Flukes or a scratch ?

[willieboy240]

Hello.
I need a little help. What do you think ? Is it flukes or a scratch ? It’s been 10 days since I noticed the cloudy eye. It’s not pop eye. I treated for flukes years ago in qt. Might be getting better slowly. But really slow. My cleaner wrasse picks at it if that means anything. It’s on my Achilles tang.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Looks like a scratch. However, it could be a scratch from where a Neobenedenia fluke *had* been, but was removed by the wrasse. Cleaner wrasse are attracted to contrasting color - so it could be going back there to "clean" just based on the whiteish coloration. Does the Achilles posture for the wrasse? That is, does the tang hover and let the wrasse go to work, or does it try to get away? Neobenedenia is a sort of slow disease to progress, but it is unlikely to show up more than 4 months later in a tank, it won't show up years later. Have you added any new invertebrates or fish in the past five months? Neo has sticky eggs that are easily transported on inverts, so adding an infected fish isn't necessary to start an infection. It just takes an egg or two to get an infection going. Other signs of Neo are both eyes being cloudy, frayed fins, and the fish flashing or scratching.

Jay

 

[willieboy240]

Thanks for responding. Yeah I added fish and corals in the past 5 months. I’ve always had low level ich. I run a UV 24/7 to try to keep it down. I QT all my fish but ich always gets in. The Achilles let’s the cleaner wrasse pick at him. Catching him out would be extremely difficult. I’m familiar with QT. I’m not familiar with treating fish in a mixed reef. Normally I don’t add any meds to the DT.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thanks for responding. Yeah I added fish and corals in the past 5 months. I’ve always had low level ich. I run a UV 24/7 to try to keep it down. I QT all my fish but ich always gets in. The Achilles let’s the cleaner wrasse pick at him. Catching him out would be extremely difficult. I’m familiar with QT. I’m not familiar with treating fish in a mixed reef. Normally I don’t add any meds to the DT.

Prazipro is sort of reef safe, you need to boost the aeration if you use it, and it may harm feather dusters and possibly clams. I wouldn’t try it quite yet, since you think the eye could be improving.
Jay