White spot moving around on firefish

[Bksspeck]

Hey there, first time poster here, long time lurker.

Yesterday I noticed a few weird shaped white spots on one of my clownfish, fearing possible ick, I removed him and placed him in QT then slowly started the process of adding copper. Today, I'm not seeing any of these white spots. He is still in QT. This morning, I found my royal gramma dead at the entrance of her favorite cave. I removed her and inspected for any obvious signs of infection, white spots, again nothing. About 2 hours ago I noticed that my firefish hit the side of its body against the sand. I started to look at it for any signs of an infection or white spots and saw something I've never seen before: a large white spot on one side of my firefish. When it looks at me, I can see the spot is raised quite a bit on it's side. It only seems to have the one spot.

Furthermore, I tried to catch it to no avail as this little sucker is insanely fast. Short of breaking down my entire tank, I seriously doubt I'll ever catch it. I made a note of where the white spot was and started to do some research into what it could possibly be. I am at a loss. I've kept an eye on the firefish and noticed that the spot is actually moving. And when I watch the spot, I can see it swivel a bit here or there and change direction. Almost as though it's walking from the back of the fish towards the front. When I first noticed the spot, it was towards the tail end, a bit into the colored section of the tail. You can see where it is in the pictures I've attached. Please help me identify whatever this is and possible treatments to include possible reef safe treatments. Thanks so much!!

 

[Jekyl]

#fishmedic

 

[vetteguy53081]

White moving dot may be an ostracod. As for death, you treated it you said in copper. Was it copper or coppersafe?
What level were you treating at and what test kit was used to monitor copper level?

 

[Bksspeck]

White moving dot may be an ostracod. As for death, you treated it you said in copper. Was it copper or coppersafe?
What level were you treating at and what test kit was used to monitor copper level?

Thanks for the quick reply! So far the only fish that's been treated with copper is my clownfish, I am using coppersafe and slowly building my way up to therapeutic levels. He seems to be doing well in my QT tank, he was a bit skiddish at first but is now swimming around exploring.

The Gramma I found dead this morning, she was fine yesterday with no weird behavior and like I said, no spots or weird marks at all.

The only fish that I can tell has something going on with it as of now is the firefish, but it seems as though it's the same thing that was on the clown as well.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Thanks for the quick reply! So far the only fish that's been treated with copper is my clownfish, I am using coppersafe and slowly building my way up to therapeutic levels. He seems to be doing well in my QT tank, he was a bit skiddish at first but is now swimming around exploring.

The Gramma I found dead this morning, she was fine yesterday with no weird behavior and like I said, no spots or weird marks at all.

The only fish that I can tell has something going on with it as of now is the firefish, but it seems as though it's the same thing that was on the clown as well.

Never slowly build up copper level. Do so within 48 hours
What is your copper level and what copper test kit are you using?

 

[Bksspeck]

Never slowly build up copper level. Do so within 48 hours
What is your copper level and what copper test kit are you using?

Correct, what I meant was I am building up to therapeutic levels. I am using the Hanna checker, but I don't need assistance with the QT process. I'm wondering specifically if I can get an ID on the strange parasite on the firefish that may have also been on my clown. I've searched through every site I possibly can and can't find a positive ID for this thing. At the very least, a potential ID for it can lead me in the direction of how to treat and what my potential options are.

I simply can't find anything this size that can be visibly seen moving. The death of the Gramma may or may not be related but I'm betting it is despite no physical evidence on its skin or fins when I removed from the DT. It's just one of the potential clues that can help solve this mystery!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Correct, what I meant was I am building up to therapeutic levels. I am using the Hanna checker, but I don't need assistance with the QT process. I'm wondering specifically if I can get an ID on the strange parasite on the firefish that may have also been on my clown. I've searched through every site I possibly can and can't find a positive ID for this thing. At the very least, a potential ID for it can lead me in the direction of how to treat and what my potential options are.

