Flukes? Nightmare Situation

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Now my sailfin tang is getting these subtle little porcupine nodules all over his body and fins. Doesn’t seem like ich to me? This is driving me crazy because all the fish are getting weird different symptoms. Haven’t dosed any medication yet. Just focusing on water qualify and food supplementation.

Just jumping in here late...I was out the day of your original post.

To recap:
The fish are breathing moderately fast, yet there is good aeration.
The water is slightly hazy, but you report zero ammonia.
Nitrite is NOT toxic to marine fish and nitrate is not toxic to them in this sort of a scenario.
The stuff in the bottom of the dip containers are not flukes. However, only one type of fluke can be seen in dip water without a microscope, so your fish could still have flukes.
In this recent photo of the sailfin, I can't rule out ich - on the caudal fin, it does look like it could be.

However, with all that information, you are still left with some combination of ich, flukes and/or bacterial disease. Given the five days since your first post, I think you can rule out ich at this point. That leaves flukes and/or secondary bacterial disease. The FW dips help reduce flukes, but do not cure the fish, and then, there is the issue with the fish needing to recover from the damage from the flukes.

If it were my tank, I would dose with with General Cure (or maybe Prazipro)

Jay

 

[underthereef]

Just jumping in here late...I was out the day of your original post.

To recap:
The fish are breathing moderately fast, yet there is good aeration.
The water is slightly hazy, but you report zero ammonia.
Nitrite is NOT toxic to marine fish and nitrate is not toxic to them in this sort of a scenario.
The stuff in the bottom of the dip containers are not flukes. However, only one type of fluke can be seen in dip water without a microscope, so your fish could still have flukes.
In this recent photo of the sailfin, I can't rule out ich - on the caudal fin, it does look like it could be.

However, with all that information, you are still left with some combination of ich, flukes and/or bacterial disease. Given the five days since your first post, I think you can rule out ich at this point. That leaves flukes and/or secondary bacterial disease. The FW dips help reduce flukes, but do not cure the fish, and then, there is the issue with the fish needing to recover from the damage from the flukes.

If it were my tank, I would dose with with General Cure (or maybe Prazipro)

Jay

Thanks Jay. Is it possible that a bacterial disease could cause different symptoms in different fish? Ex: the picture of the white tail tang with the blister looking area in the post before the sailfin tang. And the clown getting what looked like pop eye.
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around scenarios because these fish have been treated with prazi & metro for two conplete cycles and they are all having different symptoms. The one common symptom is the heavy breathing among symptomatic fish but physical symptoms all looking different. Also could bacterial/viral disease cause heavy breathing as well?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks Jay. Is it possible that a bacterial disease could cause different symptoms in different fish? Ex: the picture of the white tail tang with the blister looking area in the post before the sailfin tang. And the clown getting what looked like pop eye.
I’m having trouble wrapping my head around scenarios because these fish have been treated with prazi & metro for two conplete cycles and they are all having different symptoms. The one common symptom is the heavy breathing among symptomatic fish but physical symptoms all looking different. Also could bacterial/viral disease cause heavy breathing as well?

Let's rule out viral diseases - these are virtually unknown (except with a few exceptions like Lymphocystis) and are all untreatable, except through environmental support.

Certainly secondary bacterial infections can show up differently on different fish, and even on the same fish, depending on the tissues involved.

Your option here might be to dose the fish with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic, such as Neoplex or Kanaplex. That is not without some risks, but if the fish are worsening, I think you need to try something.

Jay

 

[underthereef]

So after staying on top of water changes every couple days the fish have gone back to their normal personalities and all symptoms have disappeared.

What I keep wondering is; is it possible to accidentally “nuke” a tank using prime? I was using prime for the first few weeks to make sure they weren’t exposed to ammonia just to be safe even though my testing indicated the tank was processing ammonia. While I was still doing water changes 1-2 times a week, but then when I stopped using prime, did it eventually bomb the tank re-releasing high nitrites/nitrates on top of all the fish adding to it? I can’t think of any other reason for what happened.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So after staying on top of water changes every couple days the fish have gone back to their normal personalities and all symptoms have disappeared.

What I keep wondering is; is it possible to accidentally “nuke” a tank using prime? I was using prime for the first few weeks to make sure they weren’t exposed to ammonia just to be safe even though my testing indicated the tank was processing ammonia. While I was still doing water changes 1-2 times a week, but then when I stopped using prime, did it eventually bomb the tank re-releasing high nitrites/nitrates on top of all the fish adding to it? I can’t think of any other reason for what happened.

Glad to hear that the fish improved!

I don't know enough about the chemistry of Prime to have an opinion on that. I usually use Amquel if I have to use an ammonia detoxifying product. With Amquel, all I've noticed is that subsequent additions aren't as effective, I've never had it release nitrogen compounds back into the tank.

Jay