Purple Firefish Disease

[softiesplease]

Hello all,

I’ve had my purple fire fish for about 4 months now. I was at the store the other day looking at the fire fish and realized mine has gills that look different. Started researching and eventually found Serpentisaccus magnificae. I am 99% sure this is what my firefish is showing signs of. It’s been like this for at least a month. I wish I put the pieces together sooner.

Since I see it seems to be a species specific parasite, will it affect my clownfish, clown goby or rainford goby? It’s been like this for at least a little as I said, so should I panic to catch him and isolate? And is there any hopes of it surviving long term.

Thank you

 

[softiesplease]

@Jay Hemdal your post helped me ID please let me know if you have info on if this. Mainly can it harm my other inhabitants because I don’t know if I can catch this firefish to isolate it. Easily hardest fish to catch in my tank.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal your post helped me ID please let me know if you have info on if this. Mainly can it harm my other inhabitants because I don’t know if I can catch this firefish to isolate it. Easily hardest fish to catch in my tank.

Luckily, this disease ONLY infects firefish, and then, usually just purple firefish. It won't spread to your other fish. However, it cannot be treated and is often fatal to the original firefish. The coiled things you are seeing are its eggs. The parasite itself is deep inside the fish.

Jay

 

[softiesplease]

Luckily, this disease ONLY infects firefish, and then, usually just purple firefish. It won't spread to your other fish. However, it cannot be treated and is often fatal to the original firefish. The coiled things you are seeing are its eggs. The parasite itself is deep inside the fish.

Jay

Can you tell from this photo if it’s that or a different parasite on/in the enlarged / inflamed gill? I’m pretty sure it’s firefish parasite because time frame matches, but could it be something else in the gills that could eventually reproduce and spread to my other fish? That will decide if I try to catch and isolate or not. If this picture is not good enough I’ll get the better camera out in a bit for better pics.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Can you tell from this photo if it’s that or a different parasite on/in the enlarged / inflamed gill? I’m pretty sure it’s firefish parasite because time frame matches, but could it be something else in the gills that could eventually reproduce and spread to my other fish? That will decide if I try to catch and isolate or not. If this picture is not good enough I’ll get the better camera out in a bit for better pics.

That isn't how Serpentisaccus magnificae looks. For that parasite, you can't really see it until the female produces an egg case. Then, you can see the coiled eggs protruding from the skin behind the pectoral fins.

That gill swelling is something else. Is it swollen on both sides?

Jay

 

[softiesplease]

That isn't how Serpentisaccus magnificae looks. For that parasite, you can't really see it until the female produces an egg case. Then, you can see the coiled eggs protruding from the skin behind the pectoral fins.

That gill swelling is something else. Is it swollen on both sides?

Jay

It’s worse on that side and it’s been like that since months, I never had another firefish and didn’t realize something was wrong until very recently so it’s not a sudden onset type of thing…

 

[softiesplease]

Could it be an injury?

 

[softiesplease]

Also, it may just be on one side. It swims in the same direction 99% of the time making it impossible to get a long look at the fishes right side. I will try to take a bunch of shots in hopes it turns around for a good shot of the other gill in addition to the left gill. Like I said this is not sudden onset this has looked this way for months, only now do I realize how not normal this is.

 

[softiesplease]

Managed to catch and isolate the fish with only minor wreckage to the rockwork corals and sandbed, my clove polyps near the firefish bolt hole didn’t appreciate getting bonked by the net a bunch of times. I got a decent video of the afflicted gill. I’m having problems uploading my video though. Need to convert to mp4 from mov I think.

It appears as if the other gill is either clean or extremely less affected than the one in the video. This looks so bad, how did it manage to eat and look normal otherwise for months? Will upload video in next post as soon as I figure out how to

 

[DrkNMighty]

Might have to upload video to YouTube then post link here.

 

[softiesplease]

Ok I was looking for a third party online sharing service but YouTube is a better idea thanks one moment

 

[softiesplease]

Does this work

 

[softiesplease]

Just did a FW dip and about 3 minutes in so many of what I assume to be flukes came flying out of the afflicted gill. One of the nastiest things I’ve seen I was not expecting this many to come out. This is flukes correct? I thought they would be smaller.

This was very nasty first hand, video warning:

 

[softiesplease]

Better video of what came out right after the previous video. Has to be 100+ of them

IMG_3399.mov

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

 

[vetteguy53081]

Better video of what came out right after the previous video. Has to be 100+ of them

IMG_3399.mov

Shared with Dropbox

www.dropbox.com

Good for you - wow. Feed them Live rotifiers and keep water clean

 

[softiesplease]

Good for you - wow. Feed them Live rotifiers and keep water clean

In case you missed those came out of the firefish gill about 3 minutes into the freshwater dip as seen in the vertical video I just posted. This reply sounds like what I would do if my clownfish laid eggs and they hatched? Haha

 

[vetteguy53081]

In case you missed those came out of the firefish gill about 3 minutes into the freshwater dip as seen in the vertical video I just posted. This reply sounds like what I would do if my clownfish laid eggs and they hatched? Haha

Yes, caught that part

 

[softiesplease]

So what are the things that came out of my fish

 

[softiesplease]

@Jay Hemdal any guidance here? Are those parasitic isopods or what

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal any guidance here? Are those parasitic isopods or what

Sorry - I’ve been offline since this morning.

Those are most likely isopods, but could be copepods…I’d need to see one under a microscope to tell.

They clearly have eyes, so I’d say isopods.
I have NEVER seen that many on one fish before, never more than half a dozen on one fish.

Some of these isopods are not true parasites, more like micropredators.

I’m not sure the fish can survive the massive damage these must have caused, but FW or formalin dips would knock them back.

Jay