Swallowtail Angel - need help identifying issue

[Littlewolf]

Picked up this swallowtail a week ago. Have it in QT and have been treating prophylactically with prazi pro. She was getting beat up by a naso tang at the LFS so her right side pectoral fin was a little shredded. I've noticed she is developing some white spots on her fins and now her right eye is cloudy. She is very hard to get photos of but i did the best I could. Since taking pictures this morning, I dosed the QT with rally reef pro as I'm not 100% convinced this is ich and don't want to subject her to copper treatment without confirmation. I do have copper power on hand if needed though. Thoughts?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Picked up this swallowtail a week ago. Have it in QT and have been treating prophylactically with prazi pro. She was getting beat up by a naso tang at the LFS so her right side pectoral fin was a little shredded. I've noticed she is developing some white spots on her fins and now her right eye is cloudy. She is very hard to get photos of but i did the best I could. Since taking pictures this morning, I dosed the QT with rally reef pro as I'm not 100% convinced this is ich and don't want to subject her to copper treatment without confirmation. I do have copper power on hand if needed though. Thoughts?

That looks like mechanical damage on the fin and the eye. I can't see any ich, but that doesn't always show up well in videos until it has gotten more serious.

If the eye and the fin are getting worse without additional damage from the naso, a secondary bacterial infection could be in play yere. Sometimes, these get better on their own, but other times you need to use a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like Neoplex or Kanamycin.

If you see ich spots for certain, you'll want to treat with the copper power - that might not be a bad idea to do prevenjtatively anyway.

jay

 

[Littlewolf]

That looks like mechanical damage on the fin and the eye. I can't see any ich, but that doesn't always show up well in videos until it has gotten more serious.

If the eye and the fin are getting worse without additional damage from the naso, a secondary bacterial infection could be in play yere. Sometimes, these get better on their own, but other times you need to use a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic like Neoplex or Kanamycin.

If you see ich spots for certain, you'll want to treat with the copper power - that might not be a bad idea to do prevenjtatively anyway.

jay

Thank you for the quick response. I was thinking maybe secondary infection. Her fin was beat up when I got her but the injury was pretty clean. the white spots are new within the last couple days. The eye issue just appeared yesterday; wasn't there in the morning when I fed her but was there a few hours later. I ordered metroplex and kanaplex last night, but they won't be here until Tuesday (no where in town carries them which is frustrating). Hoping the reef rally will be beneficial in the meantime.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Agree with jay (as always) but the eye particularly in this pic below looks like one that is damaged at retina and may need immediate treatment before it gets worse and is concerning. I suggest Maracyn, not maracyn oxy for at least 5 days

 

[Littlewolf]

Agree with jay (as always) but the eye particularly in this pic below looks like one that is damaged at retina and may need immediate treatment before it gets worse and is concerning. I suggest Maracyn, not maracyn oxy for at least 5 days

Yea, the eye really caught my attention last night because the onset was so quick. Doesn't seem to have gotten worse over night though. Obviously all antibiotics are different, but I already have kanaplex and meteoplex ordered and I do have furan 2 and reef rally on hand. Would any of those be sufficient or should I find maracyn. No where in town carries medications so I'll have to order it unfortunately which takes then takes time to get here.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yea, the eye really caught my attention last night because the onset was so quick. Doesn't seem to have gotten worse over night though. Obviously all antibiotics are different, but I already have kanaplex and meteoplex ordered and I do have furan 2 and reef rally on hand. Would any of those be sufficient or should I find maracyn. No where in town carries medications so I'll have to order it unfortunately which takes then takes time to get here.

Furan 2 will help as will kanaplex, just will take a little longer to take effect

 

[bakbay]

Good luck with the treatment! You’re in good hand with our R2R experts.

Mine had ich when first got it - treated with copper power and she’s super happy & healthy. Such a beautiful & peaceful fish though. The male is much more expensive and harder to find.

 

[Littlewolf]

Furan 2 will help as will kanaplex, just will take a little longer to take effect

Ok thank you. I will continue the reef rally until the kanaplex arrives tuesday and then treat her with that. If she doesnt seem to be improving or gets worse, ill reevaluate. So far she is acting normal and eating like a pig so fingers crossed.

 

[Littlewolf]

Good luck with the treatment! You’re in good hand with our R2R experts.

Mine had ich when first got it - treated with copper power and she’s super happy & healthy. Such a beautiful & peaceful fish though. The male is much more expensive and harder to find.

Only had her a week and I'm super attached to her. She's a beautiful fish. LFS had 2 in different tanks and both were being beaten up by tankmates. I wish I could have taken both.

 

[Littlewolf]

Furan 2 will help as will kanaplex, just will take a little longer to take effect

Update:
When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed the midas blenny in QT with the swallowtail was rubbing on the PVC pipes and saw some ich spots on him. Ugh. I've started copper power to treat them both. Brought it up to 2.0 last night to see how they both responded. The swallowtails eye has not gotten worse and they're both still eating voraciously this morning so I will raise the copper a little more this afternoon to make sure it stays in therapeutic range. The kanaplex i ordered will be here today for the bacterial infection. Can I use that in conjunction with the copper power to treat both the ich and secondary bacterial infection at the same time?

Side note: just once I would like to get a fish that didn't end up needing ich treatment.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Update:
When I got home from work yesterday, I noticed the midas blenny in QT with the swallowtail was rubbing on the PVC pipes and saw some ich spots on him. Ugh. I've started copper power to treat them both. Brought it up to 2.0 last night to see how they both responded. The swallowtails eye has not gotten worse and they're both still eating voraciously this morning so I will raise the copper a little more this afternoon to make sure it stays in therapeutic range. The kanaplex i ordered will be here today for the bacterial infection. Can I use that in conjunction with the copper power to treat both the ich and secondary bacterial infection at the same time?

Side note: just once I would like to get a fish that didn't end up needing ich treatment.

Yes you can use both. Increase oxygen with air stone and monitor water quality

 

[Littlewolf]

Yes you can use both. Increase oxygen with air stone and monitor water quality

Ok thank you. I learned the hard way when my power head died randomly on my QT while i was at work to always run an airstone as backup.