Clownfish in QT - External Parasites?

[Yoder]

Hey everyone, I'm on day 24 of QTing my first ever saltwater fish, two clowns and a lawnmower blenny. There's so much to learn on fish disease, I was hoping to get some advice here, I'm lost. Here's the deets:

Fish entered QT 3/5
Copper Power slowly dosed up to 2.5 PPM - 2.5 PPM reached on 3/9

March 12 - Day 1: Dose Metroplex - started feed of General Cure/Focus
March 14 - Day 3: 20% WC and Dose GC
March 16 - Day 5: Dose Metroplex
March 18 - Day 7: Dose Metroplex
March 20 - Day 9: Dose Metroplex
March 22 - Day 11: 20% WC and Dose GC
March 24 - Day 13: Dose Metroplex - End feeding of General Cure
March 25th - present - maintained 2.5 PPM Copper Power - performed 20% WC

I saw these spots on one of my clowns when I first got them, and they went away quickly, but today I notice they are back.

I gave him a FW dip for 3 minutes, not sure what I'm dealing with. Lympho? Flukes? I'm a noob, any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[MnFish1]

This is a @vetteguy53081 question. IMHO - stop dosing/doing things - and watch.

 

[MnFish1]

Sorry I clicked send too soon - There are many people that woudl say you should not be dosing copper with other medications (especially in the absence of disease) - its not clear whether this issue occurred before or after one of the medication - but copper can irritate the skin. I'm not sure its not a virus (lymphocystis) or another. Or a parasite. I think you may be over doing medications. JMHO. Others will surely weigh in. Good luck - looks like an awesome fish

 

[MnFish1]

OH and welsome to R2R - I have to say it looks like a parasite of some kind. I would probably take the fish out and pull the 'thing' off. But - Don't . Wait for @vetteguy53081

 

[Yoder]

Sorry I clicked send too soon - There are many people that woudl say you should not be dosing copper with other medications (especially in the absence of disease) - its not clear whether this issue occurred before or after one of the medication - but copper can irritate the skin. I'm not sure its not a virus (lymphocystis) or another. Or a parasite. I think you may be over doing medications. JMHO. Others will surely weigh in. Good luck - looks like an awesome fish

Thanks. This whole quarantine thing is quite overwhelming. I did a ton of reading on @Humblefish website and this forum, and I wasn't real sure on exact what to do protocol wise. I knew liquid Prazi (and some other meds) can deplete oxygen, but I tried to follow "best practice", and watched for any signs of stress. For what it's worth, they are all eating really well. There's so much to learn! When I did freshwater, it was "dump and pray" right into my DT (my only tank).

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is not something for copper but rather good water quality. Looks like lympho but seems more bacterial

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey everyone, I'm on day 24 of QTing my first ever saltwater fish, two clowns and a lawnmower blenny. There's so much to learn on fish disease, I was hoping to get some advice here, I'm lost. Here's the deets:

Fish entered QT 3/5
Copper Power slowly dosed up to 2.5 PPM - 2.5 PPM reached on 3/9

March 12 - Day 1: Dose Metroplex - started feed of General Cure/Focus
March 14 - Day 3: 20% WC and Dose GC
March 16 - Day 5: Dose Metroplex
March 18 - Day 7: Dose Metroplex
March 20 - Day 9: Dose Metroplex
March 22 - Day 11: 20% WC and Dose GC
March 24 - Day 13: Dose Metroplex - End feeding of General Cure
March 25th - present - maintained 2.5 PPM Copper Power - performed 20% WC

I saw these spots on one of my clowns when I first got them, and they went away quickly, but today I notice they are back.

I gave him a FW dip for 3 minutes, not sure what I'm dealing with. Lympho? Flukes? I'm a noob, any advice would be much appreciated.

A couple of things about your treatment schedule - Metroplex is primarily an antiprotozoan, so it overlaps a lot with copper. You shouldn't dose both of those at the same time.

The General Cure also contains metronidazole, so shouldn't be dosed with metroplex.
Also, feeding medication to fish in the food is VERY difficult. It keeps getting told to people to just "mix some medication in the food" but the reality is that there are very specific doses for medications, and unless you have a gram scale to weigh things out, you have no idea the dose the fish are getting.
Here is an article about that:

Proper Dosing of Medicated Foods

This article offers information about developing medicated foods for aquarium fish

www.reef2reef.com

These spots aren't real clear in the photo, but they are too linear to be Lymphocystis. I'd say they are either excess mucus or bacterial. If mucus, they don't need to be treated. If bacterial, they should be treated with an antibiotic bath in the water. If you decide to dose with antibiotics, let me know and I'll walk you through it.

Jay

 

[Yoder]

This is not something for copper but rather good water quality. Looks like lympho but seems more bacterial

Thanks! I'll do another water change (with 2.5 PPM copper power predosed) today.

 

[Yoder]

A couple of things about your treatment schedule - Metroplex is primarily an antiprotozoan, so it overlaps a lot with copper. You shouldn't dose both of those at the same time.

The General Cure also contains metronidazole, so shouldn't be dosed with metroplex.

I knew GC contains metronidazole - I had read something doing both here:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/api-general-cure-only-or-with-metro.543498/

I kept reading conflicting stuff on if it's okay to dose those with copper, or not. There's also debate of that in that thread.

unless you have a gram scale to weigh things out

I have a gram scale. Also mixed in a small amount of garlic, as I understand General Cure (or anything with metronidazole) can be too bitter for them to want to eat.

Sounds like I over did it on my first QT. Next QT, I guess just do copper for the ~30 days, THEN do GC? There's so much to learn, but I'm glad I'm QTing from the start, instead of learning that lesson the hard way.

Thank you guys again for all the advice!