Uronema - Eradicate or Ignore?

[4FordFamily]

Uronema seems to impact more fish today than it ever did before. Uronema is particulalry troublesome for many reasons. It is particularly deadly, when it's identified it is often too late to treat, and it's an internal and external parasite. Most alarming for many, is that it does not have a fallow period like ich or velvet, so a fishless tank will not fix the issue. In other words, it can "live without a host".

The fish most commonly affected/associated are chromis. It is also common in butterflies (particularly copperband, pearlscale, etc.) and anthias as well. Recently, centropyge (dwarf angels) are seemingly more impacted by it, and I've even seen it in some wrasses. @Humblefish has looked at some assumed "spinal injuries" in wrasse and found that internal uronema was present on the spine itself upon autopsy, so it's hypothesized that it's a bigger issue than we thought. However...

I personally don't think it poses much of a threat to a display tank full of healthy, established inhabitants. It seems to run rampant through new additions, particularly of those groups of fish. When we (@HotRocks and I) quarantine, we treat it with metroplex up front (which also handles brooklynella).

So what do you do with this information?

"Ignore":
A healthy, established fish in a tank seems to be "immune" (resistant) to it. In practice, I've never seen uronema suddenly appear on healthy, established fish in the display tank. Even existing chromis seem unaffected, typically. I don't personally worry about uronema for anything other than new additions. I do run all coral, inverts, rock, etc. through a 72 day fallow period, but I certainly don't bleach it, which is a tried and true method for killing uronema. So for that, I probably introduce it in to my "clean" display tanks.

I treat all new fish as if they have it to be safe. I do this more to keep new fish and others sharing the quarantine with it safe from uronema. Don't misunderstand, uronema is a NASTY condition. It's very deadly, but again, for whatever reason I've not seen it harm well-established fish, even of typically vulnerable species, say 3-6 months after addition.

Eradicate:
I call this going nuclear... If you want to do so, bleach is a tried and true method of killing off uronema. Some people opt to bleach everything and start over. However, if you're not prepared to keep it out of the tank long-term and prophylactically treat fish for it before entering your tank properly going forward, I'd say it's a waste of effort. Perhaps more importantly, remember that you would have to bleach everything wet that entered your tank from now on, as well for 100% effectiveness. Perhaps it's an unlikely event that you could get uronema from inverts, rock, or coral -- but it's certainly possible. If you bleach these new additions, you'll likely kill whatever you're adding. I don't think this is necessary but this is my own arbitrary opinion and almost solely based on anecdote/experience and observation from monitoring the R2R disease forum.

Admittedly though, I've learned the hard way over the past 18 months how much more virulent it is these days. Whether that's because of the overall weakened/worsened condition of the fish we receive today or because the uronema itself is truly more virulent -- I do not know. Perhaps both.

My Choice:
I choose to quarantine and treat all new fish, run coral/inverts fallow (which doesn't impact uronema for the inverts or coral), but not worry about the impact it may have on my display tanks. I avoid bleaching anything, or starting over, to keep it out. We of course may choose our own paths!

For those wanting more info about Uronema, here is a link to an article: (edit by Jay Hemdal)

Uronema / Red Band Disease - Hemdal

Red Band Syndrome in Marine Fishes: Caused by the Protozoan; Uronema sp. Jay Hemdal Introduction: This moderately common disease of certain species of marine fish is so often misdiagnosed that most aquarists apply incorrect treatment methods...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Big G]

Nice post. Have been thinking about this very question every time there is a post we respond to about suspected uronema and chromis that a member has in their reef tank. Been thinking about putting on my list of things to do an experiment with treating a small reef tank that has uronema with Ruby Reef Rally to see the effects on the biology of the tank and if it actually removes the parasite without harming inverts, feather dusters, etc. The local Petco has everything I need to perform the task LOL

 

[m3p]

So assuming your display has uronema already, do you think QT of susceptible fish on arrival and then introducing them to QT (which has uronema) would yield favorable results?

 

[John Minnix]

Uronema seems to impact more fish today than it ever did before. Uronema is particulalry troublesome for many reasons. It is particularly deadly, when it's identified it is often too late to treat, and it's an internal and external parasite. Most alarming for many, is that it does not have a fallow period like ich or velvet, so a fishless tank will not fix the issue. In other words, it can "live without a host".

The fish most commonly affected/associated are chromis. It is also common in butterflies (particularly copperband, pearlscale, etc.) and anthias as well. Recently, centropyge (dwarf angels) are seemingly more impacted by it, and I've even seen it in some wrasses. @Humblefish has looked at some assumed "spinal injuries" in wrasse and found that internal uronema was present on the spine itself upon autopsy, so it's hypothesized that it's a bigger issue than we thought. However...

