Tail spot blenny with gill flukes?

monicalooze · Apr 5, 2021

I think my poor little tail spot blenny has gill flukes. She normally stays in her barnacle with her head out, but two days ago she was not there. We ripped the tank apart to try to find her and she eventually swam out of a very small hole in the rock.
She's breathing heavily, hiding in new places, which is a brand new behavior. She has been eating, but today she wouldn't come out. She looks lethargic....and like she just ran a marathon.

I had general cure so I dosed the tank two days ago. (I don't have corals). She's still not looking good.

I got some live mud from indo-pacific sea farms that I added about a week ago....trying to add biodiversity to the tank to help it mature. Apparently I added the wrong kind. It seemed like quarantining the mud would defeat the purpose of adding beneficial life.

she was completely fine until Saturday afternoon. Would gill flukes infect her that quickly? I can't catch her to save my life. Curious how serious this is and what else I should be watching for? I'll be dosing another round of general cure once I've reached 48 hours. Should I be dosing anything else? Can I double up with prazipro? Having some delivered today.

I have an oxydator in the tank. Would adding an air stone help? I feel so helpless

video attached. Sorry for the clownfish photo bomb.

KingTideCorals · Apr 5, 2021

Sorry about what is happening to your fish! Going to call in the big guns for some help and hopefully can get you some better answers!

@Jay Hemdal

hds4216 · Apr 5, 2021

Have you performed a freshwater dip to confirm flukes?

monicalooze · Apr 5, 2021

hds4216 said:
Have you performed a freshwater dip to confirm flukes?

I can't catch her. Also the ammonia is zero in the tank. I know that can cause heavy breathing. Could it be anything else?

Jay Hemdal · Apr 5, 2021

Sorry, I couldn’t get the videos to play, perhaps you could load them onto YouTube and post the link.
Since you can’t catch the fish, your options are limited. I think Prazipro works better against flukes than General cure does. Many gill flukes are egg layers, so you need to dose multiple times to catch new ones as they hatch out. Two doses 7 days apart at a minimum, but I prefer to use 3 doses. Remember to increase the aeration when dosing prazipro.
Jay

monicalooze · Apr 5, 2021

@Jay Hemdal I cross-posted on humblefish. It appears to be working. https://humble.fish/community/index.php?threads/tail-spot-blenny-gill-flukes.4852/

Jay Hemdal · Apr 5, 2021

I was able to open your video on the third computer I tried (grin). It all seems to have to do with installed codecs.

Yes - the blenny is breathing fast, but I couldn't get a good count from the video. Basically, anything above around 200 gill beats per minute is acutely serious.

A few more questions:

What is the water temperature?
How long have you had this fish?
Are you actively running the oxydator? I'm having some second thoughts about peroxide toxicity after I ran some tests....

A FW dip would be the best course of action, but I understand that you can't catch it easily. I still think that prazipro is a much better choice for flukes than is GC....but I can't definitively say that this is flukes.

Jay

monicalooze · Apr 5, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Sorry, I couldn’t get the videos to play, perhaps you could load them onto YouTube and post the link.
Since you can’t catch the fish, your options are limited. I think Prazipro works better against flukes than General cure does. Many gill flukes are egg layers, so you need to dose multiple times to catch new ones as they hatch out. Two doses 7 days apart at a minimum, but I prefer to use 3 doses. Remember to increase the aeration when dosing prazipro.
Jay

Jay Hemdal said:
I was able to open your video on the third computer I tried (grin). It all seems to have to do with installed codecs.

Yes - the blenny is breathing fast, but I couldn't get a good count from the video. Basically, anything above around 200 gill beats per minute is acutely serious.

A few more questions:

What is the water temperature?
How long have you had this fish?
Are you actively running the oxydator? I'm having some second thoughts about peroxide toxicity after I ran some tests....

A FW dip would be the best course of action, but I understand that you can't catch it easily. I still think that prazipro is a much better choice for flukes than is GC....but I can't definitively say that this is flukes.

Jay

I've had the fish for 4 mos. when I got it, I quarantined with copper @ 2.5ppm and did the two courses of general cure. Water temp is 25 C. I actively do run an oxydator. Been running it for two months.

BUT the blenny seems to be fine now! She is munching on algae again and back in the barnacle. Ate like a pig earlier. Her breathing looks normal. I'm going to dose prazi three times since that what it probably was?

I am curious about the peroxide toxicity issue though....what have you learned?

Jay Hemdal · Apr 5, 2021

Weird! Well, I wouldn't dose with prazi unless the symptoms return. All medications like this involve some risk, and perhaps the GC took care of the problem, or it wasn't flukes at all?

Re: peroxide, I ran some bench testing over the past few months and I saw some toxicity issues that I hadn't anticipated. My understanding is that oxydators use a catalyst (Platinum?) This release oxygen, right? I was able to recreate that in a beaker using a platinum anode. Free peroxide is the issue though. As little as 5 ppm damaged the nitrifying bacteria in one system. Here is my report write up (although I doubt you'll find much in it of direct application)
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/hydrogen-peroxide-bench-testing.803/

Jay

monicalooze · Apr 5, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Weird! Well, I wouldn't dose with prazi unless the symptoms return. All medications like this involve some risk, and perhaps the GC took care of the problem, or it wasn't flukes at all?

Re: peroxide, I ran some bench testing over the past few months and I saw some toxicity issues that I hadn't anticipated. My understanding is that oxydators use a catalyst (Platinum?) This release oxygen, right? I was able to recreate that in a beaker using a platinum anode. Free peroxide is the issue though. As little as 5 ppm damaged the nitrifying bacteria in one system. Here is my report write up (although I doubt you'll find much in it of direct application)
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/hydrogen-peroxide-bench-testing.803/

Jay

Thank you! I'll take a look. I run it because it makes my water crystal clear. I have no idea if there are other real benefits.

I'm going to get a H2O2 test kit. I'm curious if it's oxygen or peroxide that's dripping into the water. The catalyst makes me think it should be H2O and O2, but I'm certainly not a chemist.