Possible Uronema

Jblaine · Jan 30, 2021

Not sure where to post this but will try here. I recently purchased a maxima clam from my LFS and it looks fine. I have placed it in a qt tank. I also purchase some chromis that seem to now have Uronema. My questions is since the clam was in, what I believe to the same water system, what are the odds that the clam would be carrying this parasite? I’m nervous that it will not show any signs and could crash the DT if I place it in the tank even after several days in QT.Any thoughts?
Thanks
Jon

rkpetersen · Jan 30, 2021

If there's uronema in the water, there's a chance that transferring anything wet from that tank into the other could also transfer uronema. The clam itself isn't susceptible to the parasite.

If you still want to try to transfer the clam over, you could set up a series of containers with water from the DT, maybe with some added metronidazole, and then move the clam from one container to the next, swishing it around and letting it open up partially, before moving to the next one. Serial rinses, basically. Still no guarantee that some uronema organisms won't make it through, but probably less risky than a direct transfer.

Jay Hemdal · Jan 30, 2021

I have an article here, look for the one about "red band disease".

Uronema / Red Band Disease - Hemdal

Red Band Syndrome in Marine Fishes: Caused by the Protozoan; Uronema sp. Jay Hemdal Introduction: This moderately common disease of certain species of marine fish is so often misdiagnosed that most aquarists apply incorrect treatment methods...

www.reef2reef.com

Earlier today, I posted this info in response to another question:

Uronema is only a facultative parasite, and then, only on certain newly acquired species. I never see it show up in long term captives, nor in fish not prone to it in the first place. Uronema's "day job" is eating bacteria. For whatever reason, it becomes a systemic fish pathogen in just those few specific instances. It is a unique case where the presence of the parasite (propagule pressure) isn't the root cause of the disease, it is some other factor. It is present in almost every aquarium. I've sampled for it by hanging a whole dead smelt in the tank for 24 hours. It is clearly evident that green chromis and yellow coris pick this up as they wind their way through the supply chain. Some combination of their species susceptibility, presence of the protist and stress from transport causes Uronema to infect them. Since it presents in these fish as an inter-cellular parasite, I have to wonder if there is also some oral ingestion component to these infections?

I need to add, because it isn't clear when I'm writing online like this, when I say "Uronema" (or when anyone says that really) we are actually saying, "cf. Uronema". The cf stands for the Latin "confrere" which means "like" or "brother". So - when you read "Uronema" understand that what is really meant is "Uronema-like". None of us (to my knowledge) are protozoan taxonomists. There may be multiple species of protist involved. I had one person contact me in a PM to say that he knew that Brooklynella and Uronema names actually need to be switched - what we are calling Uronema is actually Brooklynella and vice-versa. Since that means 100% of aquarists are wrong (except him?) there is no real reason to try to change that (grin).

Jay