Copper and Butterfly bruising

[KeepSwimming12]

Hi,
I bought a Copperband Butterfly around a week ago for my 130 and he has been eating more and more frozen mysis and started on day 1 which is obviously a terrific thing for something like a Copperband. Unfortunately, within the past day I’ve noticed that he has some bruising on his body. He isn’t ever attacked by my other inhabitants from what I can observe and he seems pretty happy. I live in Australia so a lot of the medications for infection etc. are pretty hard to get so fingers crossed it’s not that.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi,
I bought a Copperband Butterfly around a week ago for my 130 and he has been eating more and more frozen mysis and started on day 1 which is obviously a terrific thing for something like a Copperband. Unfortunately, within the past day I’ve noticed that he has some bruising on his body. He isn’t ever attacked by my other inhabitants from what I can observe and he seems pretty happy. I live in Australia so a lot of the medications for infection etc. are pretty hard to get so fingers crossed it’s not that.

It could be Uronema (I hope not). Normally, you can't see Uronema until it breaks through the fish's skin, but in cases where the fish is thin and pale skinned, you can sometimes see it developing under the skin. People most often attribute the symptoms to a "bruise" but it is actually protozoans living inside the fish. It really isn't treatable when it is internal like this....so I hope I'm wrong!

Here is an article I wrote up on this:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/uronema-red-band-disease-hemdal.788/


Jay

 

[KeepSwimming12]

It could be Uronema (I hope not). Normally, you can't see Uronema until it breaks through the fish's skin, but in cases where the fish is thin and pale skinned, you can sometimes see it developing under the skin. People most often attribute the symptoms to a "bruise" but it is actually protozoans living inside the fish. It really isn't treatable when it is internal like this....so I hope I'm wrong!

Here is an article I wrote up on this:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/uronema-red-band-disease-hemdal.788/


Jay

Hi Jay,
I gave your article a read and it’s unbelievably interesting. The fish store where I got him from uses hyposalinity although I don’t know their specific proveyor, nor how they catch their fish. I don’t want to necessarily blame them though as I don’t have any evidence that it is the shop itself. I’m studying medicine at the moment so I may get a microscope soon so if he does die, I can verify whether it is the Uronema protozoan or not. I’m hoping at the least it’s an injury or at the most an infection but I’ll update this thread if there are any major changes in his condition. Thank you so much for your help.

 

[KeepSwimming12]

It could be Uronema (I hope not). Normally, you can't see Uronema until it breaks through the fish's skin, but in cases where the fish is thin and pale skinned, you can sometimes see it developing under the skin. People most often attribute the symptoms to a "bruise" but it is actually protozoans living inside the fish. It really isn't treatable when it is internal like this....so I hope I'm wrong!

Here is an article I wrote up on this:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/uronema-red-band-disease-hemdal.788/


Jay

Hi Jay,
His condition deteriorated really quickly. After I sent the previous message, I had a shower and when I got out, the spot had quadrupled in size and turned white. He was afflicted by swim bladder disorder and was breathing unbelievable quickly. I’ve attached a picture of what he looked like once the blotch had changed. He died overnight and while I usually have good luck with fish diseases, this wasn’t one of those times.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry - the speed that happened also points to Uronema.
Jay

 

[KeepSwimming12]

Sorry - the speed that happened also points to Uronema.
Jay

Thanks so much for your help. I haven’t dealt with this disease before but it makes velvet look like a sneeze. It’s brutal. I only hope that it hasn’t gotten to all the Copperbands that they were selling in that shipment.