Weird mass removed from Red Sea Butterfly

[fazgood]

I have a Red Sea butterfly that slowly developed this mass. It was removed two weeks ago but it is returned now. Almost exactly the same size, about .33 of an inch.

Here is a video of it after removal. This is about 6 hours af

ter it was removed from the fish

 

[MnFish1]

Interesting - no clue - @Jay Hemdal

 

[Bepis]

Unclear but when I saw the third photo I thought of fish eggs.

 

[Tcook]

Do you have a microscope?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a Red Sea butterfly that slowly developed this mass. It was removed two weeks ago but it is returned now. Almost exactly the same size, about .33 of an inch.

Here is a video of it after removal. This is about 6 hours af

ter it was removed from the fish

Great video. Appears to be worms with an egg mass and my guess on worms would be trematode or Piscicolidae Worm but leaning towards trematode which are a flatwork similar to fluke worm. Treatment would be praziPro dosed at 85% of recommended and apply initial dosage known as an interval for 8 days, do a water change and do one more 8 day dose interval
Use airstone with prazi as it does reduce both oxygen and appetite. If running a skimmer, leave cup off first 24 hrs as skimmer will go nuts from the glycol solution in Prazi. Freshwater dip may also work.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Weird - I've never seen a mass like that before. The video wasn't super clear, but in one I could see a few worms moving - those are likely leeches. Trouble is, I've never see leeches massed up like this, they are seen in smaller numbers, and more spread out on the fish.

Would you be able to give the fish a 5 minute freshwater dip to see if they drop off, and then if they do, try to get a clear closeup photo of one of them?