Help Identify

[Bronco765]

Noticed this on my Semilarvatus. Please help identify. Thanks!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The pics are a bit too enlarge, not vey clear. The tail is physical damage, I can’t say what the mark is on the fish’s side.

Is the fish showing other symptoms?
What is its history?

 

[Bronco765]

Has a voracious appetite. The only other fish that are in with it is a Firefish and a Burgess Butterfly. This is the fish that had the mucus plugs a week or so ago but those are gone.

 

[Bronco765]

It is completely active, nice and fat and breathing normal. I just noticed the mark on the left side today. I’ll try to post a better picture.

 

[Bronco765]

The pics are a bit too enlarge, not vey clear. The tail is physical damage, I can’t say what the mark is on the fish’s side.

Is the fish showing other symptoms?
What is its history?

Has a voracious appetite. The only other fish that are in with it is a Firefish and a Burgess Butterfly. This is the fish that had the mucus plugs a week or so ago. I’ll try to get a better picture. They don’t like to pose for pictures too well. Once in awhile it will dart and scratch, I saw that last night. It is very active and nice and fat and breathing normal. I just noticed the mark today.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Has a voracious appetite. The only other fish that are in with it is a Firefish and a Burgess Butterfly. This is the fish that had the mucus plugs a week or so ago. I’ll try to get a better picture. They don’t like to pose for pictures too well. Once in awhile it will dart and scratch, I saw that last night. It is very active and nice and fat and breathing normal. I just noticed the mark today.

Could be scrape marks, which in turn could be from flukes. This species is prone to Neobenedenia.

 

[Bronco765]

Has a voracious appetite. The only other fish that are in with it is a Firefish and a Burgess Butterfly. This is the fish that had the mucus plugs a week or so ago. I’ll try to get a better picture. They don’t like to pose for pictures too well. Once in awhile it will dart and scratch, I saw that last night. It is very active and nice and fat and breathing normal. I just noticed the mark today.

Could be scrape marks, which in turn could be from flukes. This species is prone to Neobenedenia.

Flukes is what I was thinking. I started treatment just in case. Thanks!

 

[Bronco765]

Has a voracious appetite. The only other fish that are in with it is a Firefish and a Burgess Butterfly. This is the fish that had the mucus plugs a week or so ago. I’ll try to get a better picture. They don’t like to pose for pictures too well. Once in awhile it will dart and scratch, I saw that last night. It is very active and nice and fat and breathing normal. I just noticed the mark today.

Could be scrape marks, which in turn could be from flukes. This species is prone to Neobenedenia.

Flukes is what I was thinking. I started treatment just in case. Thanks!

I read your article about mucus plugs and you wrote Idiopathic mucus plugs/cones: Fish sometimes develop excess mucus that excretes from the producing skin cells and rather than spreading out along the body, rises up as a cone or a plug. These presumable develop from some sort of skin irritation. If you do a skin scrape on them, all you see is mucus. They do show up on dark colored fish more often, probably because the contrast makes them easier to see. The cause(s) for this is unknown. In some cases, they just go away, in other cases, the fish dies - but in those cases, it is probable that there was a secondary issue. There may be some correlation between copper sulfate use, or a reaction to a previous skin infection.

Can the copper sulfate in Coppersafe cause the mucus plugs?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I read your article about mucus plugs and you wrote Idiopathic mucus plugs/cones: Fish sometimes develop excess mucus that excretes from the producing skin cells and rather than spreading out along the body, rises up as a cone or a plug. These presumable develop from some sort of skin irritation. If you do a skin scrape on them, all you see is mucus. They do show up on dark colored fish more often, probably because the contrast makes them easier to see. The cause(s) for this is unknown. In some cases, they just go away, in other cases, the fish dies - but in those cases, it is probable that there was a secondary issue. There may be some correlation between copper sulfate use, or a reaction to a previous skin infection.

Can the copper sulfate in Coppersafe cause the mucus plugs?

Yes, that is one suspected cause. So is marine ich itself.

 

[Bronco765]

I read your article about mucus plugs and you wrote Idiopathic mucus plugs/cones: Fish sometimes develop excess mucus that excretes from the producing skin cells and rather than spreading out along the body, rises up as a cone or a plug. These presumable develop from some sort of skin irritation. If you do a skin scrape on them, all you see is mucus. They do show up on dark colored fish more often, probably because the contrast makes them easier to see. The cause(s) for this is unknown. In some cases, they just go away, in other cases, the fish dies - but in those cases, it is probable that there was a secondary issue. There may be some correlation between copper sulfate use, or a reaction to a previous skin infection.

Can the copper sulfate in Coppersafe cause the mucus plugs?

Yes, that is one suspected cause. So is marine ich itself.

I got what I hope are better pictures. What’s weird is the marks are only on the left side. Absolutely nothing on the right side.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I got what I hope are better pictures. What’s weird is the marks are only on the left side. Absolutely nothing on the right side.

Those sure look like disrupted scales from Neobenedenia flukes. It could also be from mechanical injury. Scales can take a month or more to regrow.

 

[Bronco765]

I got what I hope are better pictures. What’s weird is the marks are only on the left side. Absolutely nothing on the right side.

Those sure look like disrupted scales from Neobenedenia flukes. It could also be from mechanical injury. Scales can take a month or more to regrow.

Like I said it’s weird that the right side of the fish is spotless. I’m feeding LRS food and it goes into a feeding frenzy when I put the food in. I guess that’s why they call it Fish Frenzy!

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Like I said it’s weird that the right side of the fish is spotless. I’m feeding LRS food and it goes into a feeding frenzy when I put the food in. I guess that’s why they call it Fish Frenzy!

Flukes are typically found on a fish in a random pattern. Injuries, on the other hand, are usually found in a more localized area - where the injury occurred.