Green Chromis Uronema

[bs80]

Hey guys,

I've already asked for (and received, thanks Big G) help with one matter today, so I'm gonna push my luck and ask for advice on another matter. I've had a group of green chromis in a 10 gallon QT for a little over 2 weeks now. I started off with nine but the next evening I noticed one of them had the typical uronema red rash and it didn't make it through the night. In the meantime, I did some research and ordered some MetroPlex, Focus, and Ruby Reef Rally, among other things.

For the past nine days (started on Monday 6/1), I've been dosing the tank with MetroPlex every 48 hours, and soaking food with Focus and Metro. For the first three doses I only added one scoop per 10 gallons as written on the instructions, but after reading some threads here I saw that I could bump that up to two scoops per 10 gallons so I have been doing that ever since. Whenever I observed them they were eating and acting perfectly normally.

I've since lost two more, same way, very suddenly. I lost one last Thursday (6/4) and lost the other this past Sunday (6/7). At the time, only one or two others were showing red marks, and they were pretty small. But for the past two or three days, five out of the six remaining ones have pretty extensive red markings but have been eating and acting perfectly fine.

I've read that uronema is a very quick killer, and this has been consistent with how I've lost these three. But I find it a bit strange that the ones still alive have been showing red marks for days now but are still behaving as if they are perfectly fine. The past couple nights I went to sleep expecting losses overnight. I also find it a little odd that the marks started appearing and then getting worse several days after I began dosing and good-looking with MetroPlex. I have not yet tried a freshwater dip -- I was going to give that a shot right before the next MetroPlex dose tomorrow morning. Is there more that I should have been doing to treat this? Is there any chance at all that it could be another disease that I am not properly treating? Thanks!

 

[Big G]

Uronema marinum

Uronema marinum What You Need To Know: * These are the red sores most often seen on chromis damsels; however it can afflict any fish. * Treatment of choice is a 45 minute formalin bath (e.g. Quick Cure), followed by transfer into a new/sterile QT. * Once in QT, it is very important to do...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[rkpetersen]

That looks like the correct diagnosis. I'd stick with the standard treatment protocol for uronema. However it's still possible that it won't be able to save some of them, once they have the disease.

 

[bs80]

Hi, I appreciate the response. I've read that HumbleFish writeup on Uronema at least a hundred times by now. I forgot to mention, I did give them all an acriflavine (Rally) bath around the time i began dosing with Metro. I did screw up in that I returned them to their original QT without sterilizing or even changing the water out so it's possible they got infected by pathogens in the water column since I had just started dosing Metro.

I just find it weird that they've neither gotten better nor quickly succumbed yet. It just seems like status quo for an abnormally long period of time, given what I've learned about this type of parasite. Now that most are exhibiting red sores, another Rally bath is no longer an option per the HumbleFish writeup, so do I just stick with dosing and soaking food with Metro and freshwater dips from here on out? Besides crossing my fingers there's nothing else I can do?

 

[rkpetersen]

I'd stick with what you're doing. It's a difficult disease, and the main reason I've never kept chromis.

 

[bs80]

So it's been almost a week since my original post, so I've now been soaking their food in Focus and MetroPlex as well as dosing the QT with MetroPlex every 48 hours for over two weeks now. I've tried a 5 min FW dip as well. I have not lost any more of these guys since last week, but they do not appear to be getting any better (I've attached a picture from today). The red spots don't appear to be getting worse either, and while they are breathing pretty quickly, they are otherwise behaving and eating normally.

Is it likely that dosing MetroPlex into the tank for two weeks would have at least eradicated the parasites in the water column by now? Should I still be thinking this is Uronema? I'd think they'd either have shown signs of recovery or have died by now. Thanks!

 

[bs80]

Hi, it's been almost two months since I last posted about this. These guys have been in quarantine for over two months now, and the red spots have mostly but not completely faded. I've been feeding them metro-soaked food this entire time but stopped dosing the tank with metro over a month ago. Is it reasonable to move them to the DT now? Quick summary is that I bought a batch of nine in late May. Three died of uronema within the first few days, but the remaining six all had red sores which lingered for over a month before starting to fade. A couple of them still show very faint red marks.

 

[rkpetersen]

At this point I'd probably stop all medication including medicated food, and see how they're doing in 2 more weeks. If they're still doing well then, it might be time to transfer them. I'd probably give them a rally bath on the way over to the display. Residual red marks might just represent scarring, as long as they stay stable to decreasing in size.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey guys,

I've already asked for (and received, thanks Big G) help with one matter today, so I'm gonna push my luck and ask for advice on another matter. I've had a group of green chromis in a 10 gallon QT for a little over 2 weeks now. I started off with nine but the next evening I noticed one of them had the typical uronema red rash and it didn't make it through the night. In the meantime, I did some research and ordered some MetroPlex, Focus, and Ruby Reef Rally, among other things.

For the past nine days (started on Monday 6/1), I've been dosing the tank with MetroPlex every 48 hours, and soaking food with Focus and Metro. For the first three doses I only added one scoop per 10 gallons as written on the instructions, but after reading some threads here I saw that I could bump that up to two scoops per 10 gallons so I have been doing that ever since. Whenever I observed them they were eating and acting perfectly normally.

