Dark spot on swallowtail angel fish

[Jay Hemdal]

Nope, not ones with confirmed diagnosis.

Jay

 

[MnFish1]

@Jay Hemdal - maybe this is more of a philosophical discussion - but - In the world of parasitology - Parasites do not kill their hosts - instead weaken them... . Uronema seems to kill - would you think that perhaps uronema partially infects some fish (and kills them) - and others - just a sickness?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal - maybe this is more of a philosophical discussion - but - In the world of parasitology - Parasites do not kill their hosts - instead weaken them... . Uronema seems to kill - would you think that perhaps uronema partially infects some fish (and kills them) - and others - just a sickness?

I’m not sure I would call Uronema a true parasite - it isn’t an obligate one for sure. It could be considered a falcultative parasite, because it is normally found free living.

Jay

 

[koolademan]

Each day that goes by with the fish still alive and the spot not growing larger, rules out Uronema as a possible diagnosis.
That said, hydrogen peroxide as an external treatment would have NO benefit against inter-cellular Uronema. Metroplex in the food has been tried before, but with advanced uronema, the fish stop feeding, so of course that won't help then.

Jay

That makes sense. She is currently still eating which is why I’ve been using that combo. It’s also been difficult to get her out of the tank. Hard to tell if the spot got bigger or smaller since yesterday but the bump on her side might have. I did have a video of her from a week ago where it doesn’t seem like she had anything so just praying at this point.

 

[Reefer911]

Each day that goes by with the fish still alive and the spot not growing larger, rules out Uronema as a possible diagnosis.
That said, hydrogen peroxide as an external treatment would have NO benefit against inter-cellular Uronema. Metroplex in the food has been tried before, but with advanced uronema, the fish stop feeding, so of course that won't help then.

Jay

Jay,

What are some other diseases that could present as uronema?

My Watanabei who died in QT sure looked like she had uronema. Red marking on her side, and died with her mouth open. Her tank mate (who I mentioned above) never showed anything until moved into the DT. I don’t think the mark on her side was exactly the same…maybe a light pink if any color at all. I should have taken notes. Regardless, I assumed it was an early sign of uronema since she was in QT with one who just died from it.

I’ll see if I still have a pic of the one who died. I might have deleted it because it hurt too much to look at it.

 

[Reefer911]

I had to recover these from my recently deleted pics.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Also, when this occurred, I had no idea what was going on. I reached out to Eel Lady who is local to me and she passed it on to people she knows. They came back with suspected uronema.

 

[koolademan]

Just posting an update not sure if the spot is getting smaller or staying the same the bulge on her side though seems like it might be larger though. @Jay Hemdal do you think this could be abscess?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Just posting an update not sure if the spot is getting smaller or staying the same the bulge on her side though seems like it might be larger though. @Jay Hemdal do you think this could be abscess?

The lesion looks more elongated to me….if so, that pretty much confirms Uronema.

Jay

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I had to recover these from my recently deleted pics.
Please let me know your thoughts.

Also, when this occurred, I had no idea what was going on. I reached out to Eel Lady who is local to me and she passed it on to people she knows. They came back with suspected uronema.

Could be Uronema, but those lesions are not the typical “angled line” like most Uronema shows as.

Jay

 

[koolademan]

Could be Uronema, but those lesions are not the typical “angled line” like most Uronema shows as.

Jay

Just posting another update it looks like its condition might be worsening. It looks like some of the scales have fallen off. She’s starting to hide more but still comes out and eats food whenever I put food in the tank. Someone at my lfs said that it could be due to bruising and internal bleeding. The spot on the other side hasn’t changed and the swelling seems like it might have gone down

 

[MnFish1]

Just posting another update it looks like its condition might be worsening. It looks like some of the scales have fallen off. She’s starting to hide more but still comes out and eats food whenever I put food in the tank. Someone at my lfs said that it could be due to bruising and internal bleeding

To me that looks like typical uronema. @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

To me that looks like typical uronema. @Jay Hemdal

Yes - I think I responded on Saturday that the elongation of the lesion pretty much confirms it as Uronema IMO. The later pictures of the fish with just red spots was less clear.

Jay

 

[Reefer911]

His response that started with “Could be uronema…” was a response to me regarding the Watanabei. Sorry for hijacking

 

[koolademan]

Thanks all for the consistent followups and responses. I’ve learned my lesson on not qting fish .

Another update. I decided to catch her to look at her better. It was definitely Uronema. She shortly passed. Thanks everyone for the help. Wish I had caught her sooner. @Jay Hemdal @Reefer911 I saw online that there’s not really any way to deal with Uronema in the dt. Just wondering if that’s the case or if there’s anything I might be able to do to get rid of it? It seemed like h2o2 dosing might remove it after a month but that wasn’t a guarantee. Would hope to have another one in the future but if it’ll meet the same fate I wont pursue it.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks all for the consistent followups and responses. I’ve learned my lesson on not qting fish .

Another update. I decided to catch her to look at her better. It was definitely Uronema. She shortly passed. Thanks everyone for the help. Wish I had caught her sooner. @Jay Hemdal @Reefer911 I saw online that there’s not really any way to deal with Uronema in the dt. Just wondering if that’s the case or if there’s anything I might be able to do to get rid of it? It seemed like h2o2 dosing might remove it after a month but that wasn’t a guarantee. Would hope to have another one in the future but if it’ll meet the same fate I wont pursue it.

Sorry to hear.

Uronema is a facultative parasite, it normally feeds on bacteria and is found naturally in many established aquariums, so removing it from an aquarium isn't really an option. Nobody knows how/why it becomes an internal infection in some newly acquired fish.

Jay