New tilefish, new flukes?

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Took a better picture

Yes those are Neobenedenia. I like to use hyposalinity for those, a specific gravity of 1.012 for 30 days works. However, I can’t remember ever using hypo on tilefish.

 

[christinna77]

So.. should I do prazi bath or just let them rest and dose prazi in tank? That's the question...

 

[christinna77]

Took a better picture

Yes those are Neobenedenia. I like to use hyposalinity for those, a specific gravity of 1.012 for 30 days works. However, I can’t remember ever using hypo on tilefish.

Sorry, just read your message. I'm going to try the hypo route. I'm still worried about the wound on the head though.

 

[christinna77]

I suppose I could do a Kanaplex bath while they're in the bucket? And then transfer them back into clean QT and start lowering salinity over the next 1-2 days. I counted at least 20 adult flukes.

 

[larrysaltisfun]

Following along. fingers crossed for you. I know the devotion you have to your Tile children. Maybe Jay will say mucous head wound is 2/2 flukes and can be observed in hypo. Kanaplex has proven to be a wonder drug for secondary gram negative bacteria (eye and scale infections I’ve had) I don’t know the efficacy of a short term bath or the toxicity in hypo.

In human wound infections we sometimes irrigate with gentamycin infused saline.

good luck

 

[christinna77]

Following along. fingers crossed for you. I know the devotion you have to your Tile children. Maybe Jay will say mucous head wound is 2/2 flukes and can be observed in hypo. Kanaplex has proven to be a wonder drug for secondary gram negative bacteria (eye and scale infections I’ve had) I don’t know the efficacy of a short term bath or the toxicity in hypo.

In human wound infections we sometimes irrigate with gentamycin infused saline.

good luck

Thank you for your support as always! I just finished sterilizing the quarantine tank and got them back in. The bigger one looked pretty weak, so I'm definitely crossing my fingers and hoping it makes it through the night. I'm worried that this was just way too many flukes. I wish I did the FW dip earlier, I really didn't wanna stress them and I was confident prazi would help with them. Anyway, I've been feeding them really well, so I'm hoping that might help make the difference too.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you for your support as always! I just finished sterilizing the quarantine tank and got them back in. The bigger one looked pretty weak, so I'm definitely crossing my fingers and hoping it makes it through the night. I'm worried that this was just way too many flukes. I wish I did the FW dip earlier, I really didn't wanna stress them and I was confident prazi would help with them. Anyway, I've been feeding them really well, so I'm hoping that might help make the difference too.

How are they this morning?

I was offline last night, we had our grandson over……

 

[christinna77]

How are they this morning?

I was offline last night, we had our grandson over……

Family comes first! You're not here to be on the call haha. I appreciate any reply whenever you have some time. It's really made a huge difference.

They're both alive as of now. The smaller one is out, moving around and eating aggressively. The larger one is still refusing food and I can see his eye is still cloudy. He's been hiding, so it's impossible to get any new videos, but I'll try to grab one later. I'm at 28-29 ppt salinity now and I'll keep working on lowering it.

 

[christinna77]

Well then, I was able to take this quick video before he noticed and retreated:

Edit: I just want to say that it's insane how fast this suddenly started progressing. His eye was completely clear just 2 days ago, and he was active and eating. Then I suddenly I woke up yesterday, and it seemed like it was getting worse by the minute.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Well then, I was able to take this quick video before he noticed and retreated:

Edit: I just want to say that it's insane how fast this suddenly started progressing. His eye was completely clear just 2 days ago, and he was active and eating. Then I suddenly I woke up yesterday, and it seemed like it was getting worse by the minute.

That’s a clear video, but it doesn’t really offer me any further clues as to what’s going on. Both fish are breathing faster than I think they should be, but the smaller one is alert, even curious.

The single cloudy eye could be related to a strike injury.

You should be able to get to the target specific gravity of 1.012 in 36 hours, assuming you can do it in even steps.

 

[christinna77]

Thank you.

That’s a clear video, but it doesn’t really offer me any further clues as to what’s going on. Both fish are breathing faster than I think they should be, but the smaller one is alert, even curious.

The single cloudy eye could be related to a strike injury.

You should be able to get to the target specific gravity of 1.012 in 36 hours, assuming you can do it in even steps.

