Are these black patches on my Royal Gramma a disease?

[jbholasingh]

Are these black patches on my Royal Gramma a disease?

He's been in the tank for over a year and is happy and healthy otherwise. There have been no new fish additions for months.

I do see him flashing now and then. The clown fish are a bit agressive and my have bitten him. I've had a sudden death of a healthy fish a couple weeks ago for unknow reasons.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Are these black patches on my Royal Gramma a disease?

He's been in the tank for over a year and is happy and healthy otherwise. There have been no new fish additions for months.

I do see him flashing now and then. The clown fish are a bit agressive and my have bitten him. I've had a sudden death of a healthy fish a couple weeks ago for unknow reasons.

Hard to tell with heavy blue lighting but appears to be bacterial will require quarantine and treatment using seachem neoplex or kanaplex but pics under white intensity will confirm that’s what the fish has

 

[jbholasingh]

Hard to tell with heavy blue lighting but appears to be bacterial will require quarantine and treatment using seachem neoplex or kanaplex but pics under white intensity will confirm that’s what the fish has

This is under whites only.

I'll start the treatment today and keep you posted.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

This is under whites only.

I'll start the treatment today and keep you posted.

Are you talking about the discoloration along its back? That looks like missing scales to me. Is the fish showing any other symptoms? Fast breathing, not eating well?

Jay

 

[Uncle99]

Looks like mine, 4 years old now.
I see nothing at all.

 

[jbholasingh]

Are you talking about the discoloration along its back? That looks like missing scales to me. Is the fish showing any other symptoms? Fast breathing, not eating well?

Jay

He's breathing normally and is eating more than usual. I'll have a closer look to see if the scales are missing.

 

[Uncle99]

He's breathing normally and is eating more than usual. I'll have a closer look to see if the scales are missing.

Great signs!

 

[jbholasingh]

The fish hid for 2 days and today I've dismantled my rocks and taken him out of the tank. He was extremely lethargic and breathing heavily. His color is darkened similar to hyperpigmentation from stress.

Ive added API Stress coat+ and Healthaid Metro+ at the recomended dosages in a qt tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The fish hid for 2 days and today I've dismantled my rocks and taken him out of the tank. He was extremely lethargic and breathing heavily. His color is darkened similar to hyperpigmentation from stress.

Ive added API Stress coat+ and Healthaid Metro+ at the recomended dosages in a qt tank.

Stress coat isn’t a treatment and can actually clog the gills. Metronidazole helps with some protozoans.
I guess I should have focused on that mention you made of a fish dying a few weeks ago - what species and what circumstances?
You might try a 3 minute freshwater dip. That may kill the fish, but only if it is close to dying anyway. Otherwise, it will buy you some time if this is flukes.
Jay

 

[jbholasingh]

It was a Coral Beauty. It was plump, eating well and very active as usual. I took a 2 hour nap and came back to it laying on the sandbead lifeless. It did have what looked like bite marks (white damaged areas) on its head which were definetly not there earlier in the day. I assumed it tried to jump and hit its hed on the glass bracing and the clowns picked at it... now i am wondering if the clowns killed it.

This current fish doesn't have any skin leasions. I could not see the missing scales as previously shown but i noticed the head is hyperpigmented.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It was a Coral Beauty. It was plump, eating well and very active as usual. I took a 2 hour nap and came back to it laying on the sandbead lifeless. It did have what looked like bite marks (white damaged areas) on its head which were definetly not there earlier in the day. I assumed it tried to jump and hit its hed on the glass bracing and the clowns picked at it... now i am wondering if the clowns killed it.

This current fish doesn't have any skin leasions. I could not see the missing scales as previously shown but i noticed the head is hyperpigmented.

I thought we were talking about the royal gramma?

Jay

 

[jbholasingh]

These are some updated pictures. He's breating less heavily but is still lethargic. He swims if disturbed but picks a new spot.

 

[jbholasingh]

I thought we were talking about the royal gramma?

Jay

The coral beauty was the fish that died some weeks ago. The royal gramma id the currently ill fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

These are some updated pictures. He's breating less heavily but is still lethargic. He swims if disturbed but picks a new spot.

I don't see anything remarkable on the gramma at all.

Regarding the coral beauty - accidents do happen, but they are actually pretty rare. Maybe it jumped and hit its head and died, but in 50 years of aquarium keeping, I've never had that happen to a fish. I'm worried that something is going on undetected.....and the two issues might be related.

Jay

 

[jbholasingh]

Day 2:

Today i did a 100% water change and re-dosed the current medications.

I did a dip in 1.0125 sg water for 3 minutes. He was distressed but handled it well i think. I didn't see any fluked ( not sure what they look like) . I can't say that this made any diference. Maybe I should try a full freshwater dip?

I also noticed white stringy poop(see attatchments) even tho he hasn't eaten in at least 3 days for sure. Maybe he has intestinal parasites?

His condition today is not much different but I noticed he has a perminant bend in his spine like scoliosis? His coloration is still bad. Not sure if he has lateral line erosion as well, i may be hyper vigilant.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Day 2:

Today i did a 100% water change and re-dosed the current medications.

I did a dip in 1.0125 sg water for 3 minutes. He was distressed but handled it well i think. I didn't see any fluked ( not sure what they look like) . I can't say that this made any diference. Maybe I should try a full freshwater dip?

I also noticed white stringy poop(see attatchments) even tho he hasn't eaten in at least 3 days for sure. Maybe he has intestinal parasites?

His condition today is not much different but I noticed he has a perminant bend in his spine like scoliosis? His coloration is still bad. Not sure if he has lateral line erosion as well, i may be hyper vigilant.

A half salinity dip may not be helpful, you would need to extend the time to ten minutes or so, and even then, the timing would just be a guess. Five minutes in pure freshwater is the standard. However, the scoliosis isn't a symptom of flukes, something else is probably going on.

The white mucus feces can be a sign of protozoan or bacterial enteritis, but it is also a symptom seen in a fish that hasn't be eating.

Sorry, I don't have a clear course of action for you here.


Jay

 

[jbholasingh]

Day 3:

I've done a 100% water change and switched the medication to API General Cure. Hopefully the added metronidazole + praziquantel in General Cure will also cover flukes and intestinal parasites. The recommended treatment course is 4 days but if I don't see some kind of improvement in 2 days I may consider switching to something different.

Overall his condition has not changed a huge amount but he seems more alert and swims more powerfully than before. Although he stays in 1 spot most of the time and props himself on a rock or the PVC pipe.

 

[jbholasingh]

Day 4:

I've not done any water changes. The medication remains the same.

Today he seems a lot livelier. He supports himself instead of laying on his side and is peeping out of his PVC pipe occasionally. He still has not eaten.

 

[jbholasingh]

Day 5:

I added the second dose of API General Cure as per the instructions. No water changes.

He is definitely doing better than yesterday and swam around quite a bit when disturbed. At this point I think he's just hiding in the PVC pipe rather than being too sick to move. He peeps his head out to look around and when he sees me, he darts back in. I tried him with Mysis but he still won't eat, he looks interested so I'm hoping he will eat soon. He's still plump so hopefully he won't starve by then.

 

[jbholasingh]

Day 6:

I did a 100% water change. No more medication in the water.

He's swimming about much more but still not to his pre-illness levels. He also tires easily.
My major concern right now is that he's still not eating... It's been a week since he has. If he doesn't start eating soon I'm worried he'll starve.