Disease ID - White patch growing each day.

[AmaleeC]

Hi all. I got this blue hippo tang three days ago. When I got him he was hiding but he would at least eat as food floated by. As the days have progressed he’s gotten lethargic, he’s developed this faint patch, he has begun laying down more, and has not stopped breathing heavy despite a large airstone I placed in the water.

My LFS recommended I treat with copper, but I shared I don’t have anything to measure it so they recommended I follow the instructions on the bottle (1 ounce per 20 gallons) for copper power. Since I have a 5 gallon, I was going to dose 1.5ml per day for 5 days to reach 7.4ml. After seeing the hippo on day 2, I did a 100% water change to remove copper and added in kanaplex in case this is bacterial.

Today is day 3 and he is not doing any better after the water change and kanaplex. The white patch has grown and I can’t seem to find a good resource to provide guidance regarding what this disease is.

Day 2

Day 3 (today)

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all. I got this blue hippo tang three days ago. When I got him he was hiding but he would at least eat as food floated by. As the days have progressed he’s gotten lethargic, he’s developed this faint patch, he has begun laying down more, and has not stopped breathing heavy despite a large airstone I placed in the water.

My LFS recommended I treat with copper, but I shared I don’t have anything to measure it so they recommended I follow the instructions on the bottle (1 ounce per 20 gallons) for copper power. Since I have a 5 gallon, I was going to dose 1.5ml per day for 5 days to reach 7.4ml. After seeing the hippo on day 2, I did a 100% water change to remove copper and added in kanaplex in case this is bacterial.

Today is day 3 and he is not doing any better after the water change and kanaplex. The white patch has grown and I can’t seem to find a good resource to provide guidance regarding what this disease is.

Day 2

Day 3 (today)

Please first and foremost, get yourself a Hanna brand copper test kit. Do not rely on drops and risk overdose which can cause this. Copperpower and coppersafe takes at least 48 hours to start working. Additionally when started, you want to run the course of 30 days.
Can this blemish be bacterial, maybe but can also be stress, scrape from pvc piping or scratching from skin irritation and how are you testing the water in the tank?
Is fish breathing normal or labored?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi all. I got this blue hippo tang three days ago. When I got him he was hiding but he would at least eat as food floated by. As the days have progressed he’s gotten lethargic, he’s developed this faint patch, he has begun laying down more, and has not stopped breathing heavy despite a large airstone I placed in the water.

My LFS recommended I treat with copper, but I shared I don’t have anything to measure it so they recommended I follow the instructions on the bottle (1 ounce per 20 gallons) for copper power. Since I have a 5 gallon, I was going to dose 1.5ml per day for 5 days to reach 7.4ml. After seeing the hippo on day 2, I did a 100% water change to remove copper and added in kanaplex in case this is bacterial.

Today is day 3 and he is not doing any better after the water change and kanaplex. The white patch has grown and I can’t seem to find a good resource to provide guidance regarding what this disease is.

Day 2

Day 3 (today)

The rapid breathing is not being caused by the copper -

Copper is tough to treat without a test kit, but ramping up over 5 days isn’t correct - copper doesn’t begin to work until you hit 2 ppm. This is old information based on ionic copper.

That said, while copper solves some causes of rapid breathing, it doesn’t fix all issues. Adding an air stone does solve low oxygen which is another common cause of rapid breathing.

 

[AmaleeC]

hi all, unfortunately the fish passed not long after this post. I did notice him scratching himself on things at the LFS and should have taken it as a sign, but the LFS said he had been there the longest.

The fishes breathing was labored all 3 days. I have Hanna checkers and an API kit to test the water, I also have an ammonia badge. But I think he may have had copper poisoning or something of the likes. I’m going to try a new approach to adding to qt.

 

[MnFish1]

Hi all. I got this blue hippo tang three days ago. When I got him he was hiding but he would at least eat as food floated by. As the days have progressed he’s gotten lethargic, he’s developed this faint patch, he has begun laying down more, and has not stopped breathing heavy despite a large airstone I placed in the water.

My LFS recommended I treat with copper, but I shared I don’t have anything to measure it so they recommended I follow the instructions on the bottle (1 ounce per 20 gallons) for copper power. Since I have a 5 gallon, I was going to dose 1.5ml per day for 5 days to reach 7.4ml. After seeing the hippo on day 2, I did a 100% water change to remove copper and added in kanaplex in case this is bacterial.

Today is day 3 and he is not doing any better after the water change and kanaplex. The white patch has grown and I can’t seem to find a good resource to provide guidance regarding what this disease is.

Day 2

Day 3 (today)

As already suggested by @vetteguy - You really need to use copper with a test - and most importantly it takes at least a couple days for kanaplex to work (and I'm not sure this is bacterial - is it on both sides?). What are your other parameters. How long have you had this fish>