ammonia neutraliser
• An ammonia test kit

Setting up the hospital tank

1. Fill it with water taken from the system the fish is currently in.
2. Set the heater to the same temperature as that system.
3. Put in the airstone and run the air pump hard.
4. Put in one pot or mug for each pair.
5. Take out any carbon. Carbon removes the medicine from the water.
6. Put the lid on and keep the tank dark.
7. Two pairs is the maximum for one tank.

Moving the fish

1. Move both fish of a pair, even when only one of them looks sick.
2. Catch with the net, scoop out with the cup, as described further up this page.
3. Lower the cup into the hospital tank and let the fish swim out.

The first dose

1. Work out how many litres of water are in the hospital tank.
2. Find that volume in the table below.
3. Swirl the stock bottle.
4. Measure the millilitres shown and pour them in next to the airstone.

Every day

1. Photograph the fin and compare it with yesterday's photo.
2. Feed the fish if it is eating. A fish that eats is fighting the infection.
3. Siphon out any food that was not eaten.
4. Dose ammonia neutraliser at 10:00, 14:00 and 18:00, every day the medicine is running. Antibiotics kill the filter bacteria, so the neutraliser is doing the filter's job.
5. Test the ammonia. If it is rising, do the water change today instead of waiting.
6. Check the airstone is still running hard.
7. Keep the tank covered and dark.

Every 48 hours: water change and redose

Prepare the new water first, before you take any water out.

1. Mix fresh seawater. It must be the same temperature and the same salinity as the hospital tank.
2. Aerate the new water before you use it.
3. Siphon the bottom of the hospital tank.
4. Take out at least 50 percent of the water.
5. Refill with the new seawater.
6. Swirl the stock bottle and redose the full amount from the table.

How long to treat

Treat for 7 to 10 days. Finish the full course even if the fins look clean after four days. Stopping early lets the infection come back, and the medicine works less well the second time.

What recovery looks like

The fin does not grow back during treatment. What you are looking for is the damage stopping:

• The white or fuzzy edge goes away and the edge looks clean again.
• The fin is the same length today as yesterday.
• New clear fin tissue starts growing out from the edge.

If it is not working

If the fin edges are still getting worse on day 3 or day 4, or if the infection comes back after a completed course, the bacteria is resistant to Ciprofloxacin. Switch to the protocol below.

Ciprofloxacin-resistant infection: Green F Gold and methylene blue

This is used only after Ciprofloxacin has failed. It combines two medicines in the same hospital tank, with heavy aeration.

What you need

• Green F Gold granules (グリーンFゴールド顆粒, JPD)
• Methylene blue (Japanese product)
• A second airstone. Aeration must be strong.
• Nitrile gloves

Dose

Both medicines go in together. Dissolve the Green F Gold in a small amount of RO/DI water first, then pour it in. Measure the methylene blue straight from the bottle.

The methylene blue dose is 3 mg/L. Green F Gold is dosed at 1 g per 36 L.

Rules

1. Wear nitrile gloves when measuring the medicine and every time your hands go into the water.
2. Heavy aeration. Two airstones running hard. Methylene blue reduces the oxygen the fish can take up.
3. Keep the tank dark. Both medicines break down in light.
4. Water change and redose every day, 25 percent, both medicines.
5. Treat for 7 days.
6. The water will be blue. That is normal.

Additional protocol: amoxicillin and clavulanic acid

A third option. Used when Michael directs it, either alongside the Green F Gold protocol or on its own.

Dose is 10 mg/L, measured on the amoxicillin amount printed on the pack, not the total. A 500/125 tablet is 500 mg of amoxicillin.

1. Dissolve the tablet in a small amount of RO/DI water first, then pour it in.
2. Water change and redose every day, 25 percent.
3. Treat for 7 days.
4. Test ammonia daily. This medicine is hard on the filter bacteria.

Treating a Haddoni Anemone

The sign that matters: opening and closing

A healthy haddoni anemone stays open. Opening up and then deflating, repeatedly, is the first and most important sign that something is wrong.

If a haddoni anemone is opening and closing every day for three days, it is time to treat.

Treatment is a ladder. Start at stage 1 and only move up if the animal does not respond.

Bacteria dosing

Keep dosing MicroBacter7 and MicroBacter Purple every day through the whole course, and for three days after the course finishes.

Check what it was fed first

Chopped fish can make an anemone open and close like this, even when the fish was frozen first. One anemone can react while others fed the same food do not. Check what was fed before deciding it is an infection.

Not attached is not the same as sick

An anemone can be fully open, healthy, and simply not stuck down. This is normal for a recently arrived animal. Judge it on the signs above, not on whether it has attached.

Treating a Gigantea or Magnifica Anemone

When to start

Same signs as the haddoni anemone: opening and closing through the day, soft flesh, stringy material, loss of stickiness, spitting food out, or a smell.

As with the haddoni anemone, dose MicroBacter7 and MicroBacter Purple first, at the amount on the bottle, and wait 24 hours before adding antibiotic.

Check the light first

Gigantea and magnifica anemones need much more light than haddoni anemones. An anemone in a dim tank will keep opening and closing no matter what medicine is in the water. Around 300 PAR is the level these animals are kept at here. Fix the light before you treat.

Check the foot

Look at the underside where it attaches. A torn or damaged foot is not something medicine can fix. A clean foot that simply has not stuck down yet is a light or surface problem, not an infection.

Dose

Every day: water change and redose

1. Look at the water. If it is cloudy, smelly, or has gunk in it, change 100 percent. Otherwise change 50 percent.
2. Mix the new seawater first. Same temperature, same salinity, aerated.
3. Siphon out any loose material.
4. Take the water out and refill.
5. Redose the full amount from the table.

Bacteria dosing

Keep dosing MicroBacter7 and MicroBacter Purple every day through the whole course, and for three days after it finishes.

What We Keep in Stock

Everything on this list stays in the cabinet at all times. A fish can go from a ragged fin to dead in under a week, so there is never time to order something after the problem starts.

Bacterial infection

Parasites

Brooklynella

Thick grey-white slime peeling off the fish in sheets, with fast breathing. Formalin is used in a separate container, never in a tank with anemones or corals.

White spot

We do not treat for white spot. The UV steriliser on the system handles it.

Other supplies

Rules for the cabinet

1. Write the date on everything when it is opened.
2. Keep the Ciprofloxacin stock solution in the fridge, out of the light.
3. Use a pill cutter, not a knife. Uneven halves mean some days are underdosed, and underdosing is what makes an infection stop responding.
4. Each quarantine group has its own net, cup, siphon and bucket. Nothing is ever shared between groups, or between a quarantine group and a display tank, in either direction.