Please help ID this parasite

[Rae567]

I'm looking for help identifying the parasite on my Canthigaster punctatisima and some treatment advice.


He arrived with it and has been in quarantine for 2 months now, and I still don't know how to help him.

I'm assuming it is a crustacean because it appears hard, but I have not been able to ID it. It has not changed or moved since arrival (7/31). There is only one that I have seen, there haven't been any new parasites observed in the tank, on the puffer or the Centropyge flavicauda (very dark blue dwarf angelfish) that arrived in the same shipment. The angel was removed about a week ago from the QT. I moved it to my 40g FOWLR after a freshwater dip.


The puffer was quite emaciated when it arrived and wouldn't eat for about the first week. I have not had luck with treating puffers in the past, so initially I was just doing full water changes every 2-3 days to try limit any more parasites in the tank and focused on getting the puffer over the stress of collection/shipping and eating well. I have been researching, trying to figure out what the parasite is and what treatments the puffer might tolerate.


After about a month, I tried adding a cleaner wrasse to the QT, he tried a few times to remove the parasite, which seemed quite firmly attached, before giving up.

4 days ago I tried a 0.5 ml/gallon formalin dip (suggested by the place I purchased the puffer from). It was well aerated and temp controlled (5 gallons of treatment water in a 10 gallon aquarium). He is so conditioned to handling from all the QT tank cleaning that he will just cooperate and calmly swim into a transfer cup at this point, so he was not stressed going into the treatment tank and just swam around picking at the heater etc, until he reached his toxicity threshold around 12-13 mins and I had to pull him. He lost equilibrium, eyes dialated, and changed to stress colors. He responded well in the recovery bath and has been steadily improving since. The formalin dip had no visible impact on the parasite.


If you can provide an id and/or treatment suggestion for the puffer I would greatly appreciate it. He seems to be thriving despite the parasite. I just see him flash occasionally. I'm wondering if this is a parasite that can complete it's lifecycle and reproduce in a closed system, or if the puffer is better off just living with the parasite instead of attempting more stressful treatments.



Thank you

 

[mcarroll]

Can you snip or pluck it yourself while he's semi-restrained in the catch cup?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I'm looking for help identifying the parasite on my Canthigaster punctatisima and some treatment advice.


He arrived with it and has been in quarantine for 2 months now, and I still don't know how to help him.

I'm assuming it is a crustacean because it appears hard, but I have not been able to ID it. It has not changed or moved since arrival (7/31). There is only one that I have seen, there haven't been any new parasites observed in the tank, on the puffer or the Centropyge flavicauda (very dark blue dwarf angelfish) that arrived in the same shipment. The angel was removed about a week ago from the QT. I moved it to my 40g FOWLR after a freshwater dip.


The puffer was quite emaciated when it arrived and wouldn't eat for about the first week. I have not had luck with treating puffers in the past, so initially I was just doing full water changes every 2-3 days to try limit any more parasites in the tank and focused on getting the puffer over the stress of collection/shipping and eating well. I have been researching, trying to figure out what the parasite is and what treatments the puffer might tolerate.


After about a month, I tried adding a cleaner wrasse to the QT, he tried a few times to remove the parasite, which seemed quite firmly attached, before giving up.

4 days ago I tried a 0.5 ml/gallon formalin dip (suggested by the place I purchased the puffer from). It was well aerated and temp controlled (5 gallons of treatment water in a 10 gallon aquarium). He is so conditioned to handling from all the QT tank cleaning that he will just cooperate and calmly swim into a transfer cup at this point, so he was not stressed going into the treatment tank and just swam around picking at the heater etc, until he reached his toxicity threshold around 12-13 mins and I had to pull him. He lost equilibrium, eyes dialated, and changed to stress colors. He responded well in the recovery bath and has been steadily improving since. The formalin dip had no visible impact on the parasite.


If you can provide an id and/or treatment suggestion for the puffer I would greatly appreciate it. He seems to be thriving despite the parasite. I just see him flash occasionally. I'm wondering if this is a parasite that can complete it's lifecycle and reproduce in a closed system, or if the puffer is better off just living with the parasite instead of attempting more stressful treatments.



Thank you

Puffers are prone to parasites not seen in other fish. I can’t see clearly enough to say for certain what this is, but the most likely thing you are seeing is an egg case from an imbedded copepod. These copepods can’t easily complete their life cycles in aquariums. In the absence of symptoms, wouldn’t try other treatments - physical removal or trichlophon are used, but both are risky.

 

[Rae567]

Can you snip or pluck it yourself while he's semi-restrained in the catch cup?

