Gill Flukes / Velvet ?

[StarterSaltWater]

This week I noticed a couple of my fish were "gone" following a quick business trip to Houston for a few days... That being said I found my yellow clown goby at night swimming frantically all around the tank acting very abnormal with possibly red gills from what I could make out which died the next day. My Mocha Storm clown then was swimming at first near the surface for the first day after the clown goby expired so I removed my Pink streak wrasse, Mandarin, and 2 clowns immediately into my 20g quarantine tank after performing a FW dip on the Clown, while I didnt see any little rice pellets on the bottom for flukes I did see a yellow mucus and or/scales from the clown in the solo cup... I then did a Ruby Reef Rally bath for 90 minutes on all of the fish then returned them to the QT tank where I dosed Metroplex and Kanaplex directly into the water column.

The clown has made it a couple of days but its up in the air on its survival. I found it swimming up into the flow of the QT tank so I placed it in an acclimation box I had with small PVC pipe to hopefully tone it down. I have plenty of flow in my QT to prevent oxygen depletion. Unsure if it could be velvet or gill flukes... I see no tiny white spots on any of the fish to indicate a severe velvet outbreak so im assuming it is limited to the gills (possibly) so I dosed PraziPro last night to hopefully treat gill / flukes if that's the case. The clown also shows signs of secondary infection causing the tail fin to erode which is why I dosed Metro/Kanaplex.

My question is, with Kanaplex, in the tank almost 48 hrs, and Metroplex second dose in for 24hrs (after first dose 48hrs earlier), and Prazipro in for almost 24 hrs that I added last night, what is the best course of action from here being uncertain if it is velvet or gill flukes? The Rapid breathing is symptom of both Velvet and Flukes but I dont really see any flashing just rapid swimming into flow (indicative of velvet per humblefish) and lethargy laying almsot lifeless at times. If it is Velvet, I would need to dose the cupramine I have ASAP as the ruby reef bath only bought me time possibly, should I add this cupramine tonight ontop of the concoction I have in the tank or just wait for prazi if possible to see if it mitigates it and redose kanaplex tonight?

Any help is very much appreciated as always!

 

[vetteguy53081]

I would not mix metro and kanaplex. If flukes, Freshwater dip will offer temporary relief with treatment using praziquantel (Prazipro) for 8 full days, changing water on Day 9 and treating 8 more days.
Ruby will address velvet but Im concerned of the number of meds being used and mixed based on assumptions/symptoms.
Any pics under white lighting to support what you are seeing ?
With flukes, you will see the fish having great stress and if in gills or prolonged on fish can cause further issues such as laboring for oxygen, refusing to eat which can weaken fish and its' immune system. When a fish first becomes infected with flukes, there are no immediate indications.
Some common symptoms of flukes that make reefers believe it may be velvet are:

- Rapid breathing and swimming at the water surface. This is due to their inability to extract sufficient oxygen from the water as the flukes attach to their gills
- Lethargy. The fish may become lethargic, hiding amongst the rocks or in a corner of your tank
- Lack of appetite. Fish may eat very little or nothing at all
- Development of clamped fins or frayed fins
- Loss of color to infected area
- Cloudy eyes
- Fish may be flashing against the rockwork to try and dislodge the flukes
- Exhibiting yawning or a have their mouth hanging open in which the fish is trying to process more oxygen exchange when the gills are affected
- Fish may appear to shake it’s head from side to side

 

[StarterSaltWater]

I would not mix metro and kanaplex. If flukes, Freshwater dip will offer temporary relief with treatment using praziquantel (Prazipro) for 8 full days, changing water on Day 9 and treating 8 more days.
Ruby will address velvet but Im concerned of the number of meds being used and mixed based on assumptions/symptoms.
Any pics under white lighting to support what you are seeing ?
With flukes, you will see the fish having great stress and if in gills or prolonged on fish can cause further issues such as laboring for oxygen, refusing to eat which can weaken fish and its' immune system. When a fish first becomes infected with flukes, there are no immediate indications.
Some common symptoms of flukes that make reefers believe it may be velvet are:

- Rapid breathing and swimming at the water surface. This is due to their inability to extract sufficient oxygen from the water as the flukes attach to their gills
- Lethargy. The fish may become lethargic, hiding amongst the rocks or in a corner of your tank
- Lack of appetite. Fish may eat very little or nothing at all
- Development of clamped fins or frayed fins
- Loss of color to infected area
- Cloudy eyes
- Fish may be flashing against the rockwork to try and dislodge the flukes
- Exhibiting yawning or a have their mouth hanging open in which the fish is trying to process more oxygen exchange when the gills are affected
- Fish may appear to shake it’s head from side to side

