Help with diagnosis and Treatment

[faebit]

Hey everyone. I haven't posted here before but I've got some sort of outbreak in my tank and I'm feeling demoralized. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Our fish started acting like they were itchy, rubbing up against rocks and whatnot. Our tang was the first to show signs and we tore through our tank trying to catch him but couldn't. Initially we were worried it might be Velvet. We had an outbreak of velvet several months ago when the tank was brand new, fortunately there was only two new fish in there at the time and we were keeping the rest of our fish in our original tank. Prior to the current outbreak I vacuumed the substrate and I was worried I kicked up some dormant velvet, but the tang lived about 5 days from showing signs of discomfort and displayed signs of slime coat syndrome (excess mucus and cloudiness in the eyes). We treated the display tank with stress coat, to try to buy time while we figured out the underlying issue.

Whatever this is killed them slowly.

We pulled the fish we could catch, gave them a methylene blue bath, and then placed them in a hospital tank. We dosed the tank with Prazipro, because we were worried that the issues with the slime coat could be flukes. The clowns seemed to be doing well for a couple of days. Then today we lost our favorite clown. I took some pictures and would love any insight. In the image you can see some white spots that showed up when I put his body in fresh water (which I think are flukes), but also there is some discoloration near but not on his gills.

I don't know if we misdiagnosed and there's something else we can do. Is it possible that more than one thing is happening here.

The display tank has been dosed with Ruby Rally Pro, because it was the only thing we could find that might not obliterate our corals/inverts and the fish that we are unable catch are still in there.

Additional notes:
I've been testing the hospital tank daily and making sure to keep an eye out for ammonia.
We have an RO system and mix our own water

Thank you for your time. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey everyone. I haven't posted here before but I've got some sort of outbreak in my tank and I'm feeling demoralized. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Our fish started acting like they were itchy, rubbing up against rocks and whatnot. Our tang was the first to show signs and we tore through our tank trying to catch him but couldn't. Initially we were worried it might be Velvet. We had an outbreak of velvet several months ago when the tank was brand new, fortunately there was only two new fish in there at the time and we were keeping the rest of our fish in our original tank. Prior to the current outbreak I vacuumed the substrate and I was worried I kicked up some dormant velvet, but the tang lived about 5 days from showing signs of discomfort and displayed signs of slime coat syndrome (excess mucus and cloudiness in the eyes). We treated the display tank with stress coat, to try to buy time while we figured out the underlying issue.

Whatever this is killed them slowly.

We pulled the fish we could catch, gave them a methylene blue bath, and then placed them in a hospital tank. We dosed the tank with Prazipro, because we were worried that the issues with the slime coat could be flukes. The clowns seemed to be doing well for a couple of days. Then today we lost our favorite clown. I took some pictures and would love any insight. In the image you can see some white spots that showed up when I put his body in fresh water (which I think are flukes), but also there is some discoloration near but not on his gills.

I don't know if we misdiagnosed and there's something else we can do. Is it possible that more than one thing is happening here.

The display tank has been dosed with Ruby Rally Pro, because it was the only thing we could find that might not obliterate our corals/inverts and the fish that we are unable catch are still in there.

Additional notes:
I've been testing the hospital tank daily and making sure to keep an eye out for ammonia.
We have an RO system and mix our own water

Thank you for your time. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.

From discoloration , im suspecting brook, secondary infection or both. Methylene blue ids a no-no and wont work. Ruby rally for flukes is a long shot and you want PraziPro for flukes dosed at 85% of recommended with two -three doses, If flukes. Describe again, the symptoms you were seeing
With brook, you will see loss of colr, heavy breathing, loss of appetite, funny swim pattern and lethargic behavior
With flukes which have some similar signs, you will see heavy breathing, dots on eyes, sudden darting, hiding, and yawning like behavior

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hey everyone. I haven't posted here before but I've got some sort of outbreak in my tank and I'm feeling demoralized. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Our fish started acting like they were itchy, rubbing up against rocks and whatnot. Our tang was the first to show signs and we tore through our tank trying to catch him but couldn't. Initially we were worried it might be Velvet. We had an outbreak of velvet several months ago when the tank was brand new, fortunately there was only two new fish in there at the time and we were keeping the rest of our fish in our original tank. Prior to the current outbreak I vacuumed the substrate and I was worried I kicked up some dormant velvet, but the tang lived about 5 days from showing signs of discomfort and displayed signs of slime coat syndrome (excess mucus and cloudiness in the eyes). We treated the display tank with stress coat, to try to buy time while we figured out the underlying issue.

Whatever this is killed them slowly.

We pulled the fish we could catch, gave them a methylene blue bath, and then placed them in a hospital tank. We dosed the tank with Prazipro, because we were worried that the issues with the slime coat could be flukes. The clowns seemed to be doing well for a couple of days. Then today we lost our favorite clown. I took some pictures and would love any insight. In the image you can see some white spots that showed up when I put his body in fresh water (which I think are flukes), but also there is some discoloration near but not on his gills.

I don't know if we misdiagnosed and there's something else we can do. Is it possible that more than one thing is happening here.

The display tank has been dosed with Ruby Rally Pro, because it was the only thing we could find that might not obliterate our corals/inverts and the fish that we are unable catch are still in there.

Additional notes:
I've been testing the hospital tank daily and making sure to keep an eye out for ammonia.
We have an RO system and mix our own water

Thank you for your time. Please let me know if I need to clarify anything.

You can rule out velvet due to the scratching symptoms and the slow death - velvet would be quick and no scratching.

I can't rule out Brooklynella, but flukes seems more likely. Sometimes, fish die after a prazi treatment because it works too well - what happens with heavy infections is that the flukes all drop off the fish at once, leaving hundreds of time holes in the fish's skin, which causes blood loss. Did the surviving fish stop scratching after a few days?

 

[faebit]

You can rule out velvet due to the scratching symptoms and the slow death - velvet would be quick and no scratching.

I can't rule out Brooklynella, but flukes seems more likely. Sometimes, fish die after a prazi treatment because it works too well - what happens with heavy infections is that the flukes all drop off the fish at once, leaving hundreds of time holes in the fish's skin, which causes blood loss. Did the surviving fish stop scratching after a few days?

Thanks for the reply. The other clown is not rubbing herself on anything, but she never really did. I don't think she was as badly infested as the one we lost. The Royal Gramma is in pretty bad shape and was scratching herself on the hardscape. I'm not seeing that behavior any more. Hopefully she'll bounce back.