Achilles Tang - Cloudy eye

[Slyler]

I noticed last night that my Achilles Tang has a bit of a cloudy eye. I have done some research and seems it could be from a tussle with another fish. thinking about that, I did see my blue tang have his upper and lower fins damaged a little bit, could it be he tried to become king of the tank but was told no? Achilles still ate a lot last night, and was picking at the algae clip this morning.
If it's water chemistry related, my water has been terrible lately, I have taken steps to correct it.
Here is a picture, sorry, it's the best I could get from my phone. Any help would be great.

 

[Teeran88]

I noticed last night that my Achilles Tang has a bit of a cloudy eye. I have done some research and seems it could be from a tussle with another fish. thinking about that, I did see my blue tang have his upper and lower fins damaged a little bit, could it be he tried to become king of the tank but was told no? Achilles still ate a lot last night, and was picking at the algae clip this morning.
If it's water chemistry related, my water has been terrible lately, I have taken steps to correct it.
Here is a picture, sorry, it's the best I could get from my phone. Any help would be great.

Could be physical damage as you've said, but I've also seen cloudy eyes due to flukes. Creepy critters, saw one crawl off a tang's eye after dosing dewormer in qt before http://www.reefaquarium.com/2014/flukes-marine-fish/

 

[Humblefish]

One eye or both? Flukes in the eye(s) is a possibility. See anything like what's in the photos below?

 

[Slyler]

it's just in the one eye, the other eye is completely fine. definitely not like the first picture, a little more like the second picture.

 

[aykwm]

It might be an injury that got infected. Keep an eye on it and check your water parameters, usually good water parameters keep the fish healthy and has good immune system to fight infections and diseases.

 

[Slyler]

Thank you, I will do that and hope that it clears up in the next few days. if anything changes, I will be back!

 

[Humblefish]

Can you QT? I prefer a more aggressive approach when it comes to eye infections, as the fish's sight may be on the line.

 

[Slyler]

I don't have a QT set up. I live in a small condo an don't have a ton of extra room. I do have a friend that may let me move him to his QT, would that cause to much additional stress on the fish?

 

[Humblefish]

I do have a friend that may let me move him to his QT, would that cause to much additional stress on the fish?

Anytime you move a fish from his established environment into a bare bottom, rockless QT its gonna cause stress. However, sometimes it's necessary for the greater good.

If you can QT, first give the fish a FW dip to check for flukes: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

If flukes are present, return him to the DT and treat with Prazipro: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prazipro.247598/

If no flukes show, assume a bacterial infection and dose erythromycin (e.g. Maracyn) or Kanaplex in the QT.

 

[Mr. Brooks]

Anytime you move a fish from his established environment into a bare bottom, rockless QT its gonna cause stress. However, sometimes it's necessary for the greater good.

If you can QT, first give the fish a FW dip to check for flukes: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

If flukes are present, return him to the DT and treat with Prazipro: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prazipro.247598/

If no flukes show, assume a bacterial infection and dose erythromycin (e.g. Maracyn) or Kanaplex in the QT.

@Humblefish


Sorry to hijack this thread, but I’ve been searching the internet for days trying to find the answer to a mystery illness in my tank and this thread is the closest I’ve come to finding the answer.

My tangs have been afflicted with cloudy eyes initially, then deteriorated fins, excess mucus on the skin/lips as well as some minor scratching. I also noticed one of the Naso tang’s eyes appearing to be swollen or popped out slightly. At one point there appeared to be cloudy flakes hanging off of the eyes. I’ve seen symptoms in varying degrees in most of my tangs. But the Naso and chocolate tang seem to have the worst symptoms.

I thought the symptoms pointed to flukes so I dosed prazi. I did two doses, 5-7 days apart as recommended and it seemed to work! But around 6 days after the first treatment, the symptoms returned.