I've since lost two more, same way, very suddenly. I lost one last Thursday (6/4) and lost the other this past Sunday (6/7). At the time, only one or two others were showing red marks, and they were pretty small. But for the past two or three days, five out of the six remaining ones have pretty extensive red markings but have been eating and acting perfectly fine.

I've read that uronema is a very quick killer, and this has been consistent with how I've lost these three. But I find it a bit strange that the ones still alive have been showing red marks for days now but are still behaving as if they are perfectly fine. The past couple nights I went to sleep expecting losses overnight. I also find it a little odd that the marks started appearing and then getting worse several days after I began dosing and good-looking with MetroPlex. I have not yet tried a freshwater dip -- I was going to give that a shot right before the next MetroPlex dose tomorrow morning. Is there more that I should have been doing to treat this? Is there any chance at all that it could be another disease that I am not properly treating? Thanks!

I know you won't want to hear this, but I wouldn't try to quarantine 9 green chromis in a 10 gallon tank. Also, to be perfectly honest, I've given up on "Grade B SE Asian" green chromis, their mortality rate has been unacceptable for decades. I now pay the extra for larger green chromis from Fiji. They cost over 5 times as much, but I don't see Uronema in them. FWIW: here is an excerpt from my upcoming disease book on Uronema:

Uronema marinum (Red band disease)

Cause
Uronema is an elongate, oval, ciliated, motile protozoan, up to 40 um in length, that can become an opportunistic pathogen in marine aquariums. Because it is so generic-looking, identification in the field is always provisional. Most professional aquarists actually mean “Uronema-like” when they say “Uronema.”

Uronema infections have been seen in six families of fishes (in roughly descending order of frequency): Pomacentridae (damselfishes, specifically of the genus Chromis); Serranidae (subfamily Anthiinae the Anthias); Syngnathidae (seahorses and seadragons); Labridae (the wrasses); Chaetodontidae (the butterflyfishes); and, occasionally, Pomacanthidae (the angelfishes). There are, no doubt, other species of fish that can be infected.

Symptoms
This moderately common protozoan disease has symptoms that include the rapid development of a red mark in the hypodermis (fat and muscle) region of the fish, often following rows of scales so that the lesion is typically elongate and angled downward as it progresses front to back along the flank of the fish. Within a day or two of the development of the primary lesion, the fish will become lethargic and stop feeding and its respiration rate will increase. Scales above the lesion can be dislodged easily due to the massive trauma to the underlying tissue. Death follows rapidly, with few fish surviving beyond three days after the primary lesion develops.

Almost universally, aquarists who do not have access to a microscope will identify this disease as a “secondary bacterial infection resulting from some injury.” In fact, “capture damage” is often cited as the original cause due to the often-linear nature of the lesion, which looks much like a bruise from being hit with a net frame, for example. The rapid onset of the lesion (often many days after capture) and the fact that it develops internally and then erupts externally both point to another cause.

Treatment
A variety of treatments have been suggested for Uronema infections, but full control is rarely seen following most of these treatments. Part of the issue seems to be that Uronema is ubiquitous (naturally occurring in marine aquariums) and re-infection is commonplace.

Bath treatments may fail because the medication used does not target the intercellular protozoans, only those living externally on the skin of the fish. Copper treatments may reduce the numbers of these ciliates, but good control is not seen until ionic copper levels reach 0.23 ppm, and this is too close to the lethal limit for many species of fish. Formalin baths of various concentrations and durations have been proposed, but this treatment is also mostly effective against external protozoans.

The most commonly used treatment is chloroquine at 15 ppm for 30 days.

Hyposalinity and Uronema
A suspiciously high occurrence of Uronema outbreaks is seen in marine fish being kept under hyposalinity (low salinity) to control another protozoan parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans (saltwater ich). It seems that either Uronema prefers low-salinity water or such treatments lower the fish’s resistance to the protozoan.

Prevention

Uronema is much more easily prevented than cured. Once the protozoan becomes systemic within the fish’s tissues, it is rarely curable. The best means for prevention seem to be to quarantine all new fish for at least 30 days, maintain a proper salinity, remove uneaten food promptly, avoid overstocking the tank, and be prepared to act swiftly and decisively if your fish become afflicted with this malady.

Jay Hemdal

 

[bs80]

Darn, I actually went ahead and moved them to the DT on Tuesday. Thanks for the advice though. It's only been a couple days but they look a lot happier and the red scarring is extremely faint, if not completely gone already.

Jay, thanks for posting that excerpt -- there was a lot of information in there that I had never seen elsewhere. I didn't realize that CP is a treatment option for Uronema. I also didn't realize there was a pricier, more robust option for green chromis. I actually got replacements for the three that initially died and they didn't even make it a day (they were quarantined separately from the original surviving six), so in my very short experience, the mortality rate is insane.

 

[DreadedReefer]

Darn, I actually went ahead and moved them to the DT on Tuesday. Thanks for the advice though. It's only been a couple days but they look a lot happier and the red scarring is extremely faint, if not completely gone already.

Jay, thanks for posting that excerpt -- there was a lot of information in there that I had never seen elsewhere. I didn't realize that CP is a treatment option for Uronema. I also didn't realize there was a pricier, more robust option for green chromis. I actually got replacements for the three that initially died and they didn't even make it a day (they were quarantined separately from the original surviving six), so in my very short experience, the mortality rate is insane.

How are they doing now? I just bought 5 yesterday and they are currently in our QT tank. They did not have any signs when I purchased them.