Mysterious fish death

[QuarantinedCorals]

Hi guys, I posted this as an emergency because I don't know if this is something I should be worried about. Last night my tomini tang was fine, woke up today and it was on its side breathing hard. All of my fish have been quarantined, anything wet that enters my dt spends 90 days in a fishless system to fallow. I didn't notice anything wrong with him yesterday, he was completely normal. None of my other fish are acting strange at all, not even in the slightest. Before anyone asks, my parameters are stable and have not fluctuated at night according to my apex. He had these white patches around his gills, in my opinion they were symmetrical on both side of his body, can anyone help me identify this if it's a disease and what my next steps should be in regards to my dt, I plan on doing a round of prazi tomorrow. I know not all of the pics are good I'm sorry I got whatever I could.

 

[majesticbigmac]

This may be a parasite. Double check before doing anything. To make sure it doesn't spread you can add copper sulphate which should eliminate it. Good luck and sorry for the death, it is quite saddening.

 

[Tcook]

I wouldn't add copper to the DT. How old is the DT? How long had the Tomini been in the DT? The other fish are doing well? I wouldn't start adding anything to the display until you have a better idea on what's going on. You have QT tanks at the ready?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi guys, I posted this as an emergency because I don't know if this is something I should be worried about. Last night my tomini tang was fine, woke up today and it was on its side breathing hard. All of my fish have been quarantined, anything wet that enters my dt spends 90 days in a fishless system to fallow. I didn't notice anything wrong with him yesterday, he was completely normal. None of my other fish are acting strange at all, not even in the slightest. Before anyone asks, my parameters are stable and have not fluctuated at night according to my apex. He had these white patches around his gills, in my opinion they were symmetrical on both side of his body, can anyone help me identify this if it's a disease and what my next steps should be in regards to my dt, I plan on doing a round of prazi tomorrow. I know not all of the pics are good I'm sorry I got whatever I could.

How long had you had the tomini?
What was the basic quarantine process for it?
Are the white patches on the gill covers? Did you happen to peel back the covers and look at the gills themselves?

Jay

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

How long had you had the tomini?
What was the basic quarantine process for it?
Are the white patches on the gill covers? Did you happen to peel back the covers and look at the gills themselves?

Jay

Hi Jay, I had the tomini for about 8 months. He was out through 2 rounds of prazi, 30 days of copper. The patch's looked like they were on the gill covers, I didn't peel back the covers to check but I should have. I'm suspecting some sort of parasite, would you advise prazi in the dt?

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

I wouldn't add copper to the DT. How old is the DT? How long had the Tomini been in the DT? The other fish are doing well? I wouldn't start adding anything to the display until you have a better idea on what's going on. You have QT tanks at the ready?

I don't have a qt tank ready, I've got 6 fish in my dt including an Achilles. My tank is 180 gallons with about 200 pounds of rock and over 30 pieces of coral, I can't catch any fish out of it unfortunately. All of my fish seemed completely normal, my dt is about a year and a few months old, have had the tomini about 8 months.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hi Jay, I had the tomini for about 8 months. He was out through 2 rounds of prazi, 30 days of copper. The patch's looked like they were on the gill covers, I didn't peel back the covers to check but I should have. I'm suspecting some sort of parasite, would you advise prazi in the dt?

While no quarantine process is 100% effective, yours, combined with an 8 month timeline, plus no other symptomatic fish, leads me away from parasites to consider “one off” infections like bacterial gill disease. I don’t see anything treatable at the moment.
Jay

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

While no quarantine process is 100% effective, yours, combined with an 8 month timeline, plus no other symptomatic fish, leads me away from parasites to consider “one off” infections like bacterial gill disease. I don’t see anything treatable at the moment.
Jay

Over the past months I've noticed flashing against the sandbed, all of my fish have done it as points, I've noticed it happen in all of my fish at different timelines, there was never a point in time where all of my fish were flashing at once and it was never constant or consistent, would happen from time time time.. I have a male zebra swallow tail angel with a little bit of lymph on his tail, that's about all the sketchy behavior I've seen out of my fish. There was an instance about 2 months ago where I woke up early, opened the curtains in front of my aquarium and the sunlight woke my fish up, my tomini tang had redness in his gills/ gill covers. I was concerned because it was really red, he was breathing fast and swimming like he was in a panic, the lights kicked on and he went completely back to normal, never saw behavior like that from it again. Did anything I said raise red flags or give you clues to anything significant?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Over the past months I've noticed flashing against the sandbed, all of my fish have done it as points, I've noticed it happen in all of my fish at different timelines, there was never a point in time where all of my fish were flashing at once and it was never constant or consistent, would happen from time time time.. I have a male zebra swallow tail angel with a little bit of lymph on his tail, that's about all the sketchy behavior I've seen out of my fish. There was an instance about 2 months ago where I woke up early, opened the curtains in front of my aquarium and the sunlight woke my fish up, my tomini tang had redness in his gills/ gill covers. I was concerned because it was really red, he was breathing fast and swimming like he was in a panic, the lights kicked on and he went completely back to normal, never saw behavior like that from it again. Did anything I said raise red flags or give you clues to anything significant?

Well, the flashing is a possible symptom of flukes. If it is persistent, Prazipro is well tolerated except by some delicate corals. You would dose it twice, a week apart and aerate the tank well.
I’d also say what you saw the tomini do before is suspicious, but I don’t know of what….
Jay

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Well, the flashing is a possible symptom of flukes. If it is persistent, Prazipro is well tolerated except by some delicate corals. You would dose it twice, a week apart and aerate the tank well.
I’d also say what you saw the tomini do before is suspicious, but I don’t know of what….
Jay

I think your theory of a bacterial infection of some sort in its gills could be the answer but its frustrating because his death blind sided me, did not see it coming in the slightest. Didn't think much of it 2 months ago because he was fine hours later and didn't act that way again, thought maybe the abrupt sunlight frightened it. Sudden death doesn't sit right with me, I still have the fish in the net, you think Ill be able to see flukes at this point or will it be too dried up?

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

Well, the flashing is a possible symptom of flukes. If it is persistent, Prazipro is well tolerated except by some delicate corals. You would dose it twice, a week apart and aerate the tank well.
I’d also say what you saw the tomini do before is suspicious, but I don’t know of what….
Jay

I just peeled the gill covers back and saw one white spot on its gill, looked like a parasite but hes pretty dried up at this point. Flukes can kill that quickly?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

One white spot, if flukes, wouldn’t be a lethal level of infection. Many flukes require a microscope to see though.
I’m focusing on the flashing as the worrisome symptom here. What can happen is that fish get gill flukes and that makes them anemic. Then, they start to breath fast and just lose ground.
Jay

 

[QuarantinedCorals]

One white spot, if flukes, wouldn’t be a lethal level of infection. Many flukes require a microscope to see though.
I’m focusing on the flashing as the worrisome symptom here. What can happen is that fish get gill flukes and that makes them anemic. Then, they start to breath fast and just lose ground.
Jay

I wish I had dosed prazi sooner, so I will dose prazi today and again in one week. I'm supposed to shut my skimmer off and remove carbon as well right? when do I turn my skimmer back on? Do I also do a wc at any point?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I wish I had dosed prazi sooner, so I will dose prazi today and again in one week. I'm supposed to shut my skimmer off and remove carbon as well right? when do I turn my skimmer back on? Do I also do a wc at any point?

You should run your skimmer, but don't collect any skimmate - if you can do that, some skimmer designs don't allow for that. It never hurts to add extra aeration to a tank that you are dosing with prazi.
You should stop carbon and any UV during the treatment. I don't do water changes during prazi treatments unless the parameters show me that I should (low pH or ammonia issues for example).

Jay