Is this a parasite?

bios · Nov 19, 2016

Metazoa. fish parassite

Leech step

Lionfish Lair · Nov 19, 2016

Could you expand on that a little?

amps · Nov 19, 2016

Lionfish Lair said:
I'm looking at that closely on my 27" screen and I totally think that's tissue.... I swear I've hauled stuff like that out of people. You can also see in the second picture above that's it's not continuous.... there's a gap between the peach part and and the gray part. That to me totally looks like a species of sea lice and perhaps from the order Siphonostomatoida. blah!

Just looked up info on sea lice and I think you may be right. Where do I go from here?

I have 2 picasso clowns, a 4" hippo tang, 4" yellow corris wrasse, 6" foxface, 3 dispar anthias, 2 royal grammas and the convict tang in question. That's a lot of fish to QT or treat if needed. I'm really praying that the CP and Prazipro treatment killed the parasite and any potential babies before it made it into the DT. I'm really really kicking myself for not observing the tang better before moving it out of QT, but I was worried and rushed after loosing three other fish in the same QT and took the first chance I could get to get the tang out of there.

Lionfish Lair · Nov 19, 2016

@Humblefish and @melypr1985 will be able to answer those questions for you.

Humblefish · Nov 19, 2016

The concern here is whether or not whatever that was laid eggs, which will hatch in the near future. I personally would sit tight and take the wait & see approach. Watch your other fish very, very closely.

Lionfish Lair · Nov 19, 2016

Those strings are the eggs.

amps · Nov 19, 2016

Boy howdy. Thanks for the help guys. I'll be sure to post of any other fish start to show signs. Geeze, you spend a year planning and building a large system and one fish kicks you in the gut. I'm an avid advocate for quarantine but my husbandry fell apart on my last round.

A big note to folks: make sure your QT tank is raised up and in a spot you can easily observe the fish closely. My last round of QT had the tank on the lowest shelf, almost on the floor. Made it hard to get down on my knees and peer into the tank each day. That led to some laziness on my part and the eventual loss of three fish and the potential introduction of a nasty parasite into my DT. Following a proper QT regimen and maintaining careful observation is critical!