Flame Hawk with white on Pectoral Fins and rapid breathing.

[VaultGirl]

Hello reefing friends,

I’m hoping you can enlighten me on what’s going on with Hank the Hawkfish. Today is quarantine day 8. His breathing has been more rapid, and today he is gasping, but his colors are looking good. No white spots, tank salt just settled.

What is going on with his pectoral fins? Any suggestions on what to do? It looks like mucus on both of his fins.

Just finished up Prazipro treatment, currently treating with metroplex and kanaplex. His appetite still seems suppressed, I’ll do another water change today. I haven’t seen him eat in a couple days.

Ammonia levels are good.

Feels like I have the worst luck with receiving sick fish.

Thank you in advance for any insight.

 

[MnFish1]

The usual quarantine recommended here does not include metroplex or kanaplex - instead - it starts with 30 days copper at therapeutic levels followed by 2 doses of prazipro 8 days apart and then 2 weeks of observation.

So - its hard to tell if your fish has velvet - poorly treated flukes (since the normal prazipro is 2 doses) or something else - Fast breathing usually suggests a gill disease (as above) - or something like low oxygen or high ammonia. The antibiotics may also be causing the symptom - but I guess based on what you've said - I would consider using the copper protocol, without antibiotics. A low oxygen situation may also be playing a role and I would make sure you have adequate aeration. Hope this helps. @Jay Hemdal

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hello reefing friends,

I’m hoping you can enlighten me on what’s going on with Hank the Hawkfish. Today is quarantine day 8. His breathing has been more rapid, and today he is gasping, but his colors are looking good. No white spots, tank salt just settled.

What is going on with his pectoral fins? Any suggestions on what to do? It looks like mucus on both of his fins.

Just finished up Prazipro treatment, currently treating with metroplex and kanaplex. His appetite still seems suppressed, I’ll do another water change today. I haven’t seen him eat in a couple days.

Ammonia levels are good.

Feels like I have the worst luck with receiving sick fish.

Thank you in advance for any insight.

Looks like a fin ray issue and if you are at day 8, you are not finished , The typical treatment is to dose at 80% 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. Water appears milky and does not coincide with ammonia being good - How are you testing for ammonia?
Can you post a video of at least 25 seconds under white lighting?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello reefing friends,

I’m hoping you can enlighten me on what’s going on with Hank the Hawkfish. Today is quarantine day 8. His breathing has been more rapid, and today he is gasping, but his colors are looking good. No white spots, tank salt just settled.

What is going on with his pectoral fins? Any suggestions on what to do? It looks like mucus on both of his fins.

Just finished up Prazipro treatment, currently treating with metroplex and kanaplex. His appetite still seems suppressed, I’ll do another water change today. I haven’t seen him eat in a couple days.

Ammonia levels are good.

Feels like I have the worst luck with receiving sick fish.

Thank you in advance for any insight.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Did you add extra aeration with the Prazipro? If not, that could account for the rapid breathing.

Any other fish in with it? Are they ok?

I would worry about protozoan diseases early in a quarantine like this. I use coppersafe right off and praziquantel later.

Jay

 

[VaultGirl]

Thanks for the warm welcome!
( Especially you Mnfish1. )

I admit it, I'm new to this hobby - and have made a few painful mistakes along the way by not quarantining. I ended up taking apart my whole display tank last year, so I learned my lesson.

This fish was ordered online ( no reliable LFS where I live.) He’s the only fish in quarantine. There was a delay in shipping, so he was stuck on a plane longer than expected. So my thought was to let him adjust and eat for a couple days before beginning any kind of treatment.

Around day 3 I noticed that his breathing seemed rapid, and he was gasping. No white spots anywhere, so I suspected some other kind of parasite like flukes.

Quick side note: I’m quite sure my last hawk fish died from flukes, ( and whatever the other kind of parasite is that attaches to the eyes, ) while I was treating with copper power - so I probably made the wrong call here on starting Prazipro first. I admit, I’m a little scarred from loosing so many fish last year, and I need to stick to the methods I’ve read instead of medicating from the heart. but I digress….

So anyways - After starting Prazipro, this fish stopped eating and I began to worry that whatever the white is on his fins, was causing an infection. So after 5 days of treatment I stopped the Prazipro and began the metro and kanaplex.

Today I did a 100% water change and a 5 minute fresh water dip. (heated and aerated first.) I didn’t see anything fall from him, but he does appear to have white patches on his scales now. I’ve got two air stones running in the tank, and thinking copperpower is the way to go?

Thanks again for everyone’s thoughts on here, I really do appreciate the input.

Attached is photo from about an hour ago, and the video is from yesterday. ( breathing is about the same.)

Best,

-Vaultgirl

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The FW dip would only show Neobenedenia flukes (which this species is prone to) but not gill flukes (which cause rapid breathing). However, the FW dip and the previous prazi treatment would have knocked the flukes back, if not cured the fish entirely. Since the symptoms are getting worse, you can rule out flukes for now.

That leaves water quality issues and protozoan gill disease as the two most likely issues.

Does the tank have good aeration (not just circulation)?
What is the actuall ammonia level and how are you testing?

I would run Coppersafe at a 2.5 ppm dose if the water is fine.

Jay