SW: Lionfish Help!!

[Cbellehumeur]

My lion fish are looking like they are molting? It looks like there skin is shedding? and the are losing tentacles/fin things. is this a normal cycle or is something wrong with them?. they eat about 2 days ago. It's happening to both of them. in the picture you can see it at the top of it's back

[Pablo]

My naso tang had the same thing... his skin was peeling off, two days after he died. I sure hope its not the same thing..
I couldnt do anything for him, but maybe theres time to save your lionfish..Are they alone in that tank or with other fish?

[Cbellehumeur]

I also have a Picasso trigger in the tank

[Pablo]

did you notice a thick mucus coating covering the fish before the skin peeling off?

[Cbellehumeur]

No... They looked fine last night

[Cbellehumeur]

No... They looked fine last night

actually it does look mucusy

[Pablo]

Do a search for brooklynella / velvet disease .. Cant help you much with your issue, my naso tang died then I lost my coral beauty, but all my other fish survived fine and they recovered from ich too... I have not had any other problems with my fish after that. I was going to treat them with copper but then I figured it was almost impossible getting my fish out of my 210. I decided to let nature take its course, I fed my fish 3-4 times a day with garlic guard, reduced photoperiod and stop putting my hands in the tank. Their stress level went down and the ich covering some of them disappeared. Sometimes, taking a fish out of the tank to treat it can be as deadly as leaving them in there in my opinion...
If you have a well established QT tank, you could transfer them and do a search on the symptoms and possible treatment, some people have tried coppersafe, some other medicines for bacterial infections..

I cant tell you much about treatment since I practically never treat sick fish, I just feed more with garlic and usually, its enough to save them. Stress is the worse thing for a fish, if you can put them in an environment where they feel safe, they have a good chance of recovery, if they are eating well its even better.
Good luck

[Cbellehumeur]

well i looked up brooklynella / velvet disease it's not that. The skin has now peeled off and it's pure white underneath...not sure what to do at this point. they aren't eating. i did as much research as i could and found 50% of people say they shed and 50% said after that happened they died...so i'm not sure what to think.

[Cbellehumeur]

new pic with white dots on one side...doesn't look like ich. any last minute suggestions before they die?

[Greatwhite]

I assume you've done the basics already.. Water parameter testing, etc....  Right?  That patch doesn't look very good.

I've had similar patches on my fish... usually my Coral Beauty... I couldn't tell if it was a result of fighting, rubbing rocks, or disease of some sort.  But I was fortunate that my CB was tough enough to fight it off himself, and he's fine now.

I am not very familiar with Lionfish to say whether they are able to fight off infections...  They need to eat, and have full bellies to help fight off infections.  If they are not eating, I have a feeling that they won't make it.

[Cbellehumeur]

I assume you've done the basics already.. Water parameter testing, etc....  Right?  That patch doesn't look very good.

I've had similar patches on my fish... usually my Coral Beauty... I couldn't tell if it was a result of fighting, rubbing rocks, or disease of some sort.  But I was fortunate that my CB was tough enough to fight it off himself, and he's fine now.

I am not very familiar with Lionfish to say whether they are able to fight off infections...  They need to eat, and have full bellies to help fight off infections.  If they are not eating, I have a feeling that they won't make it.

yeah i think your right...i bought some garlic and live food and it was a no go ...i don't think they have much fight left in them

[joeyt66]

any updates??

[Cbellehumeur]

any updates??

Neither one of them made it . I couldn't get them to eat. One died the day after my last post and the other the next day. 

[Darth]

that sucks man they are my fav fish too, always wanted one, but I prefer the reef sorry for your loss

[White Lightning]

Thats a bummer! How long had you had the lionfish? I had one for quite a while, they are awesome fish!