I personally don't think it poses much of a threat to a display tank full of healthy, established inhabitants. It seems to run rampant through new additions, particularly of those groups of fish. When we (@HotRocks and I) quarantine, we treat it with metroplex up front (which also handles brooklynella).

So what do you do with this information?

"Ignore":
A healthy, established fish in a tank seems to be "immune" (resistant) to it. In practice, I've never seen uronema suddenly appear on healthy, established fish in the display tank. Even existing chromis seem unaffected, typically. I don't personally worry about uronema for anything other than new additions. I do run all coral, inverts, rock, etc. through a 72 day fallow period, but I certainly don't bleach it, which is a tried and true method for killing uronema. So for that, I probably introduce it in to my "clean" display tanks.

I treat all new fish as if they have it to be safe. I do this more to keep new fish and others sharing the quarantine with it safe from uronema. Don't misunderstand, uronema is a NASTY condition. It's very deadly, but again, for whatever reason I've not seen it harm well-established fish, even of typically vulnerable species, say 3-6 months after addition.

Eradicate:
I call this going nuclear... If you want to do so, bleach is a tried and true method of killing off uronema. Some people opt to bleach everything and start over. However, if you're not prepared to keep it out of the tank long-term and prophylactically treat fish for it before entering your tank properly going forward, I'd say it's a waste of effort. Perhaps more importantly, remember that you would have to bleach everything wet that entered your tank from now on, as well for 100% effectiveness. Perhaps it's an unlikely event that you could get uronema from inverts, rock, or coral -- but it's certainly possible. If you bleach these new additions, you'll likely kill whatever you're adding. I don't think this is necessary but this is my own arbitrary opinion and almost solely based on anecdote/experience and observation from monitoring the R2R disease forum.

Admittedly though, I've learned the hard way over the past 18 months how much more virulent it is these days. Whether that's because of the overall weakened/worsened condition of the fish we receive today or because the uronema itself is truly more virulent -- I do not know. Perhaps both.

My Choice:
I choose to quarantine and treat all new fish, run coral/inverts fallow (which doesn't impact uronema for the inverts or coral), but not worry about the impact it may have on my display tanks. I avoid bleaching anything, or starting over, to keep it out. We of course may choose our own paths!

Great post. Very interesting. When I first got started in the hobby 18 months ago, I was worried that I had a chromis with uronema. I was told in the message boards that I basically needed to tear down the entire 125 gallon display, bleach everything and start over. Candidly, that wasn't an option for me from a time and effort perspective. Luckily, I think the chromis was just injured from aggression. But, glad to hear that my established tank may not be as at risk for uronema than I had otherwise thought.

 

[Amboss72]

I believe Uronema is a problem for new fish in particular as it relates to their handling prior to your acquisition of them. I believe that’s why you don’t see it effecting the healthy fish already within your system. We simply don’t know the extent to which fish collectors neglect or contribute to new fish and their well being. That said, all we can do is support fish collectors who don’t skimp on the capture and sell of newly acquired fish. Then clearly It becomes are responsibility to provide are newly acquired fish with the optimal nutrition and living conditions. Simply put, we need to stop supporting fish collectors who don’t respect these amazing creatures that we pay good money for and who deserve a life of respect. Frankly, I’m tired of seeing Uronema particularly in anthias as they are a beautiful shoaling fish with a high mortality rate specific to Uronema.

 

[SeeFu]

thanks for the write up. I was unfortunate to have my first fish placed into my DT have Uronema, even after a fairly lenghty QT cycle. I'm going to just heavily QT all futuree fish and hopefully that prevents any outbreaks

 

[Amboss72]

Cheers to your success!

 

[TaylorPilot]

This is un-nerving...

 

[C. Eymann]

Excellent write up! in addition to Chromis and butterfly's, Like Amboss said, I would also add Anthias to that list of common vectors of Uronema, with these three groups of fish I quarantine them obviously but I will also hit them with a round of metroplex prophylactically, also using quarantine time to get particular finicky eating anthias and butterflys feeding has been proven valuable to me as well.

 

[Camaro Show Corals]

Excellent write up!! I believe in a hard QT process for every fish, but I feel there’s other illnesses that come before this that I make more of my priority in QT. I definitely think about this one though.

