Sick stippled carribean black clingfish

[AMG63Addison]

Hello everyone, I have a black clingfish which i have had for about 4 months. About 3 days ago I noticed what looks to me a small abcess looking bump on the right side of his face, close to his mouth and is kind of clearish/white about the diameter of a number 2 pencil eraser. He has slowly been losing his appetite and is usually a pig. He seems to be breathing a little faster than normal and opens his mouth a little like he may be struggling to breathe. He has stopped coming up on glass to greet me and my girl friend. Salinity is at 1.025 ph at 8.1. Tank is about 7 months old. Will try to get a picture. All other fish are doing great and i have never seen any agression from other fish towards him. Let me know what other info is needed

 

[Sharkbait19]

Pics and all params would help.
Any aggression towards it?
Sounds like it may be bacterial or the results of an injury.

 

[AMG63Addison]

Thanks for the response Sharkbait. Getting water params shortly. Hard to get pics now as he has a little home made behind an internal pump thats in tank (bottom back corner. Have never seen any aggresion towards him from other fish, hes a loner and keeps to himself

 

[vetteguy53081]

Not sure how any advice given without pics or video to best do an assessment accurately as it can be an injury or bacterial
Please provide pics under white lighting and your ammonia and nitrate readings

 

[AMG63Addison]

Our nitrates are high for some reason, about 20? last water change was about 2 weeks ago. Total tank volume is 90 gallons, we do 15 gallons every 3 weeks. Nitrites are .05 ammonia is 0

 

[Sharkbait19]

Nitrates aren’t too bad, but increasing water changes will help bring them down.
Positive nitrites would indicate that the tank isn’t cycled properly. Or it could be a misread.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hello everyone, I have a black clingfish which i have had for about 4 months. About 3 days ago I noticed what looks to me a small abcess looking bump on the right side of his face, close to his mouth and is kind of clearish/white about the diameter of a number 2 pencil eraser. He has slowly been losing his appetite and is usually a pig. He seems to be breathing a little faster than normal and opens his mouth a little like he may be struggling to breathe. He has stopped coming up on glass to greet me and my girl friend. Salinity is at 1.025 ph at 8.1. Tank is about 7 months old. Will try to get a picture. All other fish are doing great and i have never seen any agression from other fish towards him. Let me know what other info is needed

This very well could be an abscess, either bacterial or protozoal. It probably is not re3lated to water quality issues and would be unlikely to be contagious to other fish, but would be difficult to treat. Adding medication to the water won't help, neither would topical treatments. Oral medications are VERY difficult to dose correctly, and then, we aren't sure if it is bacterial or some other cause.

I normally tell people to just "wait and see" - often the abscess bursts and then heals over. The trouble here is that you've noticed a decline in feeding and an increase in respiration - those both point to a more systemic infection.

Jay

 

[AMG63Addison]

Thanks for the response Jay. I will continue to monitor him and see what happens, and hope for the best. And also see if I can get a picture. hopefully he will pull through. We also add vitachem and selcon to alot of food we feed with a well rounded diet of frozen/pellets so his immune system should be great.

 

[AMG63Addison]

Not sure how any advice given without pics or video to best do an assessment accurately as it can be an injury or bacterial
Please provide pics under white lighting and your ammonia and nitrate readings

Hey vetteguy, having some more issues with the same cling fish. he hasn't ate in about 5 days that I have seen, use to eat like a pig everyday from a beaker before this. And he is breathing fast and seems like he's struggling. Seems to have stopped eating after adding a foxface to my tank. There is a lot of other fish and everyone else is fine and eating. Have not seen any aggression whats so ever towards him from any other fish. he also looks fine and don't see any marks or spots on on him. This was around the same time we put some two little fishes red seaweed in tank for the foxface. I don't think the fox ate it but couldn't find it in tank or filter. Is it possible he tried to eat it?. Any suggestions or ideas would be of great help

 

[AMG63Addison]

This very well could be an abscess, either bacterial or protozoal. It probably is not re3lated to water quality issues and would be unlikely to be contagious to other fish, but would be difficult to treat. Adding medication to the water won't help, neither would topical treatments. Oral medications are VERY difficult to dose correctly, and then, we aren't sure if it is bacterial or some other cause.

I normally tell people to just "wait and see" - often the abscess bursts and then heals over. The trouble here is that you've noticed a decline in feeding and an increase in respiration - those both point to a more systemic infection.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hey vetteguy, having some more issues with the same cling fish. he hasn't ate in about 5 days that I have seen, use to eat like a pig everyday from a beaker before this. And he is breathing fast and seems like he's struggling. Seems to have stopped eating after adding a foxface to my tank. There is a lot of other fish and everyone else is fine and eating. Have not seen any aggression whats so ever towards him from any other fish. he also looks fine and don't see any marks or spots on on him. This was around the same time we put some two little fishes red seaweed in tank for the foxface. I don't think the fox ate it but couldn't find it in tank or filter. Is it possible he tried to eat it?. Any suggestions or ideas would be of great help

Thats not good. Heavy breathing or loss of appetite often point to either water or gill flukes. Other concern would be origin it came from and how it was caught as fish in this scenario will start out eating and shut down and feed off their liver or arrive at starvation. I suspect this is Indonesia species and may be the case. This is an assumption.
Other fish eating and functioning fine sort of eliminates water quality issue although they thrive best in lower salinity (1.023-1.024)
When they stop eating, often offering live foods such as ghost shrimp may reintroduce them to feeding as they feed on live in the wild. Assure they are fed SMALL meaty items like fresh cut up scallop, shrimp, scallops, krill and then wean them onto frozen versions of the same and add mysis shrimp and spirulina brine shrimp.
Foxface may be intimidating it. but hard to say if so or not. One way to verify is to set your cell phone on video mode for about 40 mins and drop a little food and walk away - YOU MUST walk away as they know youre there. Often the aggressor is a bully at feeding time.
Review the video and see if there is any intimidation occuring

 

[AMG63Addison]

unfortunately he didn't make it and was dead this morning. All other fish are fine and healthy. is it possible he tried to eat the seaweed and it got stuck in him somehow. Just wierd he was healthy and eating a ton and then out of no were stopped. he was fed with a beaker so I don't think is was aggresion and not being able to feed