Massively swollen Purple Tang

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

I have a previously healthy Purple Tang that over the past 2 days suddenly swelled up on one side of his front top. On the one side where the swelling doesn't exist, it looks like he is starving because you can see his ribs. There are no signs of injury, like slash marks/cuts. The non-injured side looks perfectly normal. The fish has become reclusive but today is getting much worse and is sitting on the sand and only swims when spooked. It is gilling very fast.

The fish used to think he was the king.

My suspicion is that the fish got into a fight with a crosshatch trigger and got smashed/hit, and this is a "bruise", but I've never seen this before so it is at best a guess.

I've had all fish for multiple years and all had originally gone though treatments/etc to remove all common parasites, so no ich, velvet etc AFAIK. All other fish in the tank are extremely healthy. The only thing I know is in this tank is lympho virus.

Recent changes in the past 6 months were the addition of some corals that were in a fish-free QT for 30 days, added ~ 1 month ago.

Stock list is:
common non-stinging corals
common non-carnivorous starfish
very large tiger cowrie
2x tube anemone
m+f crosshatch trigger
white-tailed bristle-tooth tang
maculiceps tang
queensland dottyback

Water: 76F, 1.026

Today I just added Epsom Salt to help with the swelling. The other fish are leaving him alone so far.

Any thoughts?
Should I remove and treat with antibiotics in a QT? Let him be, and hope for the best? Are there any latent parasites that could do this to a fish?

White spots are sand from laying down.

Thanks,
-Matt

Reefltx · Mar 30, 2017

Looks like he has some spots on him as well?

QT and antibiotics would be a good choice.
Possibly copper afterwards.

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

Reefltx said:
Looks like he has some spots on him as well?

QT and antibiotics would be a good choice.
Possibly copper afterwards.

Thanks, the spots are sand from laying down. When he swims around you can watch them 'wash' off.

-Matt

Rick.45cal · Mar 30, 2017

#reefsquad

jeff williams · Mar 30, 2017

Look at this link the fish looks to me like it might have a bacterial infection https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/

redfishbluefish · Mar 30, 2017

Heavy hitters needed.... @Humblefish , @melypr1985 , @4FordFamily .

Humblefish · Mar 30, 2017

In the first photo, there appears to be whitish discoloration where the swelling is. Is this an accurate observation on my part?

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

Humblefish said:
In the first photo, there appears to be whitish discoloration where the swelling is. Is this an accurate observation on my part?

The white just came on within the past couple hours - it looks to me like a stress discoloration, just in this case it is localized. It was not there earlier today.

Humblefish · Mar 30, 2017

mattcoug said:
The white just came on within the past couple hours - it looks to me like a stress discoloration, just in this case it is localized. It was not there earlier today.

Any nems he could have brushed up against? If not, I'm thinking your bruise theory seems most plausible. The main questions are: Did he damage anything internally and/or is an internal infection developing? You can't really do anything about the former, but for the latter you could start soaking his food with Kanaplex (an antibiotic). Using Seachem Focus will bind the medication to the food and make this treatment reef safe.

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

Ah, this is suddenly moving faster than I expected, the fish health is falling off a cliff. It just stopped reacting and ignored another fish biting it's tail to see if it was food, and gilling almost stopped. So I pulled it out into a 5-gal bucket filled with tank water(+airstone, heater, plastic plants).

The fish didn't respond to me picking it up but did jump around when I was putting into the bucket. Hopefully that wasn't his last gasp of energy. I am dosing kanamycin, metronidazole and Furan 2. The water already has the Epson Salt from earlier.

I kinda wish I did this a couple hours back when it was swimming around :(

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

Humblefish said:
Any nems he could have brushed up against? If not, I'm thinking your bruise theory seems most plausible. The main questions are: Did he damage anything internally and/or is an internal infection developing? You can't really do anything about the former, but for the latter you could start soaking his food with Kanaplex (an antibiotic). Using Seachem Focus will bind the medication to the food and make this treatment reef safe.

The tube anemone is in the tank, hopefully they can't do this to such a large fish.

mattcoug · Mar 30, 2017

I am starting to suspect the tube anemone after reading up more on them - although I have had tube anemones for 5 years in various tanks without ever loosing a fish to them.

The tang stopped gilling, so unless anyone can share fish CPR techniques, I think it is goner. :( 3 hours ago it was swimming around eating, just with a swollen head!

recess62 · Mar 30, 2017

That stinks. Beautiful fish. Sorry

4FordFamily · Mar 30, 2017

Wow that's really fast acting. I'm wondering if internal bleeding of some sort was at play. This is perplexing, I'm very sorry for your loss :(

Humblefish · Mar 30, 2017

mattcoug said:
I am starting to suspect the tube anemone after reading up more on them - although I have had tube anemones for 5 years in various tanks without ever loosing a fish to them.

The tang stopped gilling, so unless anyone can share fish CPR techniques, I think it is goner. :( 3 hours ago it was swimming around eating, just with a swollen head!

IF this was done by the tube anemone (I'm not that familiar with them); then there could have been a delayed reaction as the toxins worked their way into the bloodstream.

melypr1985 · Mar 30, 2017

One study examined the toxins present within the stinging cells of Aiptasia and compared those to the tube anemone Pachycerianthus torreyi; the authors found that the toxin of Aiptasia was much more potent and complex than that of the tube anemone (Phelan & Blanquet 1985). Another study examined the toxic effects of 11 species of anemone-like animals - true anemones, mushroom polyps and tube anemones - to compare the toxicity and effectiveness of the stinging cells of these animals (Cline & Wolowyk 1997). The researchers found that the toxins of all species tested except for those from the tube anemone Pachycerianthus fimbratus had potent effect on a variety of test vertebrates. Cline & Wolowyk (1997) were able to show that the nematocyst toxin of these animals varied in strength relative to the approximate size and activity level of their preferred prey. Thus, the specialist fish predator anemones Urticina lofotensis and U. piscivora had the strongest toxin of any species tested, and the toxicity declined through the list of true anemones and corallimorpharian (mushroom) corals, with the tube anemone being the least toxic of the entire group. In fact, the toxins of the specialist fish predators did not seem to be specific to just fish - tests using guinea pig, rat and dog cell cultures all resulted in massive cell death from the addition of tiny amounts of their toxin. In stark contrast to those results, the sting of the tube anemone P. fimbratus were not found to be lethal to any species in any test these researchers conducted (Cline & Wolowyk 1997). In fact, fish in this experiment showed no significant effect from the sting of the tube anemone! Hmm, that doesn't sound like a species that warrants a strong warning to me...

The above was taken from this article http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2004/6/inverts and makes me think that the sting from a tube nem wouldn't be strong enough to cause that. Maybe, if it slept right next to it the whole night.

Flippers4pups · Mar 30, 2017

This is a tuff one for sure. Doesn't look like anything I've seen before. I suspect damage from fight or hitting a object/ jumping. Or?

Internal bleeding possible cause of death?