Treatment Advice for Scribbled Rabbitfish

John Helm · Jan 5, 2019

Hi everyone. Back in August I bought a beautiful scribbled rabbitfish from my lfs that was with them for 5 months. I kept him in my 40 breeder quarantine tank for 4 months for observation and only treated with Prazi during that time since I had a melanurus wrasse in there as well. The fish was in perfect health as far as I could observe and was a voracious eater, even eating nori from my hand. In early December I released him into my 90 gallon sps tank that's been running for 10 years. The tank mates are 2 percula clowns, 2 firefish, a flame angel, a green chromis, a small hippo tang, and a yellow tang. I've been observing him in this tank with all the others and I've noticed no sign of aggression against him whatsoever from the yellow tang or any other tank mates. His colors were beautiful and he's been eating very well along with the tangs on the nori clip and LRS fish frenzy from the water column. However just this afternoon I noticed him on the bottom of the tank in the back laying on his side. I immediately removed him and acclimated him to the QT tank where he's still acting the same. There are no treatments happening in the QT since I've done several complete water changes since the praziquantel treatment a few months ago. Here is a photo of him in the QT in his camo colors, but now I notice what seems to be scratches on his side. They don't look like slashes from the tang, but I could be wrong. He's not eating and is on his side most of the time breathing somewhat heavily. Apparently this is some type of injury but I need advice on the best treatment protocol. I have Furan-2, Cupramine, Chloroquine Phosphate, Prazi and Rally on hand. I'm leaning towards the Furan-2 but any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Big G · Jan 5, 2019

Prazi resistant flukes? Have you FW dipped the fish?

Humblefish · Jan 5, 2019

Best immediate treatment would be a 30 min MB bath: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/methylene-blue.257467/

That will help heal those cuts/scratches. Reevaluate his condition after that.

John Helm · Jan 6, 2019

Thank you. I'm on my way out now to a store that has methylene blue. The local Petco doesn't carry it. I'll reevaluate his condition after treatment. I haven't fresh water dipped the fish yet. I'll look into that after the MB treatment.

John Helm · Jan 6, 2019

Humblefish said:
Best immediate treatment would be a 30 min MB bath: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/methylene-blue.257467/

That will help heal those cuts/scratches. Reevaluate his condition after that.

I did the 30 minute Methylene Blue treatment this afternoon in 2.5 gallons while aerating well and returned the fish to the QT. He was laying on his side immediately after the treatment which I assume was from the stress of the dip. Now he looks really bad and is twisting and flipping in all directions and gets caught in the bubble stream of the air stone in the QT. This is really infuriating since he was in such perfect condition and vibrant health for months. I don't expect good results unfortunately, but are there any more ideas as to the cause and treatment? Thanks for your help.
John

UPDATE: The fish is dead. But thanks for the suggestions.

Humblefish · Jan 6, 2019

John Helm said:
I did the 30 minute Methylene Blue treatment this afternoon in 2.5 gallons while aerating well and returned the fish to the QT. He was laying on his side immediately after the treatment which I assume was from the stress of the dip. Now he looks really bad and is twisting and flipping in all directions and gets caught in the bubble stream of the air stone in the QT. This is really infuriating since he was in such perfect condition and vibrant health for months. I don't expect good results unfortunately, but are there any more ideas as to the cause and treatment? Thanks for your help.
John

Methylene Blue shouldn't cause that type of reaction. If anything it tends to mellow/calm fish down. The problem here is the only real symptoms we have to go on are those scratches on his side. But what caused them? It is possible the scratches might be getting infected, so dosing Furan-2 would probably be my next move.

To clarify, none of these treatments (Methylene Blue, Furan-2) may actually help with the underlying condition. However, they are also minimally invasive so I don't see how they can hurt either.

Maritimer · Jan 6, 2019

Sorry to hear this little fellow's not doing well!

Looking at your photo, I can see more of his skeletal structure than I like to on a fish - the angled ridge down his side, which is his backbone, and features of his skull. I'd be tempted to suggest internal parasites, or some other cause of poor nutrition as a possibility.

~Bruce

John Helm · Jan 8, 2019

Maritimer said:
Sorry to hear this little fellow's not doing well!

Looking at your photo, I can see more of his skeletal structure than I like to on a fish - the angled ridge down his side, which is his backbone, and features of his skull. I'd be tempted to suggest internal parasites, or some other cause of poor nutrition as a possibility.

~Bruce

Thanks for the help and advice. The fish died about 3 hours or so after the Methylene Blue treatment. ( I put that in as an edit to my previous post). Anyway, you're right about the gaunt appearance of the fish. Most likely he was infected by some type of internal parasite. It's such a shame since he was doing very well and this came on so quickly. From now on, I'll treat all fish prophylactically in the QT if I don't buy them from TSM Corals here in NJ. They have a beautiful facility where all their fish go through weeks of prophylactic treatment for all the common maladies prior to being sold. This rabbitfish was bought from my lfs. Thanks again.
John