Can Anyone Help ID Illness?

jonnybravo22 · 01/09/2019, 11:49 AM

Background: I have had a reef running in some form for the last 10 years, through moves and new cycles etc. My primary focus over the years has been trying to keep SPS but lately I'm struggling with fish mortality. Tank is a 55g display + 70 gallon sump.

Over the summer (maybe 5 months ago) I had a mass die-off which claimed my clownfish pair, which I'd had for 9 years and 7 years respectively.

That new clown in particular displayed an illness I had never seen before (covered in white 'stuff', pale color, lethargic). I may have pictures somewhere but I'll have to look. Along with the clowns I lost a trio of ignitus anthias, a flame angel, a royal gramma, yellow coris wrasse, 3x chromis and melanarus wrasse. All this death happened within two weeks.

It happened at the same time that I started dosing vodka (within two weeks after I started) to try to do a homemade NoPox for an SPS strategy. I won't be doing that again... if I were to point a finger at something, the timing makes me feel like the dosing increased some probably pre-existing negative bacteria that caused infections in the fish and killed everything. Prior to dosing I did not notice any illness in the tank.

Anyways, that was quite a massive setback. I left the tank fallow for 4 months.
I have just started restocking the tank over the last month. I currently have a kole tang, coral beauty, lubbock's wrasse, argi angel, 2x chromis and purple firefish. All of these fish come from liveaquaria.

So here's my question: I have been watching these new fish closely. I noticed some flashing and white specs on fins so decided to act. I researched a few things (flukes, ich) and had prazipro on hand and since I have no corals in the tank currently, I went ahead and dosed the display with Prazi. After doing so, all fish in the tank were immediately more active swimmers. However, a week after that initial dosing, I see white spots emerging in greater numbers on some fish, particularly the kole tang, and feel that either a) another dose is needed, which is my current plan with a large water change this week, or b) prazi is not the medication needed / perhaps I need a better diagnosis. Either seem equally likely to me as I've read of people doing 3 rounds of prazi before it is all cleared up.

Here's a video, it's hard to see but the kole tang is starting to look more pale and has white objects attached to it, but they are more 'flowy' that 'sugar'. As it swims, I see the white things swaying in the waves a bit.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DTM-y0KmiA

Appreciate any thoughts.

jonnybravo22 · 01/09/2019, 05:41 PM

A better video that shows it more: https://youtu.be/thHAVEse7MM

teddscau · 01/09/2019, 06:14 PM

Looks a lot like marine ich to me. The problem with external parasites is that I find dosing with PraziPro (and other antiparasitics) only lowers the number of parasites, rather than eliminating them. I've been struggling with some sort of gill parasite in my freshwater tank, and after over a MONTH of treating with PraziPro I took a few to the vet and he told me to treat with salt. So, I've been treating them with salt for a few weeks now, and they're rarely flashing and seem a lot healthier. However, as soon as I quit adding salt, they start scraping their gills and have trouble breathing -_-.

Anyways, from what I've been reading, your best bet is to treat your fish using hyposalinity. I think I read you need to very slowly lower your salinity to 1.013 (I could be wrong, so look it up yourself). You'll need to maintain the proper pH, GH, and alkalinity, which will be a pain in the butt since you'll have to rely on additives rather than your marine salt to take care of those parameters.

Your fish definitely look heavily infested, so you'll want to start carefully lowering the salinity right away. In a few weeks, you'll notice most of the parasites fall off. Once all of the parasites have disappeared, continue the treatment for four more weeks (some of the parasites are still alive and are in hiding).

If it isn't ich... This might be a long shot, but do you have access to a microscope? It might be worthwhile getting a scraping and checking it out under a microscope. If not, I'd definitely recommend investing in one. Mine's been really helpful.

In the meantime, maybe you should start by doing a freshwater dip, before you bother lowering the salinity of your tank. Medicating with copper might work better, however, this is a lot harder on your fish. I'd definitely recommend examining the pathogen under a microscope so you can figure out exactly what's wrong. See if you can't track down a fish vet.

jonnybravo22 · 01/10/2019, 10:18 PM

Today

https://youtu.be/fvtPnCMFpas

Things started to look pretty bad so I’m taking decisive action in the form of cupramine. DT is now HT. Wish me luck.

Dmorty217 · 01/11/2019, 10:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jonnybravo22

Today

https://youtu.be/fvtPnCMFpas

Things started to look pretty bad so I’m taking decisive action in the form of cupramine. DT is now HT. Wish me luck.

