Fin rot after power outage?

[~Flighty~]

With the power outage and UPS failure we had a several hour O2 deprivation long enough that I lost two fish and all of the others were laying on the bottom until I got the bubbler going. Temp also got down to 69 or so. After that we were on generator for 7 days, but running everything pretty normally except for some powerheads, CA reactor, and the skimmer. Now that the power is back on, several fish are showing rotting fins and white tissue patches on scales and some cloudy eyes.

There was a new fish addition several days prior to the outage. We got a female mandarin that was very healthy looking and she has not shown any signs of disease since we got her and all fins on her are very intact. We did not QT her because of the problems QTing a mandarin and the mucus coating on their scale-less bodies. This coating makes them mostly resistant to parasitic skin diseases and untreatable with many meds, so I'm a little more lax about QTing them If I don't have a good natural refugium type QT going.

Since she has no fin damage I'm thinking she isn't the source and more likely is an oportunistic infection from the stresses of the last weeks. Clowns, rabbitfish, and chromis are effected so far and the largest fish of these are the hardest hit (coincidental that the O2 hit the largest the worst too?)

So any thoughts on things to do about the fin rot? I'm thinking the only thing I can do now is wait it out.

 

[phaedraeos]

IME with freshwater fish, I've seen fin rot when the water quality gets below a certain point. Additionally, a drop in water quality strains will strain the fish's immune system and make it easier for opportunistic pathogens to grab a foothold. I'm inclined to agree with you that it was the lack of oxygen and power outages that instigated these symptoms, and that it will clear up with patience and close attention to water quality

Keep us updated!

 

[~Flighty~]

They actually look a lot better today. My female clown was looking the worst and now she is back to normal.

The only fish that seems to be hurting is my old male mandarin. I don't know how long they live, but he has been with me since march of 05 and came to me from another member as a very large adult. One of the fish expert speakers had guessed based on their size and the lifespans of similar fish that they might live around 3 years

He has been off and on looking a little worn out this year and this latest episode hit him hard. His behavior seems to be a little different since the O2 issue and now he is looking thin on his sides. Still a lot of fat on his head and tail though. We've been feeding him extra and hoping for the best.

 

[Sherri]

How is your mandarin doing? We had generator power the whole time so my small tank is fine. The big new one is developmentally delayed! How is your big rabbit doing? He is beautiful ...

 

[Sokretys]

How long was your tank sitting stagnant? Ive often considered stagnant water to be similar to us humans with a plastic bag over our head. The fish exhale ammonia like we do co2. essentially they are sitting in particularly acidic section of the aquarium while breathing in ammonia and damaging their gills. once they have ammonia burn the rest is history. essentially all hell can break lose.

we dont see this problem of stagnant water when fish are shipped and transported to and from lfs do to vibration. i would try adding some vita-chem to your water to try and speed up the healing process.

my own mandarin is also looking a bit pekid since the outage. the tank was only stagnant for a few minutes before i hooked up the battery back up. the tank did go from 80-74 VERY quickly. perhaps in just 2 hours. that was with blankets and all.

im having a hard time figuring out what has upset the mandarin. I have a 29 with a large cpr HOB fuge. perhaps the temp of the fuge went down to house temp(64ish) and quick? killing all inverts within it? Cindy, what are you feeding your mandarin now?

 

[frank180reef]

HI
So I lost power for about 6 hours and luckily didnt loose anything.
What I did notice however is that when the power came back on the water from the sump (basement) must have been VERY COLD as the temp in my tank dropped a few degrees.
Could this have been your problem?

Frank

 

[~Flighty~]

Well the fish are all looking fine now except for the male mandarin still looking a little gaunt. I suspect it is a symptom of his age though, not much to do with the outage. The "fin rot" went away so quickly, it probably was just mechanical damage and they didn't get any sort of infection.

During the outage (before we got the whole system going with the generator) we had airstones going in the basement tanks and powerheads in the display, but the powerheads ran out of juice for an unknown number of hours leaving the display to reach a critical lack of O2. With our water volume in the basement it takes a long time for the temp to change even with the heaters off and the temps didn't fluctuate that much. I think the water down there was slightly warmer than the display when we got the return pump kicked in.

We didn't lose any population of the little life in the system, the pods are extremely good at surviving power outages. Even in the QT tank which was left with no heater and no circulation at all for 7 days has more pods and crawly junk than before the outage. Our mandarin does eat mostly frozen food with pods as a supplement at best.

The ammonia cycle should still be functioning in a power out reef tank unlike in a bag of water. In a closed bag, the lowered temps and change in PH in the closed system help reduce the effect of ammonia and O2 drop.

I'm not a fan of the various vitamin products and bottled cures. They have a long history in the hobby of unsupported claims and dubious contents. A high quality, diverse diet is the way to go IMO.