Thank you. Should I try to administer antibiotics to help it heal while in hypo? I could do a bath too. Here's everything I've got on hand right now (the unlabeled one is prazi powder):

Anyway, I have more updates. He ate! Just a few pieces and I know we're far from out of the woods, but I still think that's a really good sign.

Here's a rather bad video from my tank camera, but you can clearly see him vacuuming them up:

 

[christinna77]

One more question. I did some math and unfortunately I have to travel for work from July 19 to 25.

I pay an experienced SW service person to come over and take care of my fish. However, I'd prefer to get them up to full salinity and into my observation tank before I travel, since it's more stable than the QT and won't need a WC while I'm away. That means I might need to cut the hypo a bit short, to 25 days or so.

I suppose I can do additional FW dips, e.g. once a week, if that's something you'd recommend.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

One more question. I did some math and unfortunately I have to travel for work from July 19 to 25.

I pay an experienced SW service person to come over and take care of my fish. However, I'd prefer to get them up to full salinity and into my observation tank before I travel, since it's more stable than the QT and won't need a WC while I'm away. That means I might need to cut the hypo a bit short, to 25 days or so.

I suppose I can do additional FW dips, e.g. once a week, if that's something you'd recommend.

A fish disease expert I know says that 21 to 23 days of hypo is sufficient to cure Neobenedenia. Because many people have difficulty running hypo, I always add in a buffer and call it 30…..

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Thank you.

Thank you. Should I try to administer antibiotics to help it heal while in hypo? I could do a bath too. Here's everything I've got on hand right now (the unlabeled one is prazi powder):

Anyway, I have more updates. He ate! Just a few pieces and I know we're far from out of the woods, but I still think that's a really good sign.

Here's a rather bad video from my tank camera, but you can clearly see him vacuuming them up:

Treating antibiotics empirically is not something that I personally do. If you wanted to, I would choose the Neoplex.

 

[christinna77]

A fish disease expert I know says that 21 to 23 days of hypo is sufficient to cure Neobenedenia. Because many people have difficulty running hypo, I always add in a buffer and call it 30…..

Got it, thank you!

I just got up and the wound on his head is very red now. He was actively swimming and fed again this morning, but that wound really worries me. He hides as soon as I get my phone camera out, so I was only able to get this short footage, but hopefully it's clear enough:



Here's also more footage from their tank camera:

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Got it, thank you!

I just got up and the wound on his head is very red now. He was actively swimming and fed again this morning, but that wound really worries me. He hides as soon as I get my phone camera out, so I was only able to get this short footage, but hopefully it's clear enough:



Here's also more footage from their tank camera:

Wow - that’s pretty advanced. The trouble with head wounds in fish is that the flesh is really thin there, so if it develops any depth at all, it hits bone.

 

[christinna77]

Got it, thank you!

I just got up and the wound on his head is very red now. He was actively swimming and fed again this morning, but that wound really worries me. He hides as soon as I get my phone camera out, so I was only able to get this short footage, but hopefully it's clear enough:



Here's also more footage from their tank camera:

Wow - that’s pretty advanced. The trouble with head wounds in fish is that the flesh is really thin there, so if it develops any depth at all, it hits bone.

:( He's doing well and swimming around today, so whatever you think I can try to help him, please let me know.

 

[christinna77]

I've been reviewing my cam's footage, and while I don't think the smaller tilefish is necessarily being aggressive, it could just be pairing behavior since they still swim and sleep together. It's mostly very gentle nips. Still, I think I'll put up a divider since he's probably not helping the situation. I caught him nipping here:

 

[christinna77]

I'm proceeding with nitrofuracin green (in tank treatment), it seems to be the best choice I've got on hand right now.

Edit: I want to be transparent that I've also posted on Humblefish for this specific case. I did that because I wanted to see if anyone with tilefish experience had any extra feedback on treatment, hypo, or anything else that could help save them.

 

[christinna77]

Update: We got down to 1.014, but I'm seeing some distress and fast breathing, so I stopped lowering it.

Ammonia started creeping up pretty fast. It measured 1 ppm with Hanna in the morning, then suddenly jumped to 1.4 ppm by the evening. I did a 50% water change, which should've helped. pH is sitting at 7.9.

I added two more airstones, so there are 4 total now, and I'm not sure what else I can do to help them. I don't think I dropped it too fast either. I was only replacing half a gallon at a time, with a few hours in between over the past 2 days, so it seemed like a pretty slow drop to me.

Anyway, hopefully I won't lose them by morning.