Marks in Whitetail Bristletooth

[spartanman22]

Hey all,

Looking for some help on some spots on my bristletooth’s fins. He came from my local LFS who runs copper and weekly formalin dips. He was only in their shop a few days before I took him home. I’ve got him in my QT currently. I did a 30 minute H2O2 dip initially, and have been running H2O2 in the QT at 1 mL / 8 gallons for 3 days now. Was planning on finishing week 1 and then bumping to 1 mL / 5 gallons.

He’s not shown any signs or symptoms other than these spots on his fins, which to me look like flukes but wanted some input. He eats great and is pretty active. I’ve not seen any other fluke symptoms. No rapid breathing, flashing or scratching, and he eats like a cow.

He also has some marks on his body that look like scrapes? I’m not sure if that’s just some stress discoloration due to being in a small QT tank?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey all,

Looking for some help on some spots on my bristletooth’s fins. He came from my local LFS who runs copper and weekly formalin dips. He was only in their shop a few days before I took him home. I’ve got him in my QT currently. I did a 30 minute H2O2 dip initially, and have been running H2O2 in the QT at 1 mL / 8 gallons for 3 days now. Was planning on finishing week 1 and then bumping to 1 mL / 5 gallons.

He’s not shown any signs or symptoms other than these spots on his fins, which to me look like flukes but wanted some input. He eats great and is pretty active. I’ve not seen any other fluke symptoms. No rapid breathing, flashing or scratching, and he eats like a cow.

He also has some marks on his body that look like scrapes? I’m not sure if that’s just some stress discoloration due to being in a small QT tank?

I see scratching but also believe I see ich
Need brighter white lit pics, no blue to clearly see fish

 

[W31Olds]

I have a WT Bristletooth also and he gets scrapes just like that usually from aggression. Could be stress also. Why are using H2O2 in your QT? What size is your QT Tank and was he treated for Flukes?

 

[spartanman22]

I see scratching but also believe I see ich
Need brighter white lit pics, no blue to clearly see fish

The body marks look like scratches to me. They’re only on one side. At night he likes to wedge himself between the glass and a ceramic media block I have in there. The side with scratches is the side against the block. So maybe just that?

The picture isn’t the best. There’s been no evidence of ich. I had just don’t a water change on the QT, he was stressing out in the corner where all the dust from the ceramic block was. So he had some dust and debris on him.

He still looks, acts and eats great today minus the two fins that have opaque spots on them.

I actually don’t have any lights on this QT tank. It’s in my garage so just overhead can lights and an iPhone flash.

 

[spartanman22]

I have a WT Bristletooth also and he gets scrapes just like that usually from aggression. Could be stress also. Why are using H2O2 in your QT? What size is your QT Tank and was he treated for Flukes?

He was not treated for flukes specifically. I did a 30 minute H2O2 bath when I got him. I’ve been treating the QT tank with peroxide because I had good success doing it on my display for a brooklynella. The brooklynella came from the same lfs I got this guy from. So I was just doing it prophylactically. I had good results and no impact on others so it was a less invasive starting point for me.

Maybe I’m opening the door for risk but I don’t like to jump into copper or CP until I know I’ve actually got something.

QT tank is a 15 gallon AIO. He’s the only fish in it. To me it looks like flukes so was planning on doing a freshwater bath to see if anything comes off. If so I can start running prazipro.

 

[vetteguy53081]

He was not treated for flukes specifically. I did a 30 minute H2O2 bath when I got him. I’ve been treating the QT tank with peroxide because I had good success doing it on my display for a brooklynella. The brooklynella came from the same lfs I got this guy from. So I was just doing it prophylactically. I had good results and no impact on others so it was a less invasive starting point for me.

Maybe I’m opening the door for risk but I don’t like to jump into copper or CP until I know I’ve actually got something.

QT tank is a 15 gallon AIO. He’s the only fish in it. To me it looks like flukes so was planning on doing a freshwater bath to see if anything comes off. If so I can start running prazipro.

For most tangs, I recommend coppersafe as it is safe on them at 2.25ppm

 

[W31Olds]

The good news is if I had to rate Tangs, The WT Bristletooth seems a bit more disease resistant that other Tangs. Mine has never shown any signs of disease even during QT with a sick Purple. Make sure you feed Nori and I am not crazy about FW dips for Tangs. I lost 2 on different occasions doing a dip. You need to treat for Flukes anyway. I would ask your LFS what level of Copper he runs, how long, and if the fish are isolated and he keeps putting new arrivals in the same system. That defeats the QT Protocol.

 

[sgdnycct]

The first picture looks like ich. In the second I don’t see the ich but scratches are visible.

Do you have some hiding places for it? QT tanks are highly stressful since they are so far from a natural habitat. If there aren’t any hiding spots would be good to add.

I think I would start copper based on that first picture. However if you aren’t running copper during QT as standard procedure you may have ich in your DT. If so, I’d make sure make sure the tang’s immune system is strong before introduction: Feed well and reduce stress as much as possible.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey all,

Looking for some help on some spots on my bristletooth’s fins. He came from my local LFS who runs copper and weekly formalin dips. He was only in their shop a few days before I took him home. I’ve got him in my QT currently. I did a 30 minute H2O2 dip initially, and have been running H2O2 in the QT at 1 mL / 8 gallons for 3 days now. Was planning on finishing week 1 and then bumping to 1 mL / 5 gallons.

He’s not shown any signs or symptoms other than these spots on his fins, which to me look like flukes but wanted some input. He eats great and is pretty active. I’ve not seen any other fluke symptoms. No rapid breathing, flashing or scratching, and he eats like a cow.

He also has some marks on his body that look like scrapes? I’m not sure if that’s just some stress discoloration due to being in a small QT tank?

Since it was only at the LFS for a few days, any treatment that they may have done would not be a full treatment.

This looks like scrapes to me as well. What other fish are in with it? Could the scrapes be from it being netted up to sell to you?

The large white spot on the dorsal fin is too large to be ich and it isn't flukes. It could be a broken fin ray or it could be the start of Lymphocystis (a mild viral disease that won't need treatment).

I know that peroxide is a popular treatment on some web sites, but I've worked with it a bit and it has some drawbacks. People like to use it because it is easy to source. The problem with it is that it is an oxidant, and the dose is dependent on the level of organics in the tank - it will work to oxidize those first, and then less will be available to treat any disease. However, once the organics have been oxidized, much more of the peroxide is left active, and so upping the dose without checking for that can cause an overdose. I use peroxide low dose test strips that I got on Amazon.

If it were my fish, I'd give it a proper quarantine:

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/current-quarantine-protocol.825055/

Jay