Unknown disease, need guidance or input, google has not helped.

[Tattooween]

Hi everyone, I need a little help, about 6 months ago I had around 14 fish, (tangs, chromis, clowns angels, etc) They all went through copper for ich/velvet and got cured. For 5 months they all ate and lived happily. Around 3 weeks ago my hawkfish's skeleton was found, thought it was just random or from bullying, even though my fish dont fight. Then 2 chromis stopped eating and died a few days later, 1 jumped out the following day.

The next day my watchman goby had weird coloration like an infection, he kept freaking out and ended up ramming straight into my carpet anemone and got eaten. Next day a yellow tang just randomly died, healthy and fat. So far, no visible tells like ich, velvet, brook, I dipped the dead bodies in tap water, no flukes. So im freaking out now, I moved them to a smaller tank i setup with some of the same media for bacteria.

What was left was 2 clowns, 1 flame angel, 1 pj cardinal, 1 chromi, 1 starry blenny, 1 dragonette. I started kanaplex dosing (once every 2 days for 6 days) and General Cure on the 4th day and then again on the 9th day. Issue is, ever since tank transfer, my dragonette and starry blenny just stopped eating (dragonette small but my starry blenny is extremely fat from how much he ate in the other tank). Dragonette would just scoot along the bottom and then hide for a few hours, scoot and hide, not eating. He died on day 9 after both medicines were done, no heavy breathing, he looked really healthy other than being alittle skinny from not eating for a few days.

The rest of the fish are perfect, they all eat and have no signs of illness, but now that the treatment was over, I did a 20% water change, added carbon and UV (2 days ago) but my blenny still just looks at the food flying by his head and does not eat, sometimes he will bite the air as if he wanted a piece of food. He never hides, he moves perches as normal but will not peck at rock. He sometimes looks like he's breathing heavy but returns to a slow pace (maybe because im shining a light in his face or really close to the glass).

I literally don't know what else to try, I don't want to lose anymore fish and I want to replace the ones I have with some more in the future.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi everyone, I need a little help, about 6 months ago I had around 14 fish, (tangs, chromis, clowns angels, etc) They all went through copper for ich/velvet and got cured. For 5 months they all ate and lived happily. Around 3 weeks ago my hawkfish's skeleton was found, thought it was just random or from bullying, even though my fish dont fight. Then 2 chromis stopped eating and died a few days later, 1 jumped out the following day.

The next day my watchman goby had weird coloration like an infection, he kept freaking out and ended up ramming straight into my carpet anemone and got eaten. Next day a yellow tang just randomly died, healthy and fat. So far, no visible tells like ich, velvet, brook, I dipped the dead bodies in tap water, no flukes. So im freaking out now, I moved them to a smaller tank i setup with some of the same media for bacteria.

What was left was 2 clowns, 1 flame angel, 1 pj cardinal, 1 chromi, 1 starry blenny, 1 dragonette. I started kanaplex dosing (once every 2 days for 6 days) and General Cure on the 4th day and then again on the 9th day. Issue is, ever since tank transfer, my dragonette and starry blenny just stopped eating (dragonette small but my starry blenny is extremely fat from how much he ate in the other tank). Dragonette would just scoot along the bottom and then hide for a few hours, scoot and hide, not eating. He died on day 9 after both medicines were done, no heavy breathing, he looked really healthy other than being alittle skinny from not eating for a few days.

The rest of the fish are perfect, they all eat and have no signs of illness, but now that the treatment was over, I did a 20% water change, added carbon and UV (2 days ago) but my blenny still just looks at the food flying by his head and does not eat, sometimes he will bite the air as if he wanted a piece of food. He never hides, he moves perches as normal but will not peck at rock. He sometimes looks like he's breathing heavy but returns to a slow pace (maybe because im shining a light in his face or really close to the glass).

I literally don't know what else to try, I don't want to lose anymore fish and I want to replace the ones I have with some more in the future.

I suspect flukes which are often non-visible to the naked eyes but often display symptoms. Please post a video of 30 seconds using bright white light intensity, no blues to clearly show what may be happening

 

[Tattooween]

Wouldn't general cure kill them? I didn't know flukes could kill overnight like that, yet others have no effect. I can send a video of the blenny.

 

[Tattooween]

Wouldn't general cure kill them? I didn't know flukes could kill overnight like that, yet others have no effect. I can send a video of the blenny.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wouldn't general cure kill them? I didn't know flukes could kill overnight like that, yet others have no effect. I can send a video of the blenny.

General cure too weak to cure especially once a given disease has progressed

 

[vetteguy53081]

 

[vetteguy53081]

Heavy breathing and loss of appetite are fluke signs. Other signs would be gills will be red or swollen with rapid breathing, fish acting lethargic or swimming near the water surface, hiding in the corner of tank or behind rocks, shaking its head, flashing/darting, develop clamped fins, , or scratching against objects. They may also exhibit what looks like yawning from gill irritation develop, cloudy eyes and loss of color.

 

[Tattooween]

Ugh, so i should buy some prazi pro today and dose it? Cant believe i let flukes kill more fish than velvet and brook.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Ugh, so i should buy some prazi pro today and dose it? Cant believe i let flukes kill more fish than velvet and brook.

Flukes can “simmer” as a chronic infection for months, and then begin to increase in severity for some reason.

