Quarantined Fish Has Parasite

Dan I · Jan 22, 2021

Hey everyone, I have a dilemma. I have a hippo tang with what might be an infestation of ich that took over, however I do not remember ich being this bad before.

Quick backstory. I had fish previous to these new fish. I got velvet and I went fallow for 80+ days. I found a person that quarantine fish and started buying quarantine fish. Only thing I introduced are the fish I got from this vendor. Unfortunately, this is the outcome to one of the fish. I noticed the fish had white spots almost a week within, but thought it was debris as the fish would swim and eat normally. However, as the days move forward he has gotten an outbreak. Now I know I have a parasite once again in the tank. However, I would like feedback if it is ich indeed or should I worry for the worst which is velvet. I am debating on contacting the vendor at the moment.

Saltyreef · Jan 22, 2021

Do you quarantine everything you add now including fish?

Dan I · Jan 22, 2021

Saltyreef said:
Do you quarantine everything you add now including fish?

Just added the fish only that I got. Nothing else. Trying to upload pictures, but getting a lot of error messages.

Jay Hemdal · Jan 22, 2021

Without pictures, it is impossible to say. Ich can get pretty severe towards the end. Velvet causes smaller spots and very rapid breathing.

Jay

Dan I · Jan 30, 2021

Okay, so hippo passed away and my midas as well. I think I might have velvet again. My desjardini is not eating as much, breathing rapidly, and has a weird discoloration. He looks like it has velvet. These are the best pictures I can get of it.

What do you guys think? Am I correct?

Jay Hemdal · Jan 30, 2021

The pictures, combined with the symptom of rapid breathing points to velvet (Amyloodinium) although I can't 100% rule out a systemic bacterial infection. Many people mistake end-stage ich for velvet, but I don't see that here. Velvet is quite a bit rarer than ich. The timeline here is a bit off though - true velvet often kills all of the fish in a tank within 36 hours after symptoms present, and this has been going on longer than that. Still, losing 2/3 of the fish is obviously very serious.

Have you treated with anything yet? Time is of the essence here.

Jay

Dan I · Jan 30, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
The pictures, combined with the symptom of rapid breathing points to velvet (Amyloodinium) although I can't 100% rule out a systemic bacterial infection. Many people mistake end-stage ich for velvet, but I don't see that here. Velvet is quite a bit rarer than ich. The timeline here is a bit off though - true velvet often kills all of the fish in a tank within 36 hours after symptoms present, and this has been going on longer than that. Still, losing 2/3 of the fish is obviously very serious.

Have you treated with anything yet? Time is of the essence here.

Jay

Just got back from purchasing an emergency hospital tank and essentials. Going to pull out all fish and start therapeutic dosage of copper power.

Dan I · Jan 31, 2021

@Jay Hemdal Okay, so I got all my fish in a quarantine tank. Ordered a hanna checker copper test. I am using the api right now and it looks like I'm sitting at 1.0 ppm copper, dosed another 4 ml to reach 2.0 ppm. I also bought kana plex, metroplex, and focus for additional aid. I just mixed focus and metroflex in today's feeding and he took some in. Here is how the desjardini is looking, a bit worse. His skin looks like it is peeling off.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 1, 2021

Yes - that is almost definitely an external protozoan infection. Maintain full copper. It does take up to 3 days for copper to begin reversing a severe infection. Trouble is, this fish may not have three days.

Jay

Dan I · Feb 1, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Yes - that is almost definitely an external protozoan infection. Maintain full copper. It does take up to 3 days for copper to begin reversing a severe infection. Trouble is, this fish may not have three days.

Jay

Yeah, he is looking a bit worse today. He is breathing more rapid and his skin has peeled a bit more exposing redness. He is swimming normally and eating a bit still. Quick question, when dosing metro, would I be able to dose directly into QT tank or mixing in with focus and food the better route?

Jay Hemdal · Feb 1, 2021

Metro in the food almost always fails. It is very bitter. Most fish try it once, then never again. Additionally, the whole idea of mixing "some amount" of metro into focus and then feeding it to fish has too many uncontrolled dosage variables, here is a link to an article that describes the issue: