Need Help Diagnosing Strange Behavior

[John Hernandez]

Hello all. I am hoping to gain some knowledge from you guys. I have had a purple firefish for over a year and have never had any issues. Last week I found him swimming along the bottom sand bed slowly. He had hermit crabs starting to crowd waiting for the inevitable, or to help nature along. I quickly moved him to a QT tank where he is currently. He shows no signs of injury, he is eating fine and he is not floating on his side or otherwise. The only symptom is he remains at the bottom never swimming around the tank. He is by himself in the QT and seems fine with that. I can't find anything on the net that matches his symptoms and he is going on a week now like this. Any help or direction is appreciated.

 

[DarthSimon]

Could possibly be some sort of injury.... Is he eating well??

 

[Capitol Reef Corals]

How big is your tank and what are your tank parameters? Have you added or changed anything in your system within the past couple of weeks?

 

[John Hernandez]

Tank is 80gal
Parameters are
PH 8.1
Alk 9.7 (pretty steady always)
Cal 428
Nitrate 10ppm
Salinity 1.025
Nothing new added or removed. Everything else, corals and fish doing very well. He has been moved to QT (10gal) where Nitrates are even lower at 5ppm. He seems perfectly fine other than being at the bottom. No visible injuries at all and eating well. It is all very curious.

 

[Humblefish]

Can you post a video showing his behavior?

 

[John Hernandez]

I can. Lights out now but will get some good footage tomorrow.

 

[John Hernandez]

 

[Humblefish]

My best guess is he has something wrong internally: infection, gas bubble, swim bladder issue, etc.

I would probably try soaking his food with metronidazole as a first step: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/metronidazole.298762/

If you wanted a more aggressive treatment, combine Seachem Neoplex with metro via food. Metronidazole when combined with Neomycin sulfate (e.g. Neoplex) in a medicated fish food slurry can be a very good full spectrum internal/gut infection treatment, treating both aerobic and anaerobic bacterium.

 

[John Hernandez]

Thanks Humblefish. I will definitely give that a go. Hoping for the best.

 

[Scubabeth]

@John Hernandez , I hope you don't mind me jumping on this, but one of our fish has the same symptoms and we're desperately trying to figure out what's wrong with the poor guy.

@Humblefish, can you give some suggestions for treating similar symptoms, only the fish is not eating, so the medicated food is not an option? We have a blue throat trigger (we've had him for 5 years) who suddenly began exhibiting these same symptoms in our DT. Nothing at all wet has been added to the tank in over a year, and no external symptoms of any disease. Had been eating well and was fat and healthy until about a week ago when he stopped eating and starting acting like this. All other fish are fine. This is so strange. Can you please advise? Thanks in advance for any input you can provide with your wisdom and experience!

 

[Humblefish]

@Humblefish, can you give some suggestions for treating similar symptoms, only the fish is not eating, so the medicated food is not an option? We have a blue throat trigger (we've had him for 5 years) who suddenly began exhibiting these same symptoms in our DT. Nothing at all wet has been added to the tank in over a year, and no external symptoms of any disease. Had been eating well and was fat and healthy until about a week ago when he stopped eating and starting acting like this. All other fish are fine. This is so strange. Can you please advise? Thanks in advance for any input you can provide with your wisdom and experience!

I would probably QT him and dose API General Cure. That medication contains praziquantel + metronidazole, and some of it will make its way into his gastrointestinal tract when the fish drinks water. Not ideal, but the best solution for a fish that's not eating.

 

[John Hernandez]

So sadly, he has been doing fine other than the symptoms shown in the video. I started treatment and he looked good when I left for work in the morning. But when I got home he was upside down on the bottom not moving and gasping. This continued through the night and he is gone today. :-(
Such a bummer. I wish I would have posted sooner and gotten @Humblefish advice then. I thought for sure it was just a fin injury or something that just needed time to heal up away from pesky tankmates.

 

[John Hernandez]

So last Saturday I purchased a new pair of fire fish. I started them on Metroplex and Focus the day I got them so as to avoid the same thing that happened to my last purple firefish. They have been on this regimen for about 5 days now. They both have been eating well and other than being shy have been acting fine. Both ate this evening and then a couple of hours later one of them started having the same symptoms as the fish I lost before, but much faster. Within 30min he was dead. The 2nd firefish seems ok for now but who knows tomorrow. So I decided, having no clue what I was doing to have a little autopsy. I am hoping someone here much smarter than I am at this will help me confirm. So here are some pics. Sorry if it is a bit gross.

 

[Humblefish]

@John Hernandez Where were the scrapes taken from that you examined under a microscope??

 

[Reefahholic]

That last pic looks like that parasite is full of babies. Great pics!

 

[KrisReef]

Interesting video, the dorsal fin was standanding straight up most of the swim. I looked at another video on line and fire fish dorsal fin normally lays flat, but will stand up occasional during a swim. I thought maybe your fish had possible suffered a stroke and was paralyzed from your description and the video clip.

Sorry the fish died.-

Then you get a replacement pair, put them in antibiotic and those were ok for a few days, doing good.

What did you feed them, 3 hours before onset of symptoms and the second rapid death? Frozen “natural prey”item perhaps?

Symptoms appear similar to botulism or domoic acid exposure with paralysis and rapid death (dose dependent)?

 

[Reefahholic]

So last Saturday I purchased a new pair of fire fish. I started them on Metroplex and Focus the day I got them so as to avoid the same thing that happened to my last purple firefish. They have been on this regimen for about 5 days now. They both have been eating well and other than being shy have been acting fine. Both ate this evening and then a couple of hours later one of them started having the same symptoms as the fish I lost before, but much faster. Within 30min he was dead. The 2nd firefish seems ok for now but who knows tomorrow. So I decided, having no clue what I was doing to have a little autopsy. I am hoping someone here much smarter than I am at this will help me confirm. So here are some pics. Sorry if it is a bit gross.

Those are so distinct. I can’t find anything that looks like them though. That may be a bacterial infection of some sort. Whatever they are, they appear to multiple rapidly which is probably why you lost that fish so quickly.

 

[John Hernandez]

@John Hernandez Where were the scrapes taken from that you examined under a microscope??

The microscope pics are not from a scrape. After he died I did a little autopsy and the pics would be from what I think is his stomach.

 

[John Hernandez]

That last pic looks like that parasite is full of babies. Great pics!

I didn’t even think of that but I think you are right. I think I will end up losing the other new one as well. I think he is already infected. He is acting normal for now but has stringy solid poo.

 

[John Hernandez]

Those are so distinct. I can’t find anything that looks like them though. That may be a bacterial infection of some sort. Whatever they are, they appear to multiple rapidly which is probably why you lost that fish so quickly.

I couldn’t find anything like it either. Very frustrating.