Copperband Lesions

jap783 · Apr 19, 2021

Hello all,
I purchased a CBB last week and placed it into my quarantine. It has been eating frozen reef frenzy and mysis shrimp moderately but eats live brine with gusto. Today I noticed some white lesions on both of it's sides. I did a wet mount skin scrape on both sides and found this ciliated organism but I can't figure out what it is for the life of me. I'm not even sure if this is the offending organism or if it is an incidental finding.

Thanks

TriggerFinger · Apr 19, 2021

@Jay Hemdal may be able to help

jap783 · Apr 19, 2021

After doing a little more searching, I think I have a brooklynella outbreak. Has anyone successfully treated this parasite? I was thinking of using a short term 125-250 ppm formalin bath but I don't have another tank that is fully cycled. Although, I have a fluidized sand filter on this tank which I can put on an empty 10 gallon.
My other option is a 15-25 ppm long term formalin bath but I would be concerned about elevated nitrite levels and on weekends I don't really have time to perform the necessary water changes.
I could also do a metronidazole bath but I'm not sure about the efficacy of this treatment. I couldn't find any literature on the effective concentrations of metronidazole.
Finally, I have chloroquine phosphate but I have a hippo tang in quarantine as well. I am leaning towards a long term bath and just accepting that I have to test nitrite daily. Do I need to discontinue my protein skimmer and UV sterilizer, and for how long? Is there any way to preserve the biological filter?

Jay Hemdal · Apr 19, 2021

Incidental protozoans can be a huge problem when looking at marine aquarium issues under a microscope, however, if you got a clean scrape, from a live fish, and got that many organisms in the field of view, then what you are looking at is a parasite.

I can't tell Brooklynella from Uronema under a scope. I was recently told by somebody that what we call Uronema is actually Brooklynella and vice-versa. Not sure what to make of that, or even if it matters, since apparently everyone is wrong, so our treatments are aligned (grin).

Based on the white lesions on both sides of the fish, I would lean towards Brooklynella over Uronema. 150 ppm formalin and moving the fish to a clean tank is a good way to go, but not always practical. I don't think that a static formalin bath at 25 ppm is going to do the trick though. I have done a hybrid method - you basically dose the whole tank at 75 ppm, and then after 45 minutes, change 2/3 of the water, leaving a residual dose of 25 ppm. Try that at your own risk, as it can be tricky - you need to change the water very fast.

I'm not a fan of metronidazole. Chloroquine has been tough to source lately, and I wasn't really happy with how many bad reactions I was seeing for such a "safe" drug. For some reason, copper won't touch this.

Jay