Fish got uronema again

Bored_shrimp · Sep 13, 2020

I got chromis with uronema. Does anyone have any experience with treating chromis with this? I just pulled two out of my 55 and put them in a 40 since that's where I'm keeping all of my diseased fish. I got one chromis left in the 55 and some clowns, a firefish, a lawnmower blenny, and canary wrasse. I'm more concerned about these fish. I know chromis are more susceptible to this than most fish, but should I worry about the other fish? I know that this disease stays in your tank and is free floating and all, or at least I think that's what it is. Is there anything I should do for the still healthy fish in my 55 so that I can decrease their chances of getting it? I also have a chromis that died the other day going into a lab to get checked for other things like diseases or parasites. I ad an outbreak about a year ago when I started so I know it kills pretty fast, or at least did for me. So any thoughts on what to do, maybe what to treat with? I'd attach pictures, but I can't cause I don't have a way of doing that. I know it's uronema most likely though cause one has the red hemorrhaging spots and one looks like it's about to break out in those. Also, my canary wrasse has been brushing past and on the rocks an awful lot, but I can't see anything wrong with her. She's been doing this for a long while, maybe since I got her even, can't quite remember, but i did quarantine her and treated her with copper before she went in the tank. Like I said though, I can't see any visible signs of anything. I don't see no anchor worms or anything on the outside of her, so I'm trying to figure out if she's just doing that just cause or if something more is happening with her.

Jay Hemdal · Sep 13, 2020

Uronema is a common protozoan that usually feeds on bacteria. In some cases though, it becomes a cause of disease in fish; Chromis, Anthias and Halichoeres wrasses (usually the yellow coris). Here is an excerpt of some material that I wrote about this disease:

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.

Almost universally, aquarists who do not have access to a microscope will identify this disease as a “secondary bacterial infection resulting from some injury.” In fact, “capture damage” is often cited as the original cause due to the often-linear nature of the lesion, which looks much like a bruise from being hit with a net frame, for example. The rapid onset of the lesion (often many days after capture) and the fact that it develops internally and then erupts externally both point to another cause.

Treatment
A variety of treatments have been suggested for Uronema infections, but full control is rarely seen following most of these treatments. Part of the issue seems to be that Uronema is ubiquitous (naturally occurring in marine aquariums) and re-infection is commonplace.

Bath treatments may fail because the medication used does not target the intercellular protozoans, only those living externally on the skin of the fish. Copper treatments may reduce the numbers of these ciliates, but good control is not seen until ionic copper levels reach 0.23 ppm, and this is too close to the lethal limit for many species of fish. Formalin baths of various concentrations and durations have been proposed, but this treatment is also mostly effective against external protozoans.

The most commonly used treatment is chloroquine at 15 ppm for 30 days.

Hyposalinity and Uronema
A suspiciously high occurrence of Uronema outbreaks is seen in marine fish being kept under hyposalinity (low salinity) to control another protozoan parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans (saltwater ich). It seems that either Uronema prefers low-salinity water or such treatments lower the fish’s resistance to the protozoan.

Jay Hemdal

Bored_shrimp · Sep 14, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Uronema is a common protozoan that usually feeds on bacteria. In some cases though, it becomes a cause of disease in fish; Chromis, Anthias and Halichoeres wrasses (usually the yellow coris). Here is an excerpt of some material that I wrote about this disease:

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.

Almost universally, aquarists who do not have access to a microscope will identify this disease as a “secondary bacterial infection resulting from some injury.” In fact, “capture damage” is often cited as the original cause due to the often-linear nature of the lesion, which looks much like a bruise from being hit with a net frame, for example. The rapid onset of the lesion (often many days after capture) and the fact that it develops internally and then erupts externally both point to another cause.

Treatment
A variety of treatments have been suggested for Uronema infections, but full control is rarely seen following most of these treatments. Part of the issue seems to be that Uronema is ubiquitous (naturally occurring in marine aquariums) and re-infection is commonplace.

Bath treatments may fail because the medication used does not target the intercellular protozoans, only those living externally on the skin of the fish. Copper treatments may reduce the numbers of these ciliates, but good control is not seen until ionic copper levels reach 0.23 ppm, and this is too close to the lethal limit for many species of fish. Formalin baths of various concentrations and durations have been proposed, but this treatment is also mostly effective against external protozoans.

The most commonly used treatment is chloroquine at 15 ppm for 30 days.

Hyposalinity and Uronema
A suspiciously high occurrence of Uronema outbreaks is seen in marine fish being kept under hyposalinity (low salinity) to control another protozoan parasite, Cryptocaryon irritans (saltwater ich). It seems that either Uronema prefers low-salinity water or such treatments lower the fish’s resistance to the protozoan.

Jay Hemdal

So what your saying, is I have an increased chance for most of my fish to get uronema and I could loose basically all of my fish except for maybe the two that aren't in the families listed above. Crap. Chromis are too much of a hassle and liability for me to be keeping. I'm never gonna get another chromis cause I had this same problem when I first started and I hated it and now it's happening again. But from your advice, increasing salinity would be the best course of action, right? I'm gonna go ahead an do that. Thanks for the help. Chromis shouldn't be labeled anywhere as beginner fish just for this reason.