I simply can't find anything this size that can be visibly seen moving. The death of the Gramma may or may not be related but I'm betting it is despite no physical evidence on its skin or fins when I removed from the DT. It's just one of the potential clues that can help solve this mystery!

can be several skin parasites. Im guessing caligidaem trematode or monogenean fluke

 

[Bksspeck]

can be several skin parasites. Im guessing caligidaem trematode or monogenean fluke

But aren't flukes not visible on a fish's skin? I saw something about parasitic isopods but not sure if that fits

 

[vetteguy53081]

But aren't flukes not visible on a fish's skin? I saw something about parasitic isopods but not sure if that fits

There are a few varieties of flukes in which some are visible as fluke is a type of worm. Isopods are out there but never seen one the shape of a dot

 

[Jay Hemdal]

But aren't flukes not visible on a fish's skin? I saw something about parasitic isopods but not sure if that fits

The spot is definitely moving? There is a disease that stingrays get that is called wandering spot disease. It is caused by a copepod. There is no reef safe treatment for those though.
Jay

 

[Bksspeck]

The spot is definitely moving? There is a disease that stingrays get that is called wandering spot disease. It is caused by a copepod. There is no reef safe treatment for those though.
Jay

It definitely was. A brief update: the spot is gone now, which I kind of figured would happen overnight. My firefish has been hitting itself on the sand a few times throughout the day on the side that the spot was on yesterday. I decided to run out and grab some prazipro on the off chance that it was flukes. I went ahead and dosed the tank and a ton of white spots have been coming out of my firefish's gills as well as my melanurus wrasse. I was able to grab one and throw it under a microscope and this is what I can see:

So what the hack am I dealing with here? I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that whatever these things are a ton of them have now fallen off and seem to be dead/dying. I still can't say for certain that this is what the white spot was, but at least I feel like I'm making some progress!

 

[Jay Hemdal]

It definitely was. A brief update: the spot is gone now, which I kind of figured would happen overnight. My firefish has been hitting itself on the sand a few times throughout the day on the side that the spot was on yesterday. I decided to run out and grab some prazipro on the off chance that it was flukes. I went ahead and dosed the tank and a ton of white spots have been coming out of my firefish's gills as well as my melanurus wrasse. I was able to grab one and throw it under a microscope and this is what I can see:

So what the hack am I dealing with here? I'm somewhat comforted by the fact that whatever these things are a ton of them have now fallen off and seem to be dead/dying. I still can't say for certain that this is what the white spot was, but at least I feel like I'm making some progress!

Praziquantel is only effective against cestodes and flukes. These pictures aren’t very clear, but it looks like they have structures more like copepods. Prazi doesn’t affect those though.
Jay

 

[Bksspeck]

Praziquantel is only effective against cestodes and flukes. These pictures aren’t very clear, but it looks like they have structures more like copepods. Prazi doesn’t affect those though.
Jay

Which is what's driving me crazy! The nearest thing I can find to these are pods or other small crustaceans, but I'm telling you prazipro had these things falling off and dying in droves. I've never heard of prazi affecting crustaceans so I'm kind of weirded out about what exactly these things are.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Which is what's driving me crazy! The nearest thing I can find to these are pods or other small crustaceans, but I'm telling you prazipro had these things falling off and dying in droves. I've never heard of prazi affecting crustaceans so I'm kind of weirded out about what exactly these things are.

Yeah, not sure what’s going on - prazi is so specific, it doesn’t even kill flukes, it just knocks them out for a bit and they fall off the fish and can’t reattach, they don’t even die from it, crustaceans are completely unaffected by it.
Well, it seems to be doing something anyway!
Jay

 

[Bksspeck]

Yeah, not sure what’s going on - prazi is so specific, it doesn’t even kill flukes, it just knocks them out for a bit and they fall off the fish and can’t reattach, they don’t even die from it, crustaceans are completely unaffected by it.
Well, it seems to be doing something anyway!
Jay

Thankfully so! Maybe I've discovered a new species of crustacean parasite that prazi affects lol