Fish Allergies to food

[mermaid_life]

Hi, weird question. Has anyone heard of fish being allergic to food types?

The reason I ask is because my lieutenant tang one day started itching and scratching itself on the sand. It looked so terrible. I used Rally and it instantly felt better. 6 months later, same thing happened out of nowhere. Again, rally and now better.

I didn't think of it at the time, but after the second time the similarity was that I tried a different macro algae. I feed nori regularly. These two times I ordered dried macro algae out of shopping compulsion.

Also to note, during these two instances, my clowns and sailfin showed zero signs of disease. Possible that this is a food allergy?

 

[Tamberav]

My wrasses will flash when they get food stuck in their gills.

Why would rally treat allergies though? It is an antiseptic not a antihistamine. It doesn't really add up to me.

 

[mermaid_life]

I used Rally to prevent infection. I thought he was going to be itchy from scabbing... Like me picking at my scabs. I didn't think it cured the allergies or anything

My wrasses will flash when they get food stuck in their gills.

Why would rally treat allergies though? It is an antiseptic not a antihistamine. It doesn't really add up to me.

 

[mermaid_life]

My wrasses will flash when they get food stuck in their gills.

Why would rally treat allergies though? It is an antiseptic not a antihistamine. It doesn't really add up to me.

That is interesting about the gills. I didn't know that.

 

[Tamberav]

That is interesting about the gills. I didn't know that.

It really freaked me out at first... but I realized it was happening only sometimes.. when I fed. Then I saw a black worm hanging out the side of the gill one day while the wrasse was flashing all over the place like crazy.

 

[mermaid_life]

It really freaked me out at first... but I realized it was happening only sometimes.. when I fed. Then I saw a black worm hanging out the side of the gill one day while the wrasse was flashing all over the place like crazy.

 

[mermaid_life]

Ok SO I tried the laver seaweed test ONE MORE TIME...... and yep, same response right away! He/she ate for 5 mins and then started flashing again. This time because i caught it right away, I immediately removed the laver seaweed and put in dulse seaweed that has never given me issues. Flashing went away in 5-10 mins. I'm calling it fish allergies.

Anyone want a (nearly full) free pack of laver seaweed from BRS? =)

 

[ichthyogeek]

I don't think it's impossible for a fish to have a food allergy...but I will say that it sounds implausible.

It sounds to me like this is a correlation =/= causation situation. You dosed Rally (acriflavine + formalin + aminoacridine). None of those ingredients would relieve itching. They'd prevent infection from any scratches that happen, but wouldn't relieve itching, unless Rally suddenly decided to add dipenhydramine or something else.

What seems far more plausible to me, is

• A parasite or disease: it is possible that only the Lt. tang has the parasite/disease and it hasn't yet spread to other members of the tank. Dosing Rally would assist in alleviating whatever's causing the fish to start flashing. How often do you observe the fish flashing, or is it only during feeding time? It could be that you're paying more attention to the fish during feeding time, and then notice the fish start flashing then and only then.
• A bad batch of laver: have you tried using other brands of laver instead of the BRS kind? If it's reacting to other brands of laver, that would provide more evidence towards it being a food allergy.

In people, using an antiseptic (like rubbing alcohol) on a skin allergy (such as a weal caused by poison ivy) helps by physically removing the allergen from the point of contact, limiting the amount of allergen that the body has to fight off. The antiseptic may also help by providing a cooling effect on the skin, providing relief that way. Histamines cause the swelling and the itching. Therefore antihistamines (like benadryl) relieve the swelling and the itching.

 

[mermaid_life]

I don't think it's impossible for a fish to have a food allergy...but I will say that it sounds implausible.

It sounds to me like this is a correlation =/= causation situation. You dosed Rally (acriflavine + formalin + aminoacridine). None of those ingredients would relieve itching. They'd prevent infection from any scratches that happen, but wouldn't relieve itching, unless Rally suddenly decided to add dipenhydramine or something else.

What seems far more plausible to me, is

• A parasite or disease: it is possible that only the Lt. tang has the parasite/disease and it hasn't yet spread to other members of the tank. Dosing Rally would assist in alleviating whatever's causing the fish to start flashing. How often do you observe the fish flashing, or is it only during feeding time? It could be that you're paying more attention to the fish during feeding time, and then notice the fish start flashing then and only then.
• A bad batch of laver: have you tried using other brands of laver instead of the BRS kind? If it's reacting to other brands of laver, that would provide more evidence towards it being a food allergy.

In people, using an antiseptic (like rubbing alcohol) on a skin allergy (such as a weal caused by poison ivy) helps by physically removing the allergen from the point of contact, limiting the amount of allergen that the body has to fight off. The antiseptic may also help by providing a cooling effect on the skin, providing relief that way. Histamines cause the swelling and the itching. Therefore antihistamines (like benadryl) relieve the swelling and the itching.

Thank you. I do want to clarify that I definitely did not mean to imply that Rally relieved the itch. I added Rally after he/she was extensively scratched from eating all of the laver that I left out and I was worried about infection. I watched carefully in the days to follow for signs of ich, etc but it just all went away both times.

These instances have happened several months apart and always (in hindsight) after I tried to feed this new algae. Today this happened live - I stuck around to watch. I removed the food as soon as I saw multiple flashings and before he/she could eat much more. It's been a few hours now and no more flashing.

To answer your questions, I know the fish has been flashing because the skin is easily scratched. It rarely flashes - no signs in the afternoon/evenings and no signs in the morning when I first check in on them. Usually it's a beautiful dove gray =). I don't think I'm going to try laver again. I'm not attached to that seaweed or anything. I was trying to give them a variety of macro algae to keep it interesting.