Another Ich or Velvet Discussion….Unfortunately

[Schmidty]

I’ve got something nasty going through my tank and have lost two clowns, and a bristle tooth tang in the last week. I saw some dots on my purple tang originally and assumed the tank had ich. I’ve been trying to manage it for the time being, but I’m starting to think it’s velvet.

Both my clowns were great 3-4 days ago then they went down hill quick. I found the orange one dead on the power head this morning and the black one dead on the sand.

My purple tang has a ton of dots on it and they appear to be “surfacing” more over the last 24 hours. Everything else (blonde naso, lawnmower blenny, 3 anthias, fox face, and blue sides wrasse) appears to be symptom free…. For now.

Regardless I’m going to transfer everything to QT and start treatment

Any thoughts on what’s going on? Recommendations for QT medication?

Thank you!!

 

[Schmidty]

Here some shots of the clown fish

 

[jdlc]

I just went through something similar with a Purple Tang I'm currently trying to rehome.
My trusted LFS recommend I treat with a combination of

Reef Safe Medic by polyplab
2 doses, 1 in the morning and 1 at night

Medicated feeding of
Focus, Metroplex, and Kanaplex by seachem 3 times daily
This seemed to work for me
I attached some picture of the tang before and after
Started off with a small white block then was completely covered the next day. Just like yours.
Hope this helps Goodluck

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I’ve got something nasty going through my tank and have lost two clowns, and a bristle tooth tang in the last week. I saw some dots on my purple tang originally and assumed the tank had ich. I’ve been trying to manage it for the time being, but I’m starting to think it’s velvet.

Both my clowns were great 3-4 days ago then they went down hill quick. I found the orange one dead on the power head this morning and the black one dead on the sand.

My purple tang has a ton of dots on it and they appear to be “surfacing” more over the last 24 hours. Everything else (blonde naso, lawnmower blenny, 3 anthias, fox face, and blue sides wrasse) appears to be symptom free…. For now.

Regardless I’m going to transfer everything to QT and start treatment

Any thoughts on what’s going on? Recommendations for QT medication?

Thank you!!

The purple tang is showing mucus plugs. These are formed as a reaction to stress, sometimes the stress is from ich or other disease. The clownfish have some external parasite as well, probably ich.

Since you are moving all of the fish, your treatment should start with an amine based copper, either coppersafe or copper power, followed by a praziquantel treatment. You will need a Hanna meter to measure the copper (some people have used the less expensive API copper test, but it is hard to read). You will need to keep an eye on the ammonia in the QT, keep it under 0.50 ppm

Jay

 

[Schmidty]

I just went through something similar with a Purple Tang I'm currently trying to rehome.
My trusted LFS recommend I treat with a combination of

Reef Safe Medic by polyplab
2 doses, 1 in the morning and 1 at night

Medicated feeding of
Focus, Metroplex, and Kanaplex by seachem 3 times daily
This seemed to work for me
I attached some picture of the tang before and after
Started off with a small white block then was completely covered the next day. Just like yours.
Hope this helps Goodluck

Great info, I’ll gather up some of these supplies. I live a few hours from the nearest reef shop so I figure I might as well stock up the pharmacy!

I’m glad to hear that your tang is doing better!

 

[Schmidty]

The purple tang is showing mucus plugs. These are formed as a reaction to stress, sometimes the stress is from ich or other disease. The clownfish have some external parasite as well, probably ich.

Since you are moving all of the fish, your treatment should start with an amine based copper, either coppersafe or copper power, followed by a praziquantel treatment. You will need a Hanna meter to measure the copper (some people have used the less expensive API copper test, but it is hard to read). You will need to keep an eye on the ammonia in the QT, keep it under 0.50 ppm

Jay

Jay, thank you very much for the info. I’ve got Copperpower and the Hannah checker to get started.

Good to know on the mucus plugs, that’s something I’m not familiar with and will do some more research on. The white tail Bristle tooth that I lost had similar bumps. Before it passed it looked like he had strings/worms hanging from his sides. Do you think that could have been the mucus plugs or a parasite? Sorry, I didn’t get any photos.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Jay, thank you very much for the info. I’ve got Copperpower and the Hannah checker to get started.

Good to know on the mucus plugs, that’s something I’m not familiar with and will do some more research on. The white tail Bristle tooth that I lost had similar bumps. Before it passed it looked like he had strings/worms hanging from his sides. Do you think that could have been the mucus plugs or a parasite? Sorry, I didn’t get any photos.

Sometimes, the mucus plugs become elongated and look like threads or worms. True worms on a fish's skin are usually microscopic. The few that are large enough to see, have segments, like an earthworm, so that can be used to tell them apart from mucus threads.

Just for background info for you, here is some text about skin mucus:

Skin mucus is normally invisible, but under certain stressful conditions (often caused by water quality issues, parasites or bacteria) the fish’s mucus production ramps up and the mucus coating thickens and becomes more visible. This can be especially notable over the fish’s eyes, or on dark portions of the skin. This can lead the aquarist to make the false assumption that it is only the eyes, or dark portions of the skin that are affected, when actually, it is just more visible in these areas.

Idiopathic mucus plugs/cones: Fish sometimes develop excess mucus that excretes from the producing skin cells and rather than spreading out along the body, rises up as a cone or a plug. These presumable develop from some sort of skin irritation. If you do a skin scrape on them, all you see is mucus. They do show up on dark colored fish more often, probably because the contrast makes them easier to see. The cause(s) for this is unknown. In some cases, they just go away, in other cases, the fish dies - but in those cases, it is probable that there was a secondary issue. There may be some correlation between copper sulfate use, or a reaction to a previous skin infection. There is also some strong correlation between this issue and the species of fish; surgeonfish, tetras and Anabantids are all known to develop this. Many people misdiagnose these mucus plugs as Cryptocaryon or Lymphocystis, but the plug or cone shape to the mucus is diagnostic to some degree.

Thickened mucus coat: This can result from water quality issues or parasitic infections. If the fish’s respiration rate is elevated, the mucus on the gill lamellae may also be thickened and disrupting normal gas exchange. Brooklynella hostilis is well-known in causing thickened skin lesions that resemble excess mucus production. Even late-stage Cryptocaryon and Amyloodinium infections can cause opaque mucus layers on the skin of fish. Elevated ammonia levels in water can cause this, as well as possibly other toxins. There may also be a viral component in some cases, but that hasn’t been fully proven.

Cloudy eyes: In some cases, a milky/cloudiness to a fish’s eyes is just a more visible symptom of generalized mucus production that is also on the fish’s skin, just not as visible as it is on the eyes. In other cases, it is thickened mucus solely on the eyes, due to a bacterial infection, or the presence of Neobenedenia flukes.