Flukes Are Gone

[Bronco765]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

This looks to be an infection and may be start of uronema. Best treatment would be formalin which has risks and other, ruby rally pro which is slow to work
I recommend for now, seachem neoplex

 

[Bronco765]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

This looks to be an infection and may be start of uronema. Best treatment would be formalin which has risks and other, ruby rally pro which is slow to work
I recommend for now, seachem neoplex

Will do. Thank you for your help!!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I think that lesion is something other than from the Neobenedenia flukes that you suspect. Neobenedenia are randomly spread across the fish, not in a vertical lesion like that. Was there a similar lesion on the other side of the fish?

I can't tell - in the photos, these look more like lost scales than dead Neobenedenia. If so, that scale loss is what is causing the skin lesions. That in turn is likely to be Uronema, that causes "deciduous scales", they fall off the fish when it is handled.

Trouble is, Neobenedenia *does* look like a bit like lost scales, so it can be easy to confuse the two issues. If you magnify the "scales" and see a round sucker at each end, its Neo, If you can see rings and no suckers, then they are indeed scales.

Hopefully it isn't Uronema, as in severe infections like this, it is always fatal (sorry!). It could be a secondary bacterial infection from the Neo, but again, it wouldn't be localized like this....here is my article on Uronema:

Article 'Uronema / Red Band Disease - Hemdal'

Red Band Syndrome in Marine Fishes: Caused by the Protozoan; Uronema sp. Jay Hemdal Introduction: This moderately common disease of certain species of marine fish is so often misdiagnosed that most aquarists apply incorrect treatment methods when attempting a cure. Symptoms include the...

• Jay Hemdal
• Nov 13, 2020
• 9 min read
• 5.00 star(s) 5 ratings
• Reaction score: 23
• Reviews: 2
• Category: Fish Disease and Treatment

 

[Bronco765]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I think that lesion is something other than from the Neobenedenia flukes that you suspect. Neobenedenia are randomly spread across the fish, not in a vertical lesion like that. Was there a similar lesion on the other side of the fish?

I can't tell - in the photos, these look more like lost scales than dead Neobenedenia. If so, that scale loss is what is causing the skin lesions. That in turn is likely to be Uronema, that causes "deciduous scales", they fall off the fish when it is handled.

Trouble is, Neobenedenia *does* look like a bit like lost scales, so it can be easy to confuse the two issues. If you magnify the "scales" and see a round sucker at each end, its Neo, If you can see rings and no suckers, then they are indeed scales.

Hopefully it isn't Uronema, as in severe infections like this, it is always fatal (sorry!). It could be a secondary bacterial infection from the Neo, but again, it wouldn't be localized like this....

When I received the fish I gave it and a Burgess Butterfly 3 hour Prazicleanse bath. I put them in a sterile QT tank. Tuesday morning is when I saw the flukes or maybe in this case the scales. The Falcula died this morning so I didn’t examine whether they were scales or flukes. The Burgess is doing great so maybe the Falcula had Uronema? It went downhill fast. If a fish has Uronema can a Prazi treatment cause the scales to drop off ?

 

[Bronco765]

Got this Falcula on Tuesday and gave it a Prazi bath. The Prazi did its job. What is the best treatment for the wounds left from the flukes falling off? Thanks in advance.

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

I think that lesion is something other than from the Neobenedenia flukes that you suspect. Neobenedenia are randomly spread across the fish, not in a vertical lesion like that. Was there a similar lesion on the other side of the fish?

I can't tell - in the photos, these look more like lost scales than dead Neobenedenia. If so, that scale loss is what is causing the skin lesions. That in turn is likely to be Uronema, that causes "deciduous scales", they fall off the fish when it is handled.

Trouble is, Neobenedenia *does* look like a bit like lost scales, so it can be easy to confuse the two issues. If you magnify the "scales" and see a round sucker at each end, its Neo, If you can see rings and no suckers, then they are indeed scales.

Hopefully it isn't Uronema, as in severe infections like this, it is always fatal (sorry!). It could be a secondary bacterial infection from the Neo, but again, it wouldn't be localized like this....here is my article on Uronema:

Article 'Uronema / Red Band Disease - Hemdal'

Red Band Syndrome in Marine Fishes: Caused by the Protozoan; Uronema sp. Jay Hemdal Introduction: This moderately common disease of certain species of marine fish is so often misdiagnosed that most aquarists apply incorrect treatment methods when attempting a cure. Symptoms include the...

• Jay Hemdal
• Nov 13, 2020
• 9 min read
• 5.00 star(s) 5 ratings
• Reaction score: 23
• Reviews: 2
• Category: Fish Disease and Treatment

Here is the left side of the Falcula.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Here is the left side of the Falcula.

Clean on that side - really points to uronema - sorry! Prazi won't cause scales to fall off.

Luckily, internal Uronema is not really contagious, so your Burgess will only show that if it picked it up during collection/transport, and not from this fish.

 

[Bronco765]

Here is the left side of the Falcula.

Clean on that side - really points to uronema - sorry! Prazi won't cause scales to fall off.

Luckily, internal Uronema is not really contagious, so your Burgess will only show that if it picked it up during collection/transport, and not from this fish.

How long would it take for the Uronema to get transferred to another fish? I had the Burgess in a separate tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

How long would it take for the Uronema to get transferred to another fish? I had the Burgess in a separate tank.

I've never had that happen. Sometimes, like with groups of anthias, butterflies and green chromis acquired at the same time, from the same source, multiple fish will develop symptoms, but I've never had fish in the same tank develop this issue unless they were the same species, from the same group.

 

[Bronco765]

How long would it take for the Uronema to get transferred to another fish? I had the Burgess in a separate tank.

I've never had that happen. Sometimes, like with groups of anthias, butterflies and green chromis acquired at the same time, from the same source, multiple fish will develop symptoms, but I've never had fish in the same tank develop this issue unless they were the same species, from the same group.

So I guess there’s no way to know a fish has Uronema by looking at it? It’s just odd the fish looked just fine, I gave it a Prazi bath and half its scales fall off and the fish dies. I will say snakes are a lot easier than fish!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So I guess there’s no way to know a fish has Uronema by looking at it? It’s just odd the fish looked just fine, I gave it a Prazi bath and half its scales fall off and the fish dies. I will say snakes are a lot easier than fish!

The early symptoms are subtle - a vertical red skin lesion on one side is most common. This quickly progresses to a larger lesion and the fish will stop feeding and begin to breathe faster. The lesion will continue grow in size/depth and then the fish dies, often with its mouth wide open.

 

[Bronco765]

So I guess there’s no way to know a fish has Uronema by looking at it? It’s just odd the fish looked just fine, I gave it a Prazi bath and half its scales fall off and the fish dies. I will say snakes are a lot easier than fish!

The early symptoms are subtle - a vertical red skin lesion on one side is most common. This quickly progresses to a larger lesion and the fish will stop feeding and begin to breathe faster. The lesion will continue grow in size/depth and then the fish dies, often with its mouth wide open.

The Burgess ate practically out of the bag but the Falcula would go to the food, look at it but not consume it.