Can anyone identify this growth?

[Flybill]

I have had this orange shoulder Tang in Quarrantine with Cupraamine for about three weeks. Added carbon to remove copper 2 days ago. Test shows its gone. Ammonia is at 0. Quarrantine tank is 65 gallons. There are a few other tangs and an angel in there also. This guy was doing great eating and very active until tiday. In the morning he did not want to eat and was hiding which was very unusual, in the afternoon he was dead. He had dark color around his head and a small growth

on his side. I pulled it out and it was sort of like a mucus thread and it had a few white dots in it. There seem to be a lot of pus in the area of this lesion. Everybody else seems to be OK although the Koran Angel is now hiding a little bit so I am concerned. Started prazipro today just in case. Thankfully they are all in quarrantine not in the main tank. Any help would be appreciated thank you

 

[Humblefish]

Was he getting splotchy like that while he was still alive? If so, likely a bacterial infection. But I'm not sure what that thing is on him. Is it still attached? Does it look like a growth or something feeding on his skin? It doesn't look like an isopod but .....

@Lionfish Lair [HASHTAG]#reefsquad[/HASHTAG] for backup.

 

[Humblefish]

Does it look anything like the pics below? I don't think so, but let's be sure.

 

[Diesel]

That must be a horrible death and painful.
That some horror bug

 

[Flybill]

No it was more like a slimy mucus when I pulled it out it didn't stay together very well. The dark patches showed up suddenly. Hard to be sure as he was hiding this morning but definitely weren't there 24 hours before. I've watched them closely in Quarrantine
Thank you

 

[Robink]

That's a scary looking bug!!

 

[Griff]

Following along

 

[melypr1985]

could an isopod have chewed a hole in just right spot and his intestines spill out when it moved on to another host? just spit balling here. @Humblefish

 

[Lionfish Lair]

That looks like an abcess on an organ.

 

[Humblefish]

That looks like an abcess on an organ.

Most likely explanation. I knew you would nail it.

 

[Flybill]

Do you think organ failure could have been caused by Cupramine? I used a sea hem test and it appeared to read .3-.4 for 2 weeks. It's not super precise as its a color comparing but that's what I estimate it was.

 

[Humblefish]

Do you think organ failure could have been caused by Cupramine? I used a sea hem test and it appeared to read .3-.4 for 2 weeks. It's not super precise as its a color comparing but that's what I estimate it was.

Anything is possible, but exposure to toxic ammonia has been proven to damage a fish’s gills, liver and kidneys, usually resulting in death within a few days.

Any possibility of that?

 

[Lionfish Lair]

That's probably about where the liver would be. The only way to really tell, would to go in there and ID nearby organs. Sometimes diseases can totally change the appearance of the different organs and they can even be shifted out of their ordinary anatomical position within the cavity.

I don't know much about tangs..... are they a wormy bunch? Are Angels wormy? Could another tang have caused this sort of damage? I don't like the fact you're raising an eyebrow at the behaviour of another fish.

 

[Reefahholic]

I'm going with internal bleeding. This is serious and can result in a wound like that if there's pressure and will eventually cause a hemorrhage, but also cause the dysfunction of the internal organs due to excess blood compressing them.

I suspect that maybe the copper level was super high. I don't have much faith in our hobby grade test kits. I use a Copper soluble CHEMets kit made by Chemetrics.com. It's about $63 and very accurate and not as expensive as a HACH.

 

[Flybill]

I don't think it could be ammonia related. I tested that often and it was always at zero while a 10 gallon hospital take would climb rapidly necessitating 50% water changes twice a week. The tank is 65 gallons and I was doing a 10 gallon water change weekly.
I'm much more suspicious of the copper test as I had a healthy tang and damsel also suddenly die with no symptoms in the days prior so I removed the copper 2 days prior to this loss.
Thank you for all the feedback

 

[Lionfish Lair]

The only problem is, why would copper cause an evisceration? I'm also not seeing evidence of internal hemorrhage. Then there's the presence the pus.....

 

[Flybill]

Starting today all of the fish have gotten shy. They were very active when I entered the room before in anticipation of feeding. This morning they all his while I added norie but I noticed they did come out and attack it after I walked out of sight. They've always been more active in the afternoon so I'll check later. No signs of any dark spots or other problems

 

[Lionfish Lair]

How many fish are in there?

 

[Flybill]

6
Koran angel 5"
Lieutenant tang 4"
Yellow eye tang. 3"
3 cardinals 1.5"

 

[Flybill]

Started with 9 - 3 died:
Yellow tang I had for years and survived a velvet crash
Blue damsel also a survivor
The subject orange shoulder tang who was a new purchase from a reliable lfs