Brook?

[Rendgrish]

I have a flame angel I picked up about a week ago, was looking good and eating well. I started to slowly ramp up copper, but it stopped eating yesterday so I did a water change and added carbon. This morning it was having issues with swimming and I noticed damage to it's skin on each side. I think it's Brook, but I've never dealt with it. When viewed from above the should is sticking out, which is why I'm thinking Brook.
I pulled the fish and gave it it a Ruby Reef Rally bath and moved it into a new tank, which I dosed with API General Cure. It's lying on it's side periodically and having issues swimming when it's up. I've covered the tank, unplugged the heat (room is at 75, so it's not going to get that cold), dropped salinity, and started running pure oxygen in through a stainless diffusion stone.

two questions:
does my diagnosis sound correct?
is there anything else that I can do besides wait?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That looks like red band disease to me (Uronema). Trouble is that Brook has one symptom, excess mucus, that isn't going to show on a fish with ctenoid scales like your flame angel. Therefore, an exact diagnosis can't be made without doing a microscopic skin scrape. That said, it is probably Uronema, and I've never been able to cure a fish once it reaches this stage. Chloroquine is my go-to treatment, but I understand it may be very difficult to get that right now due to COVID. Here is an excerpt from my upcoming disease book on Uronema:

Uronema marinum (Red band disease)

Cause
Uronema is an elongate, oval, ciliated, motile protozoan, up to 40 um in length, that can become an opportunistic pathogen in marine aquariums. Because it is so generic-looking, identification in the field is always provisional. Most professional aquarists actually mean “Uronema-like” when they say “Uronema.”

Uronema infections have been seen in six families of fishes (in roughly descending order of frequency): Pomacentridae (damselfishes, specifically of the genus Chromis); Serranidae (subfamily Anthiinae the Anthias); Syngnathidae (seahorses and seadragons); Labridae (the wrasses); Chaetodontidae (the butterflyfishes); and, occasionally, Pomacanthidae (the angelfishes). There are, no doubt, other species of fish that can be infected.

Symptoms
This moderately common protozoan disease has symptoms that include the rapid development of a red mark in the hypodermis (fat and muscle) region of the fish, often following rows of scales so that the lesion is typically elongate and angled downward as it progresses front to back along the flank of the fish. Within a day or two of the development of the primary lesion, the fish will become lethargic and stop feeding and its respiration rate will increase. Scales above the lesion can be dislodged easily due to the massive trauma to the underlying tissue. Death follows rapidly, with few fish surviving beyond three days after the primary lesion develops.


Jay Hemdal

 

[Rendgrish]

Thanks Jay. I was wondering about uronema as well, but didn't see the redness on the sore, which is why I suspected Brook. The initial treatment for both is the same, so I figured I was covered either way. CP is one of the few medications I don't have, I'll need to work on that.
Unfortunately the fish didn't make it through the night, but that gives me more knowledge for next time.

Eric

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Sorry to hear your fish didn't make it.....for future reference, what copper product were you using? Flame angels can be pretty touchy with dosed with ionic copper. The Uronema lives intercellularly, so copper doesn't get to it. The thought is that the CP is ingested by the fish enough to work internally. Another confounding issue is that Uronema can feed on bacteria - so a bacterial infection can start, and then Uronema comes along to feed on the bacteria, and it doesn't stop here, and attacks the fish.

Jay

 

[Rendgrish]

I'm using Copper Power along with a Hanna checker for accuracy. I have read about angels and the issues some people have with copper, so I was about 4 days into ramping up copper and up to 1.5ppm.
I have been seeing more issues with uronema lately (at least at the lfs here), and I've struggled to catch it in time, so I may start giving any new fish a Rally bath before moving them to a QT.

 

[Qasimja]

sorry to hear it was probably either brook or uronema both can kill your fish pretty quickly most times next time for the future have seachem metroplex on hand

 

[Rendgrish]

One follow-up question. I have a pintail wrasse that was in a separate QT, but next to the flame so aerosol transmission is a real possibility. I wasn't concerned since I was using copper in both tanks so ich would be managed, but I didn't think about uronema. I dosed metroplex this morning, but should I consider abandoning copper for now and putting the wrasse through a Rally bath and into a sterile QT with metro / API GC to be on the safe side? I'll need 24 hours to get a tank cleaned back up (unless I can speed it up with a heatgun-sounds risky though).