OK disease experts what on earth am I dealing with here?

[Reeffraff]

Picked this majestic angel up at a LFS a few days ago. Was eating and looked great. Started noticing some discoloration about 48 hours after introducing to a fully cycled 40 gal QT tank. Started becoming very reclusive and was barely eating 24 hrs later. Today stayed hidden and didn't eat. Discoloration much worse and observed some scratching on rocks. The pic was taken during a 5 min FW bath. What I am dealing with here? Almost looks like scales are missing but no issues with aggression (only other fish in QT are a pair of sm Bangaii cardinals).
@Humblefish

 

[vetteguy53081]

How did you acclimate fish and for how long by what method?
What are your parameters?
Ammonia
Nitrate
Ph
Temp
Salinity
@Jay Hemdal

 

[Reeffraff]

How did you acclimate fish and for how long by what method?
What are your parameters?
Ammonia
Nitrate
Ph
Temp
Salinity
@Jay Hemdal

Hi Vetteguy,
Drip acclimated for 1 hr. Salinity in the bag was same as QT tank (32 ppt - 1.024 SG). Temp 79F. Ammonia and Nitrate both 0. pH = 8.1. Tank is a 40 breeder with HOB skimmer and HOB power filter. Bangaii cardinals show no symptoms and eat like pigs. The angel has been mostly hiding after the FW bath but when I have seen the fish the flashing/scratching was not obvious.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi Vetteguy,
Drip acclimated for 1 hr. Salinity in the bag was same as QT tank (32 ppt - 1.024 SG). Temp 79F. Ammonia and Nitrate both 0. pH = 8.1. Tank is a 40 breeder with HOB skimmer and HOB power filter. Bangaii cardinals show no symptoms and eat like pigs. The angel has been mostly hiding after the FW bath but when I have seen the fish the flashing/scratching was not obvious.

Nitrate/ammonia zero- are you using API test kits ?

 

[Reeffraff]

Nitrate/ammonia zero- are you using API test kits ?

Yes. I use the cheap test kits for fish QT since fraction of a ppt test sensitivity is not what I'm interested in. Just need to know if NO3 and NH4 are within acceptable ranges. I think it's safe to rule out any sort of ammonia burn. Any ideas on a diagnosis? This one has me stumped. No white spots, so not ich. Does not have the mucous-like appearance of velvet or brook. FW bath revealed no flukes. No open sores typical of bacterial or uronema.
Symptoms:
discoloration patches (sm and lg) all over body
lethargy/lack of appetite
Scratching/flashing against surfaces

 

[Reeffraff]

Bump.
Anyone have any idea what disease I'm dealing with here? Should I go for a formalin bath and then into therapeutic levels of copper in the QT?
#reefsquad ?

 

[nereefpat]

Humble is gone.

Jay Hemdal will see this, I'm sure.

I see some tiny white specs that could be ich or velvet. Are you using any meds currently?

 

[Idoc]

It's possibly a bacterial infection since this is starting quickly and worsening quickly...possibly fungal. I don't think the scales are missing...I can make out some "shapes" of scales in the areas missing coloration. Copper is for parasites and this doesn't appear to be a parasite issue....I'm assuming since you didn't mention noticing any white grainy spots prior to this coloration change. I don't think I would put the fish into copper, though...the fish is already stressed and copper is going to possibly stress the fish further.

I believe you need to act quickly, though...this is progressing quite rapidly. I think a quick treatment is in order until possibly @Jay Hemdal is able to chime in any changes. Maybe start the famous Trifecta of medications to hit all gram positive and gram negative bacterial pathogens as well as fungal: Metroplex, Furan-2, Kanaplex. Just follow the directions on the medication packets...

Good luck!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Sorry, I just saw this now. Only one species of fluke (Neobenedenia) is really large enough to be seen in FW dips. There are Gyrodactylus flukes that are too small to see after a dip unless you use a microscope. That said, while all the symptoms seem to point to that, I agree that there is likely a secondary bacterial infection in the mix.
The "trifecta" is one idea, I prefer using just Neoplex to start with - external marine pathogen bacteria are almost 100% gram negative aerobes. Gram positive are more likely to be internal, and external fungal infections are super rare.

How is the fish's respiration rate? You can count the breaths in 15 seconds and multiple by 4. Do that a few times and then average the counts. I would like to see a rate around 80 per minute for this fish.

Was there any improvement about 24 hours after the FW dip?

Jay