I did another two dose treatment. But once again on Sunday the symptoms returned. So I dossed prazi again for the fifth time. I’m currently three days in on the latest dose and the symptoms are mostly gone again. I say mostly because the Naso tang’s eyes have never 100% cleared up. A slight cloudiness in at least one eye has yet to fully disappear.

At this point I have all my tangs in a seperate tank that is connected to the main system.

There are three royal grammas and two lawnmower blennies in the display tank that are impossible to catch without destroying my Acropora reef.

The only recent additions to my tank without QT were a handful of coral frags a couple months ago and I run an overkill UV sterilizer.

Yesterday I began panicking thinking it’s velvet, and that the prazi is somehow suppressing it. But this seems unlikely as I cant find any instances of this ever happening anywhere on google.

The fact that the prazi removes symptoms tells me I’m on the right track, right? Should I do a three dose treatment 5 days apart?

Or is it possible that it’s bacterial? Have you ever heard of prazi suppressing bacterial symptoms?

I have yet to find an actual oval shaped opaque fluke with the naked eye. Even after a freshwater dip.

The prazi has done a number on my corals. I’m dealing with secondary issues like spiked phosphate and lowered ph. I can isolate the tank that the tangs are in to treat separately, but I can’t catch the other small fish in the display. So I’m assuming it’d be pointless to treat the tangs separately without running the display totally fallow. The only benefit is that I could experiment with treatments without harming my corals. But I assume I would eventually need to treat the rest of the system or catch and QT the smaller fish.

I’m hoping you can give me some guidance on the best course of action. Thank you in advance.

 

[AquaLifeStudio]

@Mr. Brooks, whatever came of your Naso tang's eye cloudiness?

 

[Mr. Brooks]

UPDATE:

It appears that I was dealing with a bad case of flukes that was difficult to eradicate. I ended up doing 3 separate prazipro treatments. On the first two, I followed the instructions on the bottle. Both times the flukes came back. On the third treatment I dosed three times over the course of three weeks. I lost some Acro corals and several STN'd. The third treatment appears to have done the trick. All fish are fine now.

 

[Viner87]

UPDATE:

It appears that I was dealing with a bad case of flukes that was difficult to eradicate. I ended up doing 3 separate prazipro treatments. On the first two, I followed the instructions on the bottle. Both times the flukes came back. On the third treatment I dosed three times over the course of three weeks. I lost some Acro corals and several STN'd. The third treatment appears to have done the trick. All fish are fine now.

I’m going through the same thing! Literally exactly...

Can I ask what specific product you used and if it was powder or liquid? I’m currently using Fluke Solve, which is a powdered prazi treatment in the uk, but struggling to shift them!

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I used prazi pro liquid.

I found that a three week treatment was required to kill all the hatching flukes.

 

[Viner87]

I used prazi pro liquid.

I found that a three week treatment was required to kill all the hatching flukes.

Brill thanks - can I ask, did you run carbon in between doses at all to remove the meds 24-48hrs after treatment?

 

[Mr. Brooks]

No, just a water change and re-dose.

 

[Viner87]

No, just a water change and re-dose.

Sorry bud - one last question, did you switch your skimmer off during the entire time or just for 48hrs after each treatment. Was it off or did you just remove the cup, so aeration continued?

Cheers Chris

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I left the skimmer on with the cup off. The PH drop is significant. On the third dose I totally forgot about the PH drop and I turned the skimmer off. The PH drop ended up killing some of my acros. It is extremely important to do everything you can to keep the PH up if you have sensitive corals.

 

[Viner87]

I left the skimmer on with the cup off. The PH drop is significant. On the third dose I totally forgot about the PH drop and I turned the skimmer off. The PH drop ended up killing some of my acros. It is extremely important to do everything you can to keep the PH up if you have sensitive corals.

Awesome thanks bro - did you switch off any reactors? GFO, bio pellets, etc?

 

[Mr. Brooks]

I don't run any reactors. I turned UV off.