Pods on hippo tangs?

[coralbeauties]

A buddy has been treating three hippo tangs for over a month and they have just gotten worst. First treatment was a hypo qt. They have had fresh water dips and several other treatments , but not copper yet. He finally got a good picture of them and around the eye area if you enlarge the picture it looks like some sort of skin pod growing on the fish. You can see what looks like two antennas on the head of the pod. Anyone seen this and most importantly how to treat it!!
Thanks
Jeff
IMG_6863.heic

 

[coralbeauties]

Sorry here’s the pic

 

[Tono]

fish lice?

 

[coralbeauties]

Any ideas how to treat for them?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Looking at pic (which is fuzzy), there appears to be Flukes on the fish especial;ly when I see it on its' eye).
Start with a freshwater dip for 5 mins using the same temperature as the tank.
See if it falls off the fish. Inspect that container preferably dark colored to see if you see what looks like seasame seeds on bottom of container

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry - I can't make anything out in the photo. Based on the "two antenna" clue, there are copepod parasites, where the female produces two eggs cases, and these can look like antenna. A common name for them, as @Tono said, is sea lice, or fish louse. They are pretty common in native freshwater fish, but rarer in marine aquarium fish. I've never seen one on a blue tang before, but still, could be. Look up Ergasilus on Google and see if any pictures match. Ignore the head, that is buried in the fish, you just see the two egg sacks sticking out.

Treating them is difficult, they are tough to kill. Luckily, they don't reproduce well in aquariums. One treatment is a high dose formalin dip, but getting formalin is difficult. A freshwater dip usually won't work, not like it does for flukes. People use Trichlorfon, but it is really toxic to humans, I won't have it around me at all.

Again, I'm basing this ONLY on your antenna comment, not the photo. If you can get a clearer photo, I might be able to give you more info.

Jay

 

[coralbeauties]

The body to me looks oblong, with a dark stripe down the middle front to back, looks like two antennas out the front with multiple legs coming the sides. If I click on the picture and zoom in on the two spots just in front of the eye you can see what I am seeing.
My buddy has dealt with flukes before and he said fresh water dips have done nothing for these 3 fish
Thanks
Jeff

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Sorry - the picture just isn’t clear enough. If it is copepods, then 150 ppm formalin for one hour should be strong enough to dislodge them.
Jay

 

[coralbeauties]

thanks a million! He does have formalin so he will get them dipped tomorrow. We bought the fish direct from a wholesaler so looks like they might have picked them up there. He believes he lost a small batch of yellow tangs and a gem quite awhile back to the same issue that came from the same wholesaler.
thanks
Jeff

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Let me know if you want info about the formalin dip - be sure to aerate the water well during the dip. A full formalin dip is actually 167 ppm, but I hesitate to go that high the first time.

Jay