Solon wrasse with raised scales on head

[Tflow256]

I've got a Red Head Solon Wrasse that I've had in qt for roughly 2 weeks now. He's been doing great, eating well, swimming normally, no visible signs of stress or disease. I've been doing small 1.5-2gal water changes daily over the past couple days to bring up salinity to 1.026 to match my display.All water params get checked daily and are as follows:
Temp:79
Salinity: currenty 1.020
Ammonia:0
Nitrite:0
Nitrate:2
Ph:8.2
Tonight I noticed the scales on top of his head a raised up. Didnt notice this at all until tonight. Can't find any info on this other than "dropsy" but can't find anything stating this can happen on the top of the head. These are the 2 best pics I can get right now. Any help would be MUCH appreciated!

 

[Humblefish]

The problem is many things can cause raised scales: flukes, a bacterial disease, poor water quality, etc. Any other symptoms? Any rubbing, flashing, yawning or head twitching? My first move would probably be to give the fish a FW dip to check for flukes (see below). If that came back negative, I would treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic such as Kanaplex or Furan-2.

Freshwater Dip: Provides temporary relief for Brooklynella, Flukes, Marine Velvet disease (Amyloodinium); possibly even Ich & Uronema marinum (both unproven). Can be used to confirm the presence of Flukes.

How To Treat - Fill a bucket with RODI water, and use a heater to match the temperature to the water the fish is coming from. Aerate the water heavily for at least 30 minutes prior to doing the dip, then discontinue aeration while performing the dip. Fish aren’t overly pH sensitive for short durations like this, but you can squirt a little tank water into the dip just before the fish goes in to help bring it up.

Place the fish in the freshwater (FW) dip and observe closely. It is not unusual for them to freak out a little at first. Also, tangs are notorious for “playing dead” during a FW dip. The important thing is to watch their gills; they should be breathing heavily at all times during the dip. If breathing slows, it’s time to exit the dip. Dip the fish for no longer than 5 minutes. Multiple dips may be done, but it’s important to give your fish a day to recuperate in-between dips.

For flukes, use a dark (preferably black) bucket so you can see if tiny white worms fall out of the fish (especially out of the gills) at around the 3-4 minute mark. The worms will settle to the bottom, so you can use a flashlight to look for them there as well.

Pros - Provides temporary relief for a wide range of diseases in a chemical free environment. Can “buy you more time” until a proper treatment can be done.

Cons/Side Effects - Not a permanent “fix” for any disease, as FW dips are not potent enough to eradicate all of the parasites/worms afflicting the fish. Some fish can have an adverse reaction to a FW dip by appearing unable to maintain their equilibrium once returned to the aquarium. If this happens, hold the fish upright (using latex, nitrile or rubber gloves), and gently glide him through the water (to get saltwater flowing through the gills again). It is also a good idea to place the fish in an acclimation box until he appears “normal”.

 

[Tflow256]

Thanks for the info. There are no other signs of stress or disease, seems otherwise very healthy. No odd twitching or behavior. I'll try the fw dip and see if I notice anything. I do have prazipro on hand, that should help with flukes correct? If no signs of flukes I'll pick up some treatment for bacterial disease tomorrow.

 

[Humblefish]

Thanks for the info. There are no other signs of stress or disease, seems otherwise very healthy. No odd twitching or behavior. I'll try the fw dip and see if I notice anything. I do have prazipro on hand, that should help with flukes correct? If no signs of flukes I'll pick up some treatment for bacterial disease tomorrow.

Yes, Prazipro is the best treatment for flukes if you see them during the FW dip.

 

[Tflow256]

Well, didn't see any flukes after a fw dip. Picked up some medication to treat him for bacterial infections. Got home last night and he looked pretty rough. Looks like the raised scales are turning white and has a big white patch on one side of his head. Added the medication last night. Woke up today and he seems to be acting better but all kinds of weird chunky gray stuff is coming off the affected area. Hoping he makes it

 

[Humblefish]

Well, didn't see any flukes after a fw dip. Picked up some medication to treat him for bacterial infections. Got home last night and he looked pretty rough. Looks like the raised scales are turning white and has a big white patch on one side of his head. Added the medication last night. Woke up today and he seems to be acting better but all kinds of weird chunky gray stuff is coming off the affected area. Hoping he makes it

That sounds like a bacterial infection. It must have started under the raised scales and is now spreading/growing. Best option is to use this combo of meds of him: Furan-2, Seachem Kanaplex & Seachem Metroplex (or Metro-MS). Those can all be safely used together and will give you the widest spectrum of treatment.