 

[dvp95]

What is the best way to treat a QT that currently likely has uronema? I recently purchased a handful of chromis fish and did not know about this disease. They are all in a QT now as well as kole tang and powder brown Tang. I quarantine everything for the full 70+ days. I had a few of those chromis die on meinitially. I thought it was due to their aggression. Now after running across uronema on a random post, I think that is what it is. The 1st one that diet clearly had a red fleshly spot. The other 3 that died within a couple of days did not have that clear red fleshy spot but did have other spots like the scales were starting to come off or discoloration. Clearly not ich. I will post a picture shortly. The current ones look fine and my tangs look fine. It has been about 6 days since the last chromis died. No one looks sick. No spots on anyone including the tangs. Everyone is eating. The question is purely how to prevent anyone from getting this disease and how I prevent this from going to my DT. I went through humblefish's post regarding this disease and what I saw was treating them more aggressively with formalin etc if they have it. But if they do not have it, how do I treat things to prevent? Fourteen days of Metroplex is all I read? Will this eradicate things within the water itself? Or do they need to go to a completely new setup once treated? After this I plan through going through the normal ich treatment and the 70+ days in the QT. I have all the time in the world to make sure my DT does not get anything. Thanks

 

[dvp95]

Here is the pic. Sorry they dried out a bit before i took a pic. The first one had a wide red spot. No pic of that one

 

[Big G]

Don't know if you have seen this posting by @Humblefish

You may want to consider this step of using H2O2 instead of formalin. Formalin products are known carcinogenics and can shorten a fish's lifespan.

You definitely do not want to transfer uronema into your DT.
I would consider at a minimum the idea of using a H2O2 bath before transferring fish to your DT.

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

10/9/2022: Jay Hemdal and the current Fish Medic staff are suggesting that people find other treatments rather than TTM. It has some substantial drawbacks: “Tank chasing” method (Tank Transfer Method - TTM) A mostly theoretical method for treating Cryptocaryon infections takes advantage of...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[dvp95]

I did see that but is it necessary to treat everyone in the tank with H2O2 if none of them currently look infected? I currently have chromos and the two tangs left. All are eating well, and skin appears normal. About a week since the last one died. Should I be doing that or two weeks of metroplex from humblefish's other posts on this subject? Thanks.

 

[Big G]

I would consider doing both. The metroplex 10-14 days both dosed into the water and fed (mixed with food + Focus + metro) will be absorbed into the body through ingestion. And then when the 10-14 day treatment is over, using the H2O2 as a bath on transfer to make sure no external parasites get transferred.

 

[dvp95]

Thanks for the reply. That is one question I have is does the metroplex only treat the actual fish? Does it also treat what is free floating in the water?

 

[Big G]

Metro dosed into the water attacks parasites by disrupting the DNA stopping the parasite from reproducing. So dosing the water for 10-14 days should take care of any parasites "outside" of the fish's body.

 

[Nroddot]

Unfortunately, I have introduced uronema to my display tank. I'm only three months in and only have a few hardy soft coral, two clowns, and three chromises. Originally had six chromises, but lost three to the uronema. The remaining fish aren't exhibiting any signs of it...yet.

This is my first tank and has been a lot of work (although, enjoyable) so far. The thought of starting over and bleaching everything is just hard to imagine. While disheartening, it sounds like this isn't the end of the world. I'm sure there are beautiful and successful aquariums that do have uronema present.


I was given some helpful advice by Humblefish, he told me to dose Seachem metroplex for 14 days. I'll also be feeding almost exclusively immune-system boosting food like NLS Thera A. If anyone knows for certain that their system has it but they've been able to manage it, I'd appreciate any tips.

As others have discussed, I agree that uronema is present in more systems than people probably realize -- including many local fish stores. It sucks, but I'm going to try my best to move forward.

 

[bmbrad]

Unfortunately, I have introduced uronema to my display tank. I'm only three months in and only have a few hardy soft coral, two clowns, and three chromises. Originally had six chromises, but lost three to the uronema. The remaining fish aren't exhibiting any signs of it...yet.

This is my first tank and has been a lot of work (although, enjoyable) so far. The thought of starting over and bleaching everything is just hard to imagine. While disheartening, it sounds like this isn't the end of the world. I'm sure there are beautiful and successful aquariums that do have uronema present.


I was given some helpful advice by Humblefish, he told me to dose Seachem metroplex for 14 days. I'll also be feeding almost exclusively immune-system boosting food like NLS Thera A. If anyone knows for certain that their system has it but they've been able to manage it, I'd appreciate any tips.

As others have discussed, I agree that uronema is present in more systems than people probably realize -- including many local fish stores. It sucks, but I'm going to try my best to move forward.

So are you dosing metroplex in your DT for 14 days?

Does anyone know if you use Seachem Metroplex in your DT will it cause any issues down the road when you do add corals? It's not like copper where it would soak into the rocks or sand right?

I did see that feeding fish with Metroplex or GC with focus would work to make it reef safe but should you run carbon if I do that?

 

[Big G]

After dosing the tank with metro, you can do big water changes, stir the sand a bit, run carbon to help remove the meds.