Weird bicolor blenny behavior + a white mark

[slobodan]

Hey, my bicolor blenny shows some weird behavior this morning. I need help to figure out what's wrong with it. Thanks!

It's often active in the morning before the lights go on, but today, it's not doing what it usually does (swims and stays in the rock holes and on the flipper magnet). Instead, it goes to the sand, does something weird (that looks like scratching), and then swims a bit. It chased its tail a few times, and I saw a white mark near its dorsal fin. It's hard to explain, but it's not normal behavior.

Videos:



My lights go on in a few hours. I can try taking better videos.

My parameters:

• Temperature 27.4C
• KH (Salifert, because I changed reagents in Kamoer ReefMaster SPA): 8.5
• Ca (Salifert): 405
• Mg (Salifert): 1230
• PO4 (via Kamoer): 0.03
• Nitrates (via Kamoer): 4.1
• Nitrites (via Kamoer): 0.00
• Salinity: 35

I have 2 clowns (added 2 months ago), this blenny, a watchman goby, a red pistol shrimp (added 3 weeks ago), and a royal gramma (added a week ago; it acts normally). I also have 2 more shrimp, some snails, and corals.

The tank is almost three months old. So far, all the fish eat well and act normally.

The only changes I did yesterday were an 8l water change (it’s a 125l Red Sea Max nano g2 XL tank), and I started dosing the Red Sea 4-part complete reef care.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hey, my bicolor blenny shows some weird behavior this morning. I need help to figure out what's wrong with it. Thanks!

It's often active in the morning before the lights go on, but today, it's not doing what it usually does (swims and stays in the rock holes and on the flipper magnet). Instead, it goes to the sand, does something weird (that looks like scratching), and then swims a bit. It chased its tail a few times, and I saw a white mark near its dorsal fin. It's hard to explain, but it's not normal behavior.

Videos:



My lights go on in a few hours. I can try taking better videos.

My parameters:

• Temperature 27.4C
• KH (Salifert, because I changed reagents in Kamoer ReefMaster SPA): 8.5
• Ca (Salifert): 405
• Mg (Salifert): 1230
• PO4 (via Kamoer): 0.03
• Nitrates (via Kamoer): 4.1
• Nitrites (via Kamoer): 0.00
• Salinity: 35

I have 2 clowns (added 2 months ago), this blenny, a watchman goby, a red pistol shrimp (added 3 weeks ago), and a royal gramma (added a week ago; it acts normally). I also have 2 more shrimp, some snails, and corals.

The tank is almost three months old. So far, all the fish eat well and act normally.

The only changes I did yesterday were an 8l water change (it’s a 125l Red Sea Max nano g2 XL tank), and I started dosing the Red Sea 4-part complete reef care.

The biting itself and scratching are signs of possible flukes. I did see some aggression between the gramma and the blenny (open mouth) but I don't think that is the root cause.

I'm not sure what medications you have available to you in Serbia, can you get praziquantel? General Cure, Prazipro, Dactymor, eSHa gdex,Gyrodol, Fluke P or Tremazol?

 

[slobodan]

Thanks! It’s hard to tell. I’ll need to check. Probably nothing fast. Anything I can/should do in the meantime?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks! It’s hard to tell. I’ll need to check. Probably nothing fast. Anything I can/should do in the meantime?

No - the only other treatment is hyposalinity (low salinity) but you cannot do that with invertebrates present.

 

[slobodan]

It seems I might find Tremazol in the next day or two. I hope it’s not too late.

For hyposalinity: I guess I can set up a small treatment tank, but how long should I keep it there? What about other fish? I guess freshwater dip does not make any difference.

Thanks a lot!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It seems I might find Tremazol in the next day or two. I hope it’s not too late.

For hyposalinity: I guess I can set up a small treatment tank, but how long should I keep it there? What about other fish? I guess freshwater dip does not make any difference.

Thanks a lot!

Correct, if you dip the fish and put it back into the same tank, it will just get reinfected. Setting up a small tank for hyposalinity can be an issue - all fish need to be treated, and managing ammonia in a newly set up, small tank is very difficult.

Tremazol can cure flukes right in your display, and if done properly won't harm your invertebrates.

 

[slobodan]

Thanks! I think I’ll be able to get it in the next day or two.

 

[slobodan]

I just saw this at the same place where blenny was scratching (or whatever that was) in the sand: .

It was acting almost normally in the afternoon. I’ll get the medication tomorrow or on Tuesday and do the treatment.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I just saw this at the same place where blenny was scratching (or whatever that was) in the sand: .

It was acting almost normally in the afternoon. I’ll get the medication tomorrow or on Tuesday and do the treatment.

That's a fairly large worm. If it was parasitic, I'd think that you would be able to see it on the fish's skin.

 

[slobodan]

I got tremazol. The guide says it can be added directly into the tank, followed by 80% water change after 6 hours (which is 100l, and I don’t have an easy way to prepare 100l of water). The other option is adding it to a separate container/tank with good aeration and then adding fish there for 20 minutes. The latter option is much easier, but catching the fish is hard. I managed to catch just blenny. I’ll need to create some kind of a trap, I guess.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I got tremazol. The guide says it can be added directly into the tank, followed by 80% water change after 6 hours (which is 100l, and I don’t have an easy way to prepare 100l of water). The other option is adding it to a separate container/tank with good aeration and then adding fish there for 20 minutes. The latter option is much easier, but catching the fish is hard. I managed to catch just blenny. I’ll need to create some kind of a trap, I guess.