I replied to your other thread. Copper isn't going to help. It looks like some sort of worm and I would suggest formalin dipping to see if they fall off. It also appears the fish has a secondary bacterial infection and I would dose antibiotics

01/09/2019, 11:49 AM	#1
jonnybravo22 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,128	Can Anyone Help ID Illness? Background: I have had a reef running in some form for the last 10 years, through moves and new cycles etc. My primary focus over the years has been trying to keep SPS but lately I'm struggling with fish mortality. Tank is a 55g display + 70 gallon sump. Over the summer (maybe 5 months ago) I had a mass die-off which claimed my clownfish pair, which I'd had for 9 years and 7 years respectively. That new clown in particular displayed an illness I had never seen before (covered in white 'stuff', pale color, lethargic). I may have pictures somewhere but I'll have to look. Along with the clowns I lost a trio of ignitus anthias, a flame angel, a royal gramma, yellow coris wrasse, 3x chromis and melanarus wrasse. All this death happened within two weeks. It happened at the same time that I started dosing vodka (within two weeks after I started) to try to do a homemade NoPox for an SPS strategy. I won't be doing that again... if I were to point a finger at something, the timing makes me feel like the dosing increased some probably pre-existing negative bacteria that caused infections in the fish and killed everything. Prior to dosing I did not notice any illness in the tank. Anyways, that was quite a massive setback. I left the tank fallow for 4 months. I have just started restocking the tank over the last month. I currently have a kole tang, coral beauty, lubbock's wrasse, argi angel, 2x chromis and purple firefish. All of these fish come from liveaquaria. So here's my question: I have been watching these new fish closely. I noticed some flashing and white specs on fins so decided to act. I researched a few things (flukes, ich) and had prazipro on hand and since I have no corals in the tank currently, I went ahead and dosed the display with Prazi. After doing so, all fish in the tank were immediately more active swimmers. However, a week after that initial dosing, I see white spots emerging in greater numbers on some fish, particularly the kole tang, and feel that either a) another dose is needed, which is my current plan with a large water change this week, or b) prazi is not the medication needed / perhaps I need a better diagnosis. Either seem equally likely to me as I've read of people doing 3 rounds of prazi before it is all cleared up. Here's a video, it's hard to see but the kole tang is starting to look more pale and has white objects attached to it, but they are more 'flowy' that 'sugar'. As it swims, I see the white things swaying in the waves a bit. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DTM-y0KmiA Appreciate any thoughts.

01/09/2019, 06:14 PM	#3
teddscau Registered Member Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Canada Posts: 214	Looks a lot like marine ich to me. The problem with external parasites is that I find dosing with PraziPro (and other antiparasitics) only lowers the number of parasites, rather than eliminating them. I've been struggling with some sort of gill parasite in my freshwater tank, and after over a MONTH of treating with PraziPro I took a few to the vet and he told me to treat with salt. So, I've been treating them with salt for a few weeks now, and they're rarely flashing and seem a lot healthier. However, as soon as I quit adding salt, they start scraping their gills and have trouble breathing -_-. Anyways, from what I've been reading, your best bet is to treat your fish using hyposalinity. I think I read you need to very slowly lower your salinity to 1.013 (I could be wrong, so look it up yourself). You'll need to maintain the proper pH, GH, and alkalinity, which will be a pain in the butt since you'll have to rely on additives rather than your marine salt to take care of those parameters. Your fish definitely look heavily infested, so you'll want to start carefully lowering the salinity right away. In a few weeks, you'll notice most of the parasites fall off. Once all of the parasites have disappeared, continue the treatment for four more weeks (some of the parasites are still alive and are in hiding). If it isn't ich... This might be a long shot, but do you have access to a microscope? It might be worthwhile getting a scraping and checking it out under a microscope. If not, I'd definitely recommend investing in one. Mine's been really helpful. In the meantime, maybe you should start by doing a freshwater dip, before you bother lowering the salinity of your tank. Medicating with copper might work better, however, this is a lot harder on your fish. I'd definitely recommend examining the pathogen under a microscope so you can figure out exactly what's wrong. See if you can't track down a fish vet. __________________ Dotty the firefish, Delilah and Little Henry Ocellaris clownfish, Pixel (convict tang) and Darwin (blue tang), pyjama cardinalfish, Riku and Kenji the orchid and elongate dottybacks, and Jeremy (yello Current Tank Info: 160g reef tank with mushrooms, leathers, zoas, SPS corals, NPS corals, firefish, a school of pyjama cardinalfish, a pair of designer Ocellaris, two tangs, a striped blenny, two dottybacks, and a watchman goby

01/09/2019, 05:41 PM	#2
jonnybravo22 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,128	A better video that shows it more: https://youtu.be/thHAVEse7MM

01/10/2019, 10:18 PM	#4
jonnybravo22 Registered Member Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 1,128	Today https://youtu.be/fvtPnCMFpas Things started to look pretty bad so I’m taking decisive action in the form of cupramine. DT is now HT. Wish me luck.