White Spot on Fairy Wrasse's Head

abreeann · Jan 26, 2020

We're still pretty new to the reefing world and have had our 175gal tank sat up for almost 6mo. We don't currently have a quarantine tank sat up (I know I know), but per our LFS who installed our tank, we do have a UV sterilizer.

We have had a healthy tank with no known issues until we added a seemingly healthy orange back fairy wrasse a week ago. We noticed two days ago a single small white dot on his head. Yesterday it looked a little larger and possible like two dots next to each other and today it looks a little worse. From my searching on the forum, I'm pretty certain it's not ich or velet since the rest of his body looks fine. He is still eating but has been pretty shy and spends most of his time hiding in our rocks. Is this possibly hexamita? I believe I saw his poop yesterday and again this morning and it's white and stringy.

Qasimja · Jan 26, 2020

yea thats definitely not ich or velvet could be some sort of bacterial infection im sure others will chime in best of luck

LAReefer4Life · Jan 26, 2020

Lymphocystis

Lymphocystis What You Need To Know: * This is a virus that many fish carry for life. The white nodules (cauliflower-like growths) can grow both externally and internally; so symptoms are not always visible. * There is no known cure for Lympho. However, feeding vitamin-enriched foods and...

www.reef2reef.com

abreeann · Jan 26, 2020

Was able to snap a couple more photos when we fed today. Appears to have a possible small white area on his tail. The white spots on his head are definitely larger. He's spent today hiding other than coming out to eat.

abreeann · Jan 28, 2020

pathot984 said:
Lymphocystis

Lymphocystis What You Need To Know: * This is a virus that many fish carry for life. The white nodules (cauliflower-like growths) can grow both externally and internally; so symptoms are not always visible. * There is no known cure for Lympho. However, feeding vitamin-enriched foods and...

www.reef2reef.com

First, thank you for the link and response! I Iead through the thread on lymphocystis as well as doing more digging. It's still just the spot on his head and the rest of the body looks great. He's continued to hide except for coming out to feed. Here's a couple photos from today. The area definitely looks worse and now it's more like a ring of white on top of a bulging area of the head. Still thinking lympho?

LAReefer4Life · Jan 28, 2020

abreeann said:
First, thank you for the link and response! I Iead through the thread on lymphocystis as well as doing more digging. It's still just the spot on his head and the rest of the body looks great. He's continued to hide except for coming out to feed. Here's a couple photos from today. The area definitely looks worse and now it's more like a ring of white on top of a bulging area of the head. Still thinking lympho?

Lympho is a viral infection and symptoms may worsen with stress, poor water quality and nutrition. You need pristine water quality and high nutritional diet to see improvement.

Are you soaking food in selcon and zoecon? If not I definitely would.

From the photos you posted it does resemble lympho, but you’re the one that can see it in person. Does it meet the description I sent you in the thread? Cauliflower or cotton like growth? besides hiding is he displaying any other strange behavior?

abreeann · Jan 28, 2020

pathot984 said:
Lympho is a viral infection and symptoms may worsen with stress, poor water quality and nutrition. You need pristine water quality and high nutritional diet to see improvement.

Are you soaking food in selcon and zoecon? If not I definitely would.

From the photos you posted it does resemble lympho, but you’re the one that can see it in person. Does it meet the description I sent you in the thread? Cauliflower or cotton like growth? besides hiding is he displaying any other strange behavior?

We're feeding LRS Reef Frenzy currently (hadn't heard of selcon or zoecon so thank you for those rec's). We've slowly brought our alkilinity up to 9 from 6 over the past couple weeks and our nitrates are up around 15 after adding a gold headed Goby who's done a great job of mixing up our sand. All other values are great and been very stable for 3 months.

The growth(s) look kinda cotton like. There's definitely a rounded underlying budge underneath the growth. Fish is hiding in a tighter hiding spot behind a lavender mushroom inside the rocks. He barely fits but has two separate ways to get in/out of the spot. When he comes out to eat he swims well and darts for the food. No gasping or breathing issue I can see. His color still looks good. Everyone has gotten along since we've added him and no one fights during feeding.

Current tank inhabitants: Blue Damsel, 2 ocularius clown fish, flame Hawkfish, gold headed Goby, Lubbock's Fairy Wrasse, an electric flame scallop, and some snails/hermits.

LAReefer4Life · Jan 28, 2020

abreeann said:
We're feeding LRS Reef Frenzy currently (hadn't heard of selcon or zoecon so thank you for those rec's). We've slowly brought our alkilinity up to 9 from 6 over the past couple weeks and our nitrates are up around 15 after adding a gold headed Goby who's done a great job of mixing up our sand. All other values are great and been very stable for 3 months.

The growth(s) look kinda cotton like. There's definitely a rounded underlying budge underneath the growth. Fish is hiding in a tighter hiding spot behind a lavender mushroom inside the rocks. He barely fits but has two separate ways to get in/out of the spot. When he comes out to eat he swims well and darts for the food. No gasping or breathing issue I can see. His color still looks good. Everyone has gotten along since we've added him and no one fights during feeding.

Current tank inhabitants: Blue Damsel, 2 ocularius clown fish, flame Hawkfish, gold headed Goby, Lubbock's Fairy Wrasse, an electric flame scallop, and some snails/hermits.

Thanks, keep an eye on it and continue to provide the best environment possible. The lesions typically clear in a few weeks, but can also take months in rare circumstances due to different variables.

Lympho is pretty common and most often is not dangerous. There are reports of the viral infection growing up into the gills causing asphyxiation. Also look out for bacterial infections if it doesn't start to heal up.

abreeann · Jan 31, 2020

pathot984 said:
Thanks, keep an eye on it and continue to provide the best environment possible. The lesions typically clear in a few weeks, but can also take months in rare circumstances due to different variables.

Lympho is pretty common and most often is not dangerous. There are reports of the viral infection growing up into the gills causing asphyxiation. Also look out for bacterial infections if it doesn't start to heal up.

The selcon is set to arrive today. That said though, the wrasse ate a little yesterday and swam a around a tad. But around I mean literally around in some circles. He just came out from his overnight spot and looks worse. Not just his head but overall. Seems to be breathing hard and is resting on the bottom/rocks. The main white spot looks worse, almost like it's sloughing and there's now small white spots on the head and a few on the body. Not sure those are true lesions as the goby we have is actively sifting sand around him. I'm in touch with our LFS where we purchased him but not sure what to do at this point to help him :-/ We rechecked water quality yesterday and it's doing great with nitrates lowered to the 5-12 range from where it was a week ago.

Thank you again for your input!