I could try ms-222 to sedate him, but worried that will go about as well as the formalin. It's quite firmly attached, the cleaner wrasse really had a go at it and the puffer wasn't tollerating it, so I'd be worried about causing too much stress and damage if he's not sedated.
I was definitely tempted while putting him back in the qt tank, I imagine post formalin bath would be an easier removal if it is adult parasite, but I didn't want to cause any additional stress or make him uncooperative in case I needed to do a rescue bath later. Having him just voluntarily swim in the cups for transfer is awesome.

 

[Rae567]

I'm looking for help identifying the parasite on my Canthigaster punctatisima and some treatment advice.


He arrived with it and has been in quarantine for 2 months now, and I still don't know how to help him.

I'm assuming it is a crustacean because it appears hard, but I have not been able to ID it. It has not changed or moved since arrival (7/31). There is only one that I have seen, there haven't been any new parasites observed in the tank, on the puffer or the Centropyge flavicauda (very dark blue dwarf angelfish) that arrived in the same shipment. The angel was removed about a week ago from the QT. I moved it to my 40g FOWLR after a freshwater dip.


The puffer was quite emaciated when it arrived and wouldn't eat for about the first week. I have not had luck with treating puffers in the past, so initially I was just doing full water changes every 2-3 days to try limit any more parasites in the tank and focused on getting the puffer over the stress of collection/shipping and eating well. I have been researching, trying to figure out what the parasite is and what treatments the puffer might tolerate.


After about a month, I tried adding a cleaner wrasse to the QT, he tried a few times to remove the parasite, which seemed quite firmly attached, before giving up.

4 days ago I tried a 0.5 ml/gallon formalin dip (suggested by the place I purchased the puffer from). It was well aerated and temp controlled (5 gallons of treatment water in a 10 gallon aquarium). He is so conditioned to handling from all the QT tank cleaning that he will just cooperate and calmly swim into a transfer cup at this point, so he was not stressed going into the treatment tank and just swam around picking at the heater etc, until he reached his toxicity threshold around 12-13 mins and I had to pull him. He lost equilibrium, eyes dialated, and changed to stress colors. He responded well in the recovery bath and has been steadily improving since. The formalin dip had no visible impact on the parasite.


If you can provide an id and/or treatment suggestion for the puffer I would greatly appreciate it. He seems to be thriving despite the parasite. I just see him flash occasionally. I'm wondering if this is a parasite that can complete it's lifecycle and reproduce in a closed system, or if the puffer is better off just living with the parasite instead of attempting more stressful treatments.



Thank you

Puffers are prone to parasites not seen in other fish. I can’t see clearly enough to say for certain what this is, but the most likely thing you are seeing is an egg case from an imbedded copepod. These copepods can’t easily complete their life cycles in aquariums. In the absence of symptoms, wouldn’t try other treatments - physical removal or trichlophon are used, but both are risky.

Thanks, I'm leaning towards just leaving it. I appologize for the picture quality, I have tried many times and methods to get a better shot.
There are a couple grey appendages and then a trailing translucent hard shaft, if that translucent part is an egg case, should I try to cut it off?
The grey part is firmly embedded, the cleaner wrasse had a good go at it, and the puffer didn't tolerate it.
I've seen pics of embedded copepods, and there doesn't appear to be anything large that is subdermal, just a small spot at the attachment site no wider that what is externally visible. You can see through that flank/caudal region with a strong backlight; I'm assuming I would see a shadow/outline if there were something like the sea lice I have seen photos of embedded under the skin?

Is two months long enough to be confident that this thing can't reproduce in the aquarium?

 

[mcarroll]

Since you can see it more clearly, have you seen anything else remotely like it online?

I think it actually looks like lint.

It would be cool if you had any movies of the cleaner going at it....

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks, I'm leaning towards just leaving it. I appologize for the picture quality, I have tried many times and methods to get a better shot.
There are a couple grey appendages and then a trailing translucent hard shaft, if that translucent part is an egg case, should I try to cut it off?
The grey part is firmly embedded, the cleaner wrasse had a good go at it, and the puffer didn't tolerate it.
I've seen pics of embedded copepods, and there doesn't appear to be anything large that is subdermal, just a small spot at the attachment site no wider that what is externally visible. You can see through that flank/caudal region with a strong backlight; I'm assuming I would see a shadow/outline if there were something like the sea lice I have seen photos of embedded under the skin?

Is two months long enough to be confident that this thing can't reproduce in the aquarium?

If it is an egg case, and it’s still there, the eggs haven’t hatched. Still, the larval copepod stage of this is pelagic so won’t survive well in aquariums.

Parasitic copepods are deep seated, removal can do more harm than good.

I can’t think of anything else this could be. I don’t think it is a foreign body inclusion - those happen, but usually fall out eventually.