Emporer angel in QT

[ckalupa]

Here is an interesting one. Got this changing emporer along with a melanaris wrasse about 6 weeks back. Put them both in a cycled QT and took them hypo for 2.5 weeks. All good. Raised them back up in salinity over the next couple weeks. Feeding frozen with focus and General Cure most of that time. About a week ago noticed large cotton like growths (1/8” dia) on the Angel along with this discoloration pattern as seen in the photo.

Started NFG treatments and stopped the GC feeding while in NFG. Saw the cotton growths go away over the next couple days but this discoloring continued and worsened. Also observed some random twitch and flashing. Angel only. Also started to see long white to clear stringy poop. Part of the foods are nori and lifeline. The wrasse remains without symptoms.

So last night I did a FW dip on the Angel followed by 90 minutes in RRR. Dip showed mostly clear but “possible” was two small flukes.

Returned angel to the quarantine tank with the wrasse After i added General Cure figuring the Metro would help in case of Brook and prazi for parasite. Resuming feeding with focus and GC.

Appetites remain good on both.

Excuse the dirty glass. Lots of water action. You can see the discoloration if you look past that. The water color is due to the NFG still being cleared out. Lots of water changes happening every daily.

Ideas what I am dealing with?

 

[ngoodermuth]

While it doesn't sound like velvet.... it seems like that is the only possibility that has not yet been covered. My first instinct is that you should treat with copper to cover that possibility (velvet does sometimes cause discoloration at the insertion sites) however, I'm also concerned that you might still be dealing with a stubborn bacterial infection as well.

How long did you treat with NFG? I'm getting a few more eyes on this...

@HotRocks @4FordFamily

 

[ckalupa]

One week on NFG then when this started developing I decided we needed a different intervention.

Looks a bit better today. Appetite still voracious.

I am thinking copper power at 1.75-2 and GC days 1 and 7. Maybe metro added every 48 hrs between for 10 days.

Big hammer now. This fish supply chain is just polluted these days. That wrasse is not going anyplace without copper regardless of hypo.

 

[ckalupa]

If it was not for the wrasse I would do CP. I may still extract the wrasse into his own tank and do that anyhow. Agree velvet is the last that has not been dealt a blow so looking at the obvious.....

 

[ngoodermuth]

I would do copper, with metroplex AND Furan-2 I think. Keep the metro and furan going for 10-14 days.

 

[ngoodermuth]

Halichoeres handle CP better than other wrasses, biggest issue will be appetite suppression... for me it hits hard around day 10. If you have a second QT available, you could try doing the CP or copper for 14 days and then transfer to the second clean QT. That way you can follow-up with another full round of NFG afterwards, if the infection persists... sometime it can be difficult to clear infection while using copper/CP.

 

[HotRocks]

It could be secondary to velvet. I had a blueface and an adult Emperor that had this same exact appearance during copper. I think your plan for copper + GC will take care of it. It ended up being flukes for the fish I these pics below. These fish are in @4FordFamily's 500g today and made a full recovery

. Does it look like this?

 

[ckalupa]

Thank you all! Executing the plan.

Not as severe as the blue face and a little worse than the emporer but yes. That blotchy appearance.

 

[4FordFamily]

That same blotchy appearance can also happen for severe ich and velvet in large angels— when the gills get damaged they blotch.

Just for other casual readers stumbling in to these photos. These are indeed healthy, beautiful fish now!

 

[4FordFamily]

Upon further review of your photos, op - I suspect velvet or very severe ich as well. I can’t verbalize the difference it’s purely an experiential feeling. More spots the fading appears to be around more numerous insertion points and the overall appearance — hard to say.

You may well have flukes too if you think you saw some.

 

[ckalupa]

Thanks. The planned course should fix it.

On a side note- went to the LfS to stock up General Cure- guy said these antibiotic for water have been recently restricted in Canada. Vet rx needs now. Think I will stock up before that wonderful idea gets to the USA.

 

[ckalupa]

Just an update- couple weeks of copper power holding between 2-2.2 (Hanna) and General Cure same time for the emporer and the wrasse. All is great. Both eating well and fully recovered- never lost appetite. In the process emporer, as he recovered his coloring loss also progressed quite a bit on his change from juvenile to adult. Photo attached. Great ending and thank you to all that assisted!