MAJOR emergency Pinktail Trigger

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

Hi all,
I’m going to try to be quick because I want to get some quick answers that may save this fish.
Pinktail trigger, healthy, well fed, have had him for 4 years. He was hiding yesterday and I wasn’t home most of the day so I thought it was normal behavior.
Today, fed food, and he didn’t eat or come out. Knew something was wrong.
I caught him and took him to an isolated tank.
He has a major large bubble or swollen damage on the right side of this mouth. He is breathing rapidly and very unhappy.
I will attach pictures below.

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

Images

BeltedCoyote · Sep 1, 2020

@Humblefish @Jay Hemdal

Qasimja · Sep 1, 2020

hope you get some help never seen an injury like that before

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

The other fish are all fine.
Fish have been together for many years and peaceful and no new additions. No tank changes at all because of covid just sitting tight. There are some large tangs in the tank so maybe one of them whacked him. There is a niger trigger that grew to become the same size as this pinktail trigger. Both are 6-7inches long. Neither of them have any damaged fins. But maybe they fought at night.
im leaning toward this being a traumatic injury. Maybe his jaw is broken. Maybe its some sort of growth that ruptured. I have no idea. I have never seen this before.

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

Qasimja said:
hope you get some help never seen an injury like that before

Thank you. Neither have I which is why I’m panicking. I fear that it is something that I cant fix like a broken jaw or growth.

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

I very carefully nudged him during this video and avoided hitting the bubble.

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

This is a link to the video. Please click this.

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

Tank is a fish only tank. There are no poisonous rocks or corals. Fish diet is mostly pellets and brine shrimp and squid and mussels. I did not feed them any frozen food before this happened so this was not caused by food poisoning.
I have puffers but there are no puffer bites on his body. Theres also no gash or wound as shown in the video. He has no fin rot, ich, etc.
I am leaning toward some sort of exterior or interior trauma. Maybe another fish ran into him or smacked him into a wall.
Sorry about the incoherent writing and multiple posts. I’m panicking a bit. Wouldn’t be this panicky if it was ich or another disease because I would just execute treatment and pray. I’m completely lost on what this is and what to do

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

So far my best guess is its either major trauma caused by the niger trigger who is his same size (maybe an inch bigger). Or major trauma caused by a tang. He looks like he got punched in the face or his wisdom tooth pulled out.

Jay Hemdal · Sep 1, 2020

Oh wow. I've not seen anything like this, but it could perhaps be an abcess. If I had this fish, I would use MS-222 to anesthetize it and look into the mouth to see if there is a rock or something stuck in there. Failing that, I'd aspirate it with a large syringe from the outside to see if there was fluid that can be removed. You might be able to try that without anesthesia, but it would be very stressful to the fish...then again, it is undergoing pretty severe stress now anyway.

Jay

RyanFish · Sep 1, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Oh wow. I've not seen anything like this, but it could perhaps be an abcess. If I had this fish, I would use MS-222 to anesthetize it and look into the mouth to see if there is a rock or something stuck in there. Failing that, I'd aspirate it with a large syringe from the outside to see if there was fluid that can be removed. You might be able to try that without anesthesia, but it would be very stressful to the fish...then again, it is undergoing pretty severe stress now anyway.

Jay

Thank you for your response. I do not have MS-222 but I’ll try to get some.
Without the anesthesia, holding him down and him flopping may damage the area more but I may have to do that.
If it’s trauma from another fish or his jaw has been injured would epsom salt benefit at all?
I have 2 three inch cleaner wrasses. Maybe they can clean him? Or do you think they’ll just harass him?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 1, 2020

I don’t think the cleaner wrasse will help, they are inclined to pick at small parasites. Epsom salts could perhaps draw out the abscess. I’ve never tried that before. Remember though, Epsom salts are really just a freshwater fish treatment, your seawater’s fourth most plentiful salt IS Epsom salts. Check the stickies above, there should be a dose there you could try.
Jay

Reefing_addiction · Sep 1, 2020

Very curious following

hope he pulls through

BeltedCoyote · Sep 1, 2020

@Jay Hemdal. Thanks for weighing in. I hope you don’t mind me tagging you. Just didn’t have anything to personally contribute as a new-er reef keeper. Wanted to get OP some good help.

we’re quite lucky to have you on the staff/mod team.

I’ll continue to follow along.

vetteguy53081 · Sep 1, 2020

Ive seen this on a lionfish and my guess is that you occasionally feed some type of shellfish (shrimp, etc)
It is known or last term I heard was a goiter. I remember this condition was treatable but as it took a while to develop also took a while to go away. Good news is that trigger doesnt eat for a week or too, it doesnt fall down. It is due to both a nutritional deficiency and/or an iodine deficiency and generally when we throw in foods like shrimp, mussel, squid etc, we forget to add some type of amino or vitamin to the food. Yu can try treating by soaking its' food in iodine (as soon as you can get it to eat), and providing a more varied diet (such as LRS meaty diet, Prime reef, Krill soaked in selcon vitamin and adding garlic extract to its' food) .
It is also possible like with us humans that a shell from feeding poked its' tissue and it got infected as would happen with us. Taking a GAMBLE, you can try antibiotic such as teramyacin or melafix.
NOW HERE IS WHERE @Jay Hemdal may even have a suggestion on antibiotic, BUT remember it is a gamble.
As always, assure water quaility is good while getting a fish to heal.
Best of luck Fellow reefer

Tired · Sep 1, 2020

Clove oil can also be used as an anesthetic, though it does require some caution. I know it's used with expensive koi sometimes.

Cleaner wrasse would absolutely not help.

Poor guy. Give him lots of cover and keep the lights low, reduce his stress as much as possible. The fast breathing would seem to indicate that he's probably in some amount of pain, and all the possible options seem to be pretty painful ones.

PicassoClown04 · Sep 1, 2020

#reefsquad i hope this helps you. My guess would be an abscess of some sort due to there not being any external injuries. I feel like if he was attacked there’d be signs of a fight. I would attempt aspiration with an anesthetic or with something firmly holding the fish down (like a damp cloth rubberbanded. Fish on a cutting board and cloth on fish. Rubber bands around the cloth and cutting board securing fish). Hopefully it’s just a cyst and not cancer or something.

Jay Hemdal · Sep 1, 2020

vetteguy53081 said:
Ive seen this on a lionfish and my guess is that you occasionally feed some type of shellfish (shrimp, etc)
It is known or last term I heard was a goiter. I remember this condition was treatable but as it took a while to develop also took a while to go away. Good news is that trigger doesnt eat for a week or too, it doesnt fall down. It is due to both a nutritional deficiency and/or an iodine deficiency and generally when we throw in foods like shrimp, mussel, squid etc, we forget to add some type of amino or vitamin to the food. Yu can try treating by soaking its' food in iodine (as soon as you can get it to eat), and providing a more varied diet (such as LRS meaty diet, Prime reef, Krill soaked in selcon vitamin and adding garlic extract to its' food) .
It is also possible like with us humans that a shell from feeding poked its' tissue and it got infected as would happen with us. Taking a GAMBLE, you can try antibiotic such as teramyacin or melafix.
NOW HERE IS WHERE @Jay Hemdal may even have a suggestion on antibiotic, BUT remember it is a gamble.
As always, assure water quaility is good while getting a fish to heal.
Best of luck Fellow reefer

One thing to clarify, this isn’t goiter. The thyroid in fish lays along the midline, below/behind the lower jaw, so when the thyroid develops hyperplasia, it is bilaterally symmetrical, not on one side like this. Your idea of a stuck piece of shrimp shell is a good bet.
Jay