New Angel fish is now sick

[timry2]

I have a lemon peal angel that I received 3 weeks ago. He is in the quarantine tank and he was eating. I noticed a sore on his side began to develop about 4 days ago. I started treating the quarantine tank with paraguard and so far no improvement. Looking at the pictures from above it looks like his abdomen is also swollen. I have a tiny Diamond goby in there that is totally fine. eating and healthy. How should I go about treating him. Thanks for your help

 

[mmorrison55]

#fishmedics

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a lemon peal angel that I received 3 weeks ago. He is in the quarantine tank and he was eating. I noticed a sore on his side began to develop about 4 days ago. I started treating the quarantine tank with paraguard and so far no improvement. Looking at the pictures from above it looks like his abdomen is also swollen. I have a tiny Diamond goby in there that is totally fine. eating and healthy. How should I go about treating him. Thanks for your help

I was hoping this would be injury from netting but appears to be Uronema which these fish can get. As you found out, Paraguard rarely if ever works and a waste of money.
Treatment best for this fish is 37% formaldehyde or ruby rally pro which is safer than Formaldehyde but takes longer to work. Uronema is an obligate parasite, and can thrive on bacteria, uneaten food, and waste so besides treatment also maintain a clean tank removing waste daily.
Other option if eating is soaking food in metronidazole . . . Seachem Metroplex for 10-14 days.

 

[timry2]

Thank you so much. I hope it’s not too late

 

[fish_collector]

Are you sure you recommended that right vetteguy? Prazipro to treat uronema??

I’d hit the fish with a healthy dose of Metro asap. and follow the protocol on the bottle exactly. Uronema, after it has made itself known with lesions, isn’t likely to be cured unfortunately. It isn’t unheard of but the odds are against you.

Formalin is also a very promising treatment if you have access to it, but not as popular or safe as Metronidazole.

 

[timry2]

I have metro, so ill start that now. How likely will this spread to other fish in the QT. Will a freshwater dip help?

 

[fish_collector]

Uronema is not common to spread to other fish. A Fresh water dip will not help. It is a protazoan, and if the fish has lesions the protazoans are in the tissue and shielded from medications that would normally kill them. That's why uronema is a hard one to treat. It also has no fallow period and will live without a host.

It's possible your fish has a bad bacterial infection and not uronema, sometimes a skin scrape and ID under a scope is necessary. A buddy of mine recently lost a copper band butterfly, and during his necropsy he identified uronema as the culprit.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have a lemon peal angel that I received 3 weeks ago. He is in the quarantine tank and he was eating. I noticed a sore on his side began to develop about 4 days ago. I started treating the quarantine tank with paraguard and so far no improvement. Looking at the pictures from above it looks like his abdomen is also swollen. I have a tiny Diamond goby in there that is totally fine. eating and healthy. How should I go about treating him. Thanks for your help

That does look like internal Uronema. If you can get me a clear photo from the side I could confirm better.

Once you see the external lesion, the internal parasite has already done its damage. It is not really treatable, but formalin or chloroquine sometimes works. Prazi isn’t useful for this.

Here is an article I wrote on this:
https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/uronema-red-band-disease-hemdal.788/

 

[timry2]

thank you, i found that article last night. Ive never experienced an outbreak of Uronema and the information was dead on, it is a fast acting condition once it is visible. The fish declined very rapidly and died overnight. I run a 90 day quarantine in a bare bottom tank and I only treat the water if something looks off. Is 3 weeks a normal timeframe to get to the point of no treatment.

 

[fish_collector]

Sorry about your fish. Uronema is a free living organism and is in most of our tanks already, but is happy to just be where it’s at. It isn’t like Ich or velvet that actively searches for a host once in that stage of its lifecycle. Uronema is probably the worst of the handful of things we would find on our fish, even velvet isn’t as hard to treat.

Keep up your QT protocol you are a good hobbyist.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

thank you, i found that article last night. Ive never experienced an outbreak of Uronema and the information was dead on, it is a fast acting condition once it is visible. The fish declined very rapidly and died overnight. I run a 90 day quarantine in a bare bottom tank and I only treat the water if something looks off. Is 3 weeks a normal timeframe to get to the point of no treatment.

I don’t like to use observation only quarantine, too many things slip through. Uronema though usually shows up within 40 to 45 days of acquisition.

 

[timry2]

Meant to say thanks for all of you’re help. Opened my eyes to a disease i never heard of.