I don’t know what’s on my redtoothed trigger fish

[JeffC27]

I just got a red tooth niger trigger fish about 5 days ago and added it to my 125gal tank with my porcupine puffer and snowflake eel. They are all juvenile still so that’s why they are in a “smaller” tank. Anyway I noticed over the past few days that my trigger will randomly twitch very fast to one side and shake his head like he is trying to get something off of him. He does it just a few times a day and the rest he spends hiding. He is eating normal and doesn’t seem to be in any distress. He does not rub against anything as would be the case with parasites I believe and the only thing I can see when examining him is a white mucas like string coming out of his eye on the side he twitches to. I will provide a picture I got of it. Also on a side not earlier during feeding time my snowflake eel was digging under one of his favorite rocks and due to this another rock in the scape fell onto the rock he was under. I was terrified he was crushed so I removed the rocks and he got up and swam under a different rock and appears fine but did not eat after as I assume he is a little stressed now. What should I look for over the next couple days to make sure he is ok.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

First, can you post your water quality readings, especially ammonia?

The white around the trigger's eye may just be a bump. However, the twitching is a common indication of flukes (worms).

The most common treatment for flukes is Prazipro, dosed twice, a week apart, with good aeration.

Are you in Uxbridge, UK? You may have some difficulty getting proper medications for this, you should contact your pet store to see what they offer.

Jay

 

[JeffC27]

I’m actually located in an uxbridge outside of Boston in Massachusetts, USA. As for the trigger today I did a freshwater dip with him for about 3 minutes, and made sure he was moving the entire time. I visibly saw the white looking spots come off of his top fin as well as tail and the thing on his eye. For this reason along with the behavior I went out and got prazipro for flukes. As he has been in my main display tank for a couple days like this I decided to treat the whole tank with prazi instead of relocating just him. I removed all of the carbon and put in 4 teaspoons, which is a little under the recommended dose but I believe will be fine. The trigger is now swimming around in the display tank with the other fish and I was sure to aírate his gills with the salt water by making sure he swam around for a bit after the dip. My question now is will the prazi have any effects on other fish in the tank as I hope it will cure the trigger and Ik it will prevent illness in the puffer but I am concerned about my snowflake eel as I have heard they aren’t the best with medication. Is there anything else I should do?

 

[JeffC27]

It should also be noted that my water parameters are... Ammonia - 0.25ppm, Nitrite - 0.50ppm, Nitrate - 0ppm, S.G - 1.022, P.H - 8.2, Temperature - 78°F. I believe my nitrites are up due to a large feeding yesterday and me disturbing the filter today when removing the carbon.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I always worry with a ammonia reading of 0.25 - some of the test kits are inaccurate, and that reading might actually be higher (or lower I suppose!)

Prazipro is generally safe for invertebrates, and really all fish. People run into problems with it because you need to increase the aeration in the tank when dosing it.

If you saw flukes falling off the fish with your naked eye, those are Neobenedenia, an egg laying species. Prazipro doesn't kill the unhatched eggs, so a second treatment, 7 to 10 days later is needed, and I do a third treatment, a week after that (with 25% water changes in between),

Jay