General Cure will give at least some relief from flukes though - their dose spacing is wrong for marine fish though, it should be dosed every 5 to 7 days. The problem with GC is that it also contains metronidazole, and that has a two day dosing cycle.

Only one species of fluke is large enough to be seen after a dip, unless you use a microscope.

I can’t see anything of note in the blenny video though. It is breathing a bit fast, but that is normal for some types of blenny.

 

[Tattooween]

Flukes can “simmer” as a chronic infection for months, and then begin to increase in severity for some reason.

General Cure will give at least some relief from flukes though - their dose spacing is wrong for marine fish though, it should be dosed every 5 to 7 days. The problem with GC is that it also contains metronidazole, and that has a two day dosing cycle.

Only one species of fluke is large enough to be seen after a dip, unless you use a microscope.

I can’t see anything of note in the blenny video though. It is breathing a bit fast, but that is normal for some types of blenny.

Gotcha, the general cure did not make the blenny eat or change how it acted. It actually stopped eating when i started dosing the medicine. Ill grab some prazi and pray

 

[Tattooween]

Dosed the prazipro (its been around 24 hours), he still looks and acts the same. Refuses food, just stares at it. This is like day 7 without food, i feel like he will die soon :(. All other fish are fine and eating.

 

[Tattooween]

Google says last thing I could try because maybe its internal and but hes not eating so nothing I can do.

He has started to freak out and flash all over the place.

 

[Tattooween]

He's still alive, he darted 3 times yesterday, goes from losing color and breathing heavy to normal colors and breathing normal but wont perch anymore, just stays on my substrate.

Anyone have any other recommendations? Maybe a dip or force feed? Rather not watch him starve to death also if he dies I cant be sure to add any other fish without a solution :(.

All other fish are fine

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

He's still alive, he darted 3 times yesterday, goes from losing color and breathing heavy to normal colors and breathing normal but wont perch anymore, just stays on my substrate.

Anyone have any other recommendations? Maybe a dip or force feed? Rather not watch him starve to death also if he dies I cant be sure to add any other fish without a solution :(.

All other fish are fine

I watched the videos again - for a brief instant, I got a glimpse of what *might* be a swollen belly on the fish. In the second video, its pectoral fin covers its belly, so I couldn't get a clearer view. A swollen belly can be an indication of some internal issue - but that doesn't really account for your previous fish losses.

The recommendation to try prazi is based on the rapid breathing symptom, but also, it is one treatment that is easy enough to do. The problem is that there are other diseases that can't really be treated in home aquariums....sorry!

 

[Tattooween]

I watched the videos again - for a brief instant, I got a glimpse of what *might* be a swollen belly on the fish. In the second video, its pectoral fin covers its belly, so I couldn't get a clearer view. A swollen belly can be an indication of some internal issue - but that doesn't really account for your previous fish losses.

The recommendation to try prazi is based on the rapid breathing symptom, but also, it is one treatment that is easy enough to do. The problem is that there are other diseases that can't really be treated in home aquariums....sorry!

Yea hes always been fat/swollen but always ate a TON

No worries, thanks for the help. Ill see if he will fight through it and hope no future additions die.

 

[Tattooween]

Update, fish stopped darting ever since I dosed prazipro, is perching on rocks again but wont intake food. I turned flow off and put like 10 pieces of mysis/brine in front of his face and he opened and closed his mouth like 10 times in 3 seconds as if he wanted the food, doing so pushed the food away from the flow of his mouth moving so fast. I wonder if he has a blockage or if i need to take him out and put him in a breeder box full of mysis just laying next to him.

Idk how hes alive after not eating for 10 days. Still does not look skinny, just skinnier than his fat self.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Update, fish stopped darting ever since I dosed prazipro, is perching on rocks again but wont intake food. I turned flow off and put like 10 pieces of mysis/brine in front of his face and he opened and closed his mouth like 10 times in 3 seconds as if he wanted the food, doing so pushed the food away from the flow of his mouth moving so fast. I wonder if he has a blockage or if i need to take him out and put him in a breeder box full of mysis just laying next to him.

Idk how hes alive after not eating for 10 days. Still does not look skinny, just skinnier than his fat self.

IDK - sounds like multiple issues here. Flukes generally do not cause fish to stop eating until the very end of the infection. Sounds like the rapid mouth movement was an avoidance response, trying to push the food away? Maybe there is a blockage….

 

[Tattooween]

Update, back to healthy looking self and hiding when I come to the glass. Still will not go after food though, he cant be alive from not eating for 10+ days if sick... I think hes eating something but only if it comes near his face and only the small food (he does not eat algae on rock or on my clip), he starts to chew alot when tiny food is near him as if a human is chewing on gum lol... I feed mysis/marine cuisine so it has a bunch of small/tiny food. Maybe damaged gills, but looks like all real issues stopped after Prazi dosing, I dosed final one yesterday. He goes nuts when food enters the water, just wont go towards it, even hides from it.

Just posting this for others in the future who gets weird issues like I do.

 

[mcarroll]

Just posting this for others in the future who gets weird issues like I do.

I've seen very similar behaviors with some of my fish in almost every aspect you described including fat, healthy fish dying without a single symptom, even though they were eating well the day before (and every day before that). These fish are not new at all....most are several months or or older. Unfortunately my case is also similar in that I have no idea what's causing it. My watchman goby appears to be the next on the list.

 

[Tattooween]

Final update, he finally ate ◡̈