The 80% water change is odd - do you know the amount of prazi they are saying to add to what volume of water?
The standard prazi dose is 2 to 2.2 ppm. I’ve seen it used at 10 ppm for a three hour dip, but most people don’t do that since it takes a lot more prazi.

 

[slobodan]

It’s odd and a bit scary haha. It’s 7.47 g per 100 ml. Here’s the guide:


The full guide is also available here: https://www.sera.de/fileadmin/user_...3168_-INT-_sera-med-prof-tremazol_07-2018.pdf.

I can try to do ~ a 50% water change followed by ~30% the day after or something like that.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It’s odd and a bit scary haha. It’s 7.47 g per 100 ml. Here’s the guide:


The full guide is also available here: https://www.sera.de/fileadmin/user_...3168_-INT-_sera-med-prof-tremazol_07-2018.pdf.

I can try to do ~ a 50% water change followed by ~30% the day after or something like that.

I worked on the math with this. At 1 ml per 4 gallons, that works out to be a dose of around 5 ppm. If you use 1 ml per 9 gallons (net volume) of tank water, that will equal about a 2 ppm dose. That is the 24 hour dose for praziquantel, so no water change is needed. You would dose it again after 8 days. I usually do a 25% water change prior to the second dose.

Three caveats here: 1) It's early in the morning, so you should check my math. 2) I don't know what solvent they use, and that could have some bearing on this. 3) I don't know why they say don't use it with echinoderms - regular prazi is fine with those.

 

[slobodan]

I'll check the math.
Man, I do not know how to thank you for your help!

 

[slobodan]

Just to confirm the math (and in case anyone searches for this in the future):

Sera Med Tremazol has 7.47 g of praziquantel per 100 ml (74.7 mg/ml).
They recommend 1ml of Tremazol for each 15 liters (~ 4 US gallons).

74.7 mg / 15 l = 4.98 mg/l (~5 ppm)

So, if I want to have 2 ppm, that's:

74.7 mg / 37 l (9.77 gallons) = 2.01 mg/l (~2 ppm).

My tank is 125 l (~33 gallons) total, and I guess I can assume I have approximately 100l net volume of water, that's 2.7 ml of Tremazol (100 / 37 = 2.7027).

 

[slobodan]

They use Macrogol 300 (polyethylene glycol 300) as solvent. Source: https://www.vetpharm.uzh.ch/tak/old/05000000/00058505.01#:~:text=Zusammensetzung.

 

[slobodan]

I dosed 2.7 ml of Sera Med Tremazol 2 days ago, and I changed 24l of water yesterday just in case.

The fish went back to normal (no flashing, no tail chasing, all were eating). But I saw my blenny flashing again today. Gramma was doing the same in the sand last night. There are no new white spots on any of the fish. They are still eating.

Here's the new video:



@Jay Hemdal Am I doing something wrong (the dose or anything else)? Or is it possible that it's not flukes but something else?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I dosed 2.7 ml of Sera Med Tremazol 2 days ago, and I changed 24l of water yesterday just in case.

The fish went back to normal (no flashing, no tail chasing, all were eating). But I saw my blenny flashing again today. Gramma was doing the same in the sand last night. There are no new white spots on any of the fish. They are still eating.

Here's the new video:



@Jay Hemdal Am I doing something wrong (the dose or anything else)? Or is it possible that it's not flukes but something else?

More likely, the flukes you are dealing with is an egg laying species. Prazi doesn't kill fluke eggs, you need to try and time it so that the eggs hatch out and then you kill the new crop before they can lay more eggs. Trouble is, there is a lot of variation in fluke egg hatching time. I've gone as many as 5 prazi treatments. It gets complicated after that though, because a bacteria grows that eats prazi as a food source and then the prazi is eaten before it has a chance to work.

Fish will sometimes flash and scratch MORE right after a prazi treatment, due to the holes in the skin left by the dead flukes. I generally use an 8 day prazi redose cycle, but some people use shorter and some use longer.....

 

[slobodan]

@Jay Hemdal ok, that makes sense. Is it good enough if I do an 8-day cycle at least 3-4 times? My tank temperature is a bit higher (26.7-27.4C/80-81.5F), which probably reduces the time for egg hatching (at least based on what I have read so far). Should I increase the dose a bit or keep it the same as the first time? Note that some feather duster worms survived (I do not want to kill them, but I read that they’ll probably die).

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal ok, that makes sense. Is it good enough if I do an 8-day cycle at least 3-4 times? My tank temperature is a bit higher (26.7-27.4C/80-81.5F), which probably reduces the time for egg hatching (at least based on what I have read so far). Should I increase the dose a bit or keep it the same as the first time? Note that some feather duster worms survived (I do not want to kill them, but I read that they’ll probably die).

Yes, you might shorten the interval by a day or so.
You may not lose the feather dusters.
I wouldn’t increase the dose…..