Help needed with diagnosing moorish idol with disease

[Max Rackstraw]

I need help diagnosing what disease my idol has. Ive never seen this disease before but im thinking its either a virus or parasite.

It started as this for a few days :

And has progressed to this overnight two days ago :

Visually it reminds me of stress spots on a powder brown tang but more severe. The spots (originally) have progressed to become more like patches however they were never raised from the skin.

In terms of behaviour, the idol has been eating mysis and alage sheets for about 2 weeks, steadily getting settled in and doing very well until this disease struck and i worry that the fish is beginning a downward spiral due to being less enthusiastic about eating now and seeming somewhat physically irritated (swimming in front of one of my powerheads, not being as social as usual as swimming quite erratically sometimes).

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Tough to see from just the pictures, more history of the fish would help. Some fish show ich differently than others - notably moorish idols and emperor angels. I see ich on this fish. The only thing that doesn't line up is the other fish not showing symptoms. That's where the history becomes important - if the other fish are long term captives and/or have been through ich before, and if the idol is newer, then that would explain things, and I would go with it being ich.

Here is a link to other information that helps us:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

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A short video would allow me to judge its respiration rate to rule out other parasites.


Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

My suspicion is velevet not to say it is not ich. Just the dots seem smaller and more dust like. If velvet, signs you would see are the velvet spots on the fish that are much finer than the spots seen in Ich making it harder to catch until in cases too late to treat.
Some behaviors associated with a fish with velvet are :
- Scratching body against hard objects
- Fish is lethargic
- Loss of appetite and weight loss
- Rapid, labored breathing
- Fins clamped against the body
- rapid breathing and mucus around the gills

Fish with velvet will typically stay at the surface of the water, or remain in a position where a steady flow of water is present in the aquarium. As the disease progresses outwards from the gills, the cysts then become visible on the fins and body. Although these cysts may appear as tiny white dots the size of a grain of salt, like the first sign of Saltwater Ich or White Spot Disease, what sets Oodinium apart from other types of ich is that at this point the fish have the appearance of being coated with what looks like a whitish or tan to golden colored, velvet-like film, thus the name Velvet Disease.
Remove fish from main tank and give them a FW dip or bath and then place them into a QT with vigorous aeration provided. Treat the fish in the QT with a copper-based medication. Although many over-the-counter remedies contain the general name as ich or ick treatments, carefully read the box to be sure it is specifically designed to target Oodinium. My choice is coppersafe at 2.25-2.5 therapuetic level at 80 degrees monitored by a reliable test kit (no api brand either)

 

[Max Rackstraw]

Sorry for no replies yet, I'll get a proper update with parameters and more information on here soon. For now, the fish has actually started to look better yesterday (alot) and that trend has continued this morning. (Proper... Useful...update soon)

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry for no replies yet, I'll get a proper update with parameters and more information on here soon. For now, the fish has actually started to look better yesterday (alot) and that trend has continued this morning. (Proper... Useful...update soon)

Sounds good. Don't forget though - if this IS ich, the life cycle of that parasite causes a scenario where the trophonts all drop off at once and the fish looks better - but they are just reproducing, and in a day or two the spots return in even greater numbers. Eventually, the individual parasites become out of sync with one another and the fish has spots all of the time.

Jay

 

[Spicoli]

Did the fish survive?

I just went through the same thing with two moorish idols. 310 fowlr. If you showed me that pic, I'd think it was one of mine when my 2 new idols infected my DT. Also swam listlessly in the current. The other fish in DT caught it and displayed velvet symptoms. I think it is velvet. Mine ate through the entire ordeal, and arrived thick. It looks like yours needed to eat soon.

Other than ending up coming down with fish covid, they are dynamite specimens. I used CP and won. 100% survival for all fish. RIP inverts/algae.

My idols are rippers. Love this fish. Hope they don't SMIDS on me. They are eating me out of house and home though. My motto with the MI is if you will eat, I will feed you a bit. They do not refuse food once acclimated. I had a 3rd one, but he could not play well with others and had to move.

QT is hard. I did 30 days for 1. I cut short QT to 14 days with the other 2. They do not like tight quarters. I went with it and moved them in 14 days and got bit with velvet.