Identification of Disease

[LikeRichMahogany]

Alright, skin scrape, freshwater dip and transfer to clean hospital tank at a matching salinity are all complete. I saw none of the small flakes I’m familiar with that would be indicative of flukes, even after poring the water into a black bucket.

I believe based on what I’m seeing in the microscope that this is all ich, not velvet. I see nothing resembling velvet, but am far from an expert.

I would love a second opinion on this @Jay Hemdal and @vetteguy53081

Here are some videos I was able to record. Please pardon the sounds of my wife’s reality tv and my children talking:

Unknown Parasite: (low magnification and darker color)


Suspected Ich Parasite 1(high magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 2(medium magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 3(low magnification)

 

[LikeRichMahogany]

Alright, skin scrape, freshwater dip and transfer to clean hospital tank at a matching salinity are all complete. I saw none of the small flakes I’m familiar with that would be indicative of flukes, even after poring the water into a black bucket.

I believe based on what I’m seeing in the microscope that this is all ich, not velvet. I see nothing resembling velvet, but am far from an expert.

I would love a second opinion on this @Jay Hemdal and @vetteguy53081

Here are some videos I was able to record. Please pardon the sounds of my wife’s reality tv and my children talking:

Unknown Parasite: (low magnification and darker color)


Suspected Ich Parasite 1(high magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 2(medium magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 3(low magnification)

The “suspected Ich parasites” are round, some pear shaped, and rotating slowly, some slower than others.

I’m guessing I didn’t see any velvet because velvet is a gills-only disease? Maybe I’m wrong

 

[LikeRichMahogany]

There are some areas in my scraping that had 50+ of these little buggers visible at 100x magnification

 

[vetteguy53081]

Alright, skin scrape, freshwater dip and transfer to clean hospital tank at a matching salinity are all complete. I saw none of the small flakes I’m familiar with that would be indicative of flukes, even after poring the water into a black bucket.

I believe based on what I’m seeing in the microscope that this is all ich, not velvet. I see nothing resembling velvet, but am far from an expert.

I would love a second opinion on this @Jay Hemdal and @vetteguy53081

Here are some videos I was able to record. Please pardon the sounds of my wife’s reality tv and my children talking:

Unknown Parasite: (low magnification and darker color)


Suspected Ich Parasite 1(high magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 2(medium magnification)


Suspected Ich Parasite 3(low magnification)

With a life cycle similar to ich, this looks to be Amyloodinium which is velvet and also in your images, ich starts out as dots whereas velvet will be finer in size again consistent with your pics

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

The “suspected Ich parasites” are round, some pear shaped, and rotating slowly, some slower than others.

I’m guessing I didn’t see any velvet because velvet is a gills-only disease? Maybe I’m wrong

Those are all Cryptocaryon, marine ich.

 

[LikeRichMahogany]

Those are all Cryptocaryon, marine ich.

So I was able to capture the sailfin tang at least, and he’s currently in a hospital tank I’m treating with copper power at 2.5 ppm. I freshwater dipped him, and he seems to be breathing better and eating very well. He still lets me pet him which makes me feel better after trapping him.

Now that treatment is underway, I’m wanting to look back at this, and determine why the sudden outbreak. You mentioned supersaturation, which after some rudimentary research appears to be when the return pump mixes far more gas into the water than the water’s natural capacity. I understand this can cause gas bubble disease in corals and stress fish out. I’m wondering if this is a case where opportunistic parasites were able to get a foothold due to the fish being more stressed than normal, or if they were at a high enough population to be a problem in the first place.

I would like to learn more about supersaturation. Do you have any documentation or reading on the subject you can provide @Jay Hemdal ?

Or even anecdotal evidence from your personal knowledge or experience.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So I was able to capture the sailfin tang at least, and he’s currently in a hospital tank I’m treating with copper power at 2.5 ppm. I freshwater dipped him, and he seems to be breathing better and eating very well. He still lets me pet him which makes me feel better after trapping him.

Now that treatment is underway, I’m wanting to look back at this, and determine why the sudden outbreak. You mentioned supersaturation, which after some rudimentary research appears to be when the return pump mixes far more gas into the water than the water’s natural capacity. I understand this can cause gas bubble disease in corals and stress fish out. I’m wondering if this is a case where opportunistic parasites were able to get a foothold due to the fish being more stressed than normal, or if they were at a high enough population to be a problem in the first place.

I would like to learn more about supersaturation. Do you have any documentation or reading on the subject you can provide @Jay Hemdal ?

Or even anecdotal evidence from your personal knowledge or experience.

I have found that supersaturation can increase the prevalence of fungal diseases in FW fish, but I’ve never seen it case increased parasitic diseases.

Here is a link to an article I wrote with a veterinarian about gas bubble diseases in aquariums.
https://reefs.com/magazine/toledo-zoo-fish-health-q-a-gas-bubble-disease/

 

[LikeRichMahogany]

I have found that supersaturation can increase the prevalence of fungal diseases in FW fish, but I’ve never seen it case increased parasitic diseases.

Here is a link to an article I wrote with a veterinarian about gas bubble diseases in aquariums.
https://reefs.com/magazine/toledo-zoo-fish-health-q-a-gas-bubble-disease/

That’s crazy! I live adjacent to Toledo and we take our kids to the Toledo zoo all the time lol

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

That’s crazy! I live adjacent to Toledo and we take our kids to the Toledo zoo all the time lol

I’m partially retired now, I work mostly from home. The aquarium building is celebrating its 10 year anniversary of its renovation, and I think this year is the 125th anniversary of the Zoo itself. I’ve been there 35 years.

 

[LikeRichMahogany]

I’m partially retired now, I work mostly from home. The aquarium building is celebrating its 10 year anniversary of its renovation, and I think this year is the 125th anniversary of the Zoo itself. I’ve been there 35 years.

Out of curiosity, can the dissolved oxygen ORP probes be used to detect and respond to super saturation?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Out of curiosity, can the dissolved oxygen ORP probes be used to detect and respond to super saturation?

I'm not sure what you mean by "dissolved oxygen ORP probes". ORP probes measure the oxidative state of the water. Water that is low in oxygen will also have a low ORP reading, but that is all relative. I tried using dissolved oxygen meters/tests to try and infer supersaturation - the idea being if the oxygen level is higher than normal, that could mean that there is supersaturation happening. It turns out that it is nitrogen that is the harmful issue in supersaturation, so measuring oxygen is just not a good marker for supersaturation. For example, when shipping sharks, it is common to inject oxygen in the water. That can give saturation rates of 150 to even 200% but the sharks are fine because the harmful nitrogen gas is not also increased. TDG (total dissolved gas) meters are the only way to measure this, but those meters cost quite a bit - $1500 last I checked.