Another "What is this" Thread

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Hey guys. Thanks in advance.

Noticed this on my fish this morning. Never dealt with any fish disease, but have researched, and have an idea, but want to get some eyes on it for confirmation. Any ideas? #reefsquad

Parameters are good (no ammonia, low nitrates/phosphates. good pH and salinity.
Fish are still eating normally. Only 1 is acting a little strange, not hiding out in its normal spot. Otherwise, behavior is pretty normal too.

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

The pictures are a little rough, I know. Getting them to pose is hard. haha. The bicolor, you can kind of see it in the tail fins. The hippo, there are the bumps, but they don't actually look white. Foxface is clearly white bumps.

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

It also doesn't seem to be on all the fish. I have these 4 fish, along with an engineer goby, fire clown, 2 banggai cardinals, and a diamondback goby. As far as I can see, none of the other fish are showing anything.

Flippers4pups · May 27, 2018

How long have they been like this? Have you added any livestock lately?

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Flippers4pups said:
How long have they been like this? Have you added any livestock lately?

Showed up yesterday evening. And yes, I recently put some new coral in (Friday night). Before that, the last livestock would have been a couple of months ago. It is a fairly recent build, and have been slowly increasing bioload.

HotRocks · May 27, 2018

Any other symptoms?

Really hard to tell from those pics.
I do see some spots. Likely ich, possibly velvet.

I would also FW dip the Blue Hippo to see if any flukes come off.

Flippers4pups · May 27, 2018

It's difficult to diagnose what they have because of the pictures. Could be ich, could be velvet. Ether way, be prepared to remove them for treatment.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-diseases-101.189284/

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Yeah, I know the pictures are rough. But I've been watching them closely this morning. No other symptoms I have noticed. No flashing, no rock scratching. Eating well (normal frozen and nori).

Flippers4pups · May 27, 2018

HotRocks said:
Any other symptoms?

Really hard to tell from those pics.
I do see some spots. Likely ich, possibly velvet.

I would also FW dip the Blue Hippo to see if any flukes come off.

Man, do we think alike or what!

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Also, no powerhead swimming, and the fish are out in the open, so not seeming to hide from light. Which I know are both typical symptoms of velvet (based on thread research I have read here), right?

4FordFamily · May 27, 2018

The Kole has velvet. The hippo appears to have both ich and velvet. The gramma perhaps velvet. Either way it’s the same treatment.

Copper for 30 days in QT, remove all fish and run the tank fallow for 76 days. Sorry it sucks but we’ve all been there before we learned to qt properly.

HotRocks · May 27, 2018

Flippers4pups said:
Man, do we think alike or what!

Haha yep!

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

More pictures (with white light). Thanks for all the help. Getting QT set up now.

Dsnakes · May 27, 2018

Those new pictures do show it better. Looks like velvet. I recently had to battle it as well. I used seachem cupramine along with the seachem copper tests.

Big G · May 27, 2018

Here's @Humblefish treatment guidelines for velvet. Note the use of an acriflavine product (Ruby Reef Rally is the easiest to get) greatly increased the survival rate of fish given the "bath" immediately following the freshwater dip.

The short version:

5 minute freshwater dip
Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Alright. A few hours later: Display tank was emptied of all rock (to get fish out, engineer didn't want to come out at all). All fish are in brand new setup 40 gallon breeder QT (pic attached). Used water from main tank to quickly fill QT. QT has air stone, HOB filter with foam. A bottle of Dr. Tim's dumped in. Ammonia badge inside. Initial dose of Cupramine in. Fish are stressed, but I think that was from the move. They don't like the net. All the rock and coral are back DT and already look normal again. So far, nothing has been lost. Will keep copper up at therapeutic levels. I'm going to keep all fish in QT for about 70 days (more than 67). I keep copper dosed the entire time? Or just the first month?

4FordFamily · May 27, 2018

themcfreak said:
Alright. A few hours later: Display tank was emptied of all rock (to get fish out, engineer didn't want to come out at all). All fish are in brand new setup 40 gallon breeder QT (pic attached). Used water from main tank to quickly fill QT. QT has air stone, HOB filter with foam. A bottle of Dr. Tim's dumped in. Ammonia badge inside. Initial dose of Cupramine in. Fish are stressed, but I think that was from the move. They don't like the net. All the rock and coral are back DT and already look normal again. So far, nothing has been lost. Will keep copper up at therapeutic levels. I'm going to keep all fish in QT for about 70 days (more than 67). I keep copper dosed the entire time? Or just the first month?

Copper only needed at therapeutic levels for 30 days. Tank should go fallow for 76 days.

Big G · May 27, 2018

Good on you for doing the right thing for your fish. Awesome

Dsnakes · May 27, 2018

I’m glad you were able to get them all out quickly! Hoping for a good outcome for treatment.

themcfreak · May 27, 2018

Thanks for all the positivity guys! So far so good. Fish are looking less stressed in QT already too. Gonna let them chill for the night, then feed in morning and retest copper to make sure it is still good. Cupramine says dose now, then again in 48 hours. Then does it stay at that dose (minus adding new water) or do I dose every 48 hours for the 30 days? Obviously I will test consistently too, to make sure all is well.