Thanks @vetteguy53081,

I attached a couple of pictures below tried my best…
So far:
-The fish seems to have stopped panic swimming into flow from the QT HOB filter in the acclimation box now it’s more lethargic labored breathing/rapid earlier on now. I wouldn’t say mouth is fully open constantly but at t
- obvious signs of tail fin degradation being almost gone and a red sore on mouth
- some marks on one side of the body possibly was flukes that came off from the RRR / FW dip I performed 3 days ago.
- has not eaten in probably the last 3 days at a minimum could have been longer from what I noticed. - no cloudy eye abs only a loss of color I can tell on the maroon where there’s obvious I’d call them scrapes probably from the parasites I’m assuming.

the fish has definitely gotten worse over the course of the last couple of days but since treatment seems to just be flatlined teetering on making it or not…

I saw you put no kanaplex but with the fish not eating and obvious signs of fins rotting and mouth sore wouldn’t it be prudent since it’s absorbed readily through gills and flesh?

I am leaning more so on it being flukes in the gills causing the breathing than velvet as velvet would have most likely already spread to the other fish and display the salty look on the fish. just too hard to say if it’s velvet in the gills not body.. I also haven’t observed any obvious signs of brook slime coat issues etc but the RRR bath was done as mentioned earlier to help mitigate that.
Again thanks for the reply / continued help!!!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks @vetteguy53081,

I attached a couple of pictures below tried my best…
So far:
-The fish seems to have stopped panic swimming into flow from the QT HOB filter in the acclimation box now it’s more lethargic labored breathing/rapid earlier on now. I wouldn’t say mouth is fully open constantly but at t
- obvious signs of tail fin degradation being almost gone and a red sore on mouth
- some marks on one side of the body possibly was flukes that came off from the RRR / FW dip I performed 3 days ago.
- has not eaten in probably the last 3 days at a minimum could have been longer from what I noticed. - no cloudy eye abs only a loss of color I can tell on the maroon where there’s obvious I’d call them scrapes probably from the parasites I’m assuming.

the fish has definitely gotten worse over the course of the last couple of days but since treatment seems to just be flatlined teetering on making it or not…

I saw you put no kanaplex but with the fish not eating and obvious signs of fins rotting and mouth sore wouldn’t it be prudent since it’s absorbed readily through gills and flesh?

I am leaning more so on it being flukes in the gills causing the breathing than velvet as velvet would have most likely already spread to the other fish and display the salty look on the fish. just too hard to say if it’s velvet in the gills not body.. I also haven’t observed any obvious signs of brook slime coat issues etc but the RRR bath was done as mentioned earlier to help mitigate that.
Again thanks for the reply / continued help!!!

This is one of those tough issues. If the fish are breathing fast, and it came on suddenly and there are no water quality issues, it is likely velvet. However, the tail erosion, even my itself can be fatal, as it is already down to the bone. Metroplex has limited benefit against bacteria, it is primarily anti-protozoal. The Kanaplex is a decent antibiotic, but any of those may take up to five days to work. You won't see gill flukes in a dip unless you use a microscope, they are too small.

Jay

 

[StarterSaltWater]

This is one of those tough issues. If the fish are breathing fast, and it came on suddenly and there are no water quality issues, it is likely velvet. However, the tail erosion, even my itself can be fatal, as it is already down to the bone. Metroplex has limited benefit against bacteria, it is primarily anti-protozoal. The Kanaplex is a decent antibiotic, but any of those may take up to five days to work. You won't see gill flukes in a dip unless you use a microscope, they are too small.

Jay

Thanks for the reply @Jay Hemdal. Agreed the symptoms are too similar between velvet in the gills and gill flukes without seeing any velvet slime coat specs from infection. I think I will just stick with the prazipro I added yesterday and kanaplex to try and stem the internal bacterial infection if at all possible at this point.. adding copper will most likely kill it certainly with the mouth redness and tail exposed. I interestingly enough have not observed any scratching on the rock when it was in the display or the quarantine tank for that matter either. Sucks not knowing what to do in these situations but I will just unfortunately have to remain fallow in my reef until further notice until I can possibly diagnose sooner / better on any other fish currently in the QT.