 

[Tflow256]

Ok thanks. I started using melafix and pimafix together after talking to a few people. They reccomended these because of how sensitive wrasses seem to be to some medications and these are all natural. I'll look at picking up these medications if he doesn't improve over the next couple days

 

[Tflow256]

Feeling pretty psyched at the moment...came home from work today and he has improved dramatically! All the scales are pretty much back down and his left side is fully back to being red. His right side still has a patch of white. Hoping this is all going to work out. He seems much more active today, as soon as I walked up to the qt with the food and syringe in hand he came out of his favorite pvc hiding spot and started swimming around.

 

[Humblefish]

Great news! I never had much luck with Pimafix or Melafix, but perhaps I should give them another look.

 

[Tflow256]

Apparently there are two different versions available, industrial strength and regular strength. It seems people that use the industrial/concentrated form have issues with it killing fish. But I will continue to update this thread wether successful or not with the combo of the two commercial/regular strength forms

 

[Tflow256]

Well, today I came home from work went to the qt with food and syringe in hand and like yesterday he went nuts. Swimming all around looking good....until I got closer. Now, all his scales are down and the white patch seems to be receding quiet a bit. Colors are looking great....but! He did not eat as much, barely any, as he did previously....and here's the topper. Ich. This poor guy is a wreck! Kinda like me, just in fish form. I'm going to continue through with the rest of the 7 day treatment for his bacterial issue then begin the treatment for ich. I know everyone is all over the TTM but that isn't currently possible for me. I do have cupramine on hand but I know wrasses are dumb sensitive to medications so @Humblefish would you reccomend cupramine treatment or hypo???

 

[Humblefish]

I would treat with Cupramine. Just ramp it up slowly over several days and take care not to OD it. Keep it at or slightly under 0.5ppm. Even a wrasse should be able to handle that. BTW, are you sure this is ich and not velvet? One way of knowing is ich white spots are usually countable, while velvet dots are often too numerous to count. A colleague of mine attending MACNA is hearing velvet is running rampant right now at the wholesalers.

 

[Tflow256]

Pretty sure it's ich. There aren't an insane amount of spots. Easily countable if I sat there and tried. I hope it's not velvet. Wouldn't cupramine be the cure for that as well though?

 

[Humblefish]

Pretty sure it's ich. There aren't an insane amount of spots. Easily countable if I sat there and tried. I hope it's not velvet. Wouldn't cupramine be the cure for that as well though?

Yes, Cupramine treats both. But with velvet you don't have as much time to act. With velvet, it's important to begin treatment immediately.

 

[Tflow256]

I'm trying to do some research now and compare images. I'm still pretty certain it's ich but now I'm pretty worried as this fish came straight from a vendor to my qt. From what I'm reading, velvet has more of a gold/brown tint to it and has an insanely quick breakout. These look pure white and are not covering him as some of these images show

 

[Tflow256]

Would you suggest ditching the bacterial treatment, perform a 50% water change add carbon then treating the parasite first?

 

[Tflow256]

Here's a pic

 

[Humblefish]

That looks like ich to me. As long as those dots don't become a lot more numerous, you should be OK.

This is what I would do: Perform the 50% water change, run carbon. Then in the morning, remove the carbon and begin dosing Cupramine. Take at least 3-4 days to get it up to therapeutic levels. In the meantime, start treating with a mild broad spectrum antibiotic such as Kanaplex or erythromycin (for the bacterial infection). Those you can mix with copper. You probably could mix Pimafix & Melafix with Cupramine, but I've never done that before so I don't want to tell you it's safe.

 

[Tflow256]

Ok, thanks a ton!!!