quoyi parrot fish No longer eating

[ss88]

In the process of quarantine in about 20 fish for my new system. This is a recently imported fish, was feeding well prior to medication. Active and no signs of infection. Started with copper at 2.5ppm, other inhabitants, and tank had active fluke infection. Consequently, treated with praziquantel concurrently to copper. Other fish tolerated treatment well, 20 days into treatment with copper and 3rd dosage of Prozquantal. Well aware not ideal but given severity of fluke infection on angels really didn’t have a good option.


parrot fish is no longer eating as of today and is exhibiting behavior indicative of toxicity exposure. Labored breathing, lethargic, not eating. Already tried water changes, carbon and lowering copper to 2.25ppm.



Other solutions to keep the fish in this system?

Should i move fish into copper free system, have 20 and 90 gallon available that is empty, can establish within a few hrs. Or is the damage already done likely and its a waste of effort?

 

[Cthulukelele]

Parrotfish are a wrasse subspecies which can have a bot of an adverse reaction to prazi. How long has it not been eating and seemed upset

 

[ss88]

As of today refused food. Three days exhibiting increasingly abnormal behavior.

 

[MnFish1]

In the process of quarantine in about 20 fish for my new system. This is a recently imported fish, was feeding well prior to medication. Active and no signs of infection. Started with copper at 2.5ppm, other inhabitants, and tank had active fluke infection. Consequently, treated with praziquantel concurrently to copper. Other fish tolerated treatment well, 20 days into treatment with copper and 3rd dosage of Prozquantal. Well aware not ideal but given severity of fluke infection on angels really didn’t have a good option.


parrot fish is no longer eating as of today and is exhibiting behavior indicative of toxicity exposure. Labored breathing, lethargic, not eating. Already tried water changes, carbon and lowering copper to 2.25ppm.



Other solutions to keep the fish in this system?

Should i move fish into copper free system, have 20 and 90 gallon available that is empty, can establish within a few hrs. Or is the damage already done likely and its a waste of effort?

The bottom line is your question is difficult - since it's impossible to say whether its toxicity - or an untreated disease or something related to capture. I will go out on a limb and suggest - if there are no 'spots', 'signs of velvet', scratching, breathing, etc - I would consider moving - with a low threshold to restarting QT if needed if symptoms don't improve or. - if there is any worsening - I would be looking for improvement with a change

 

[KrisReef]

I would move the wrasse into its own med free tank and try to get it eating again before I lose the battle. If it starts eating then I would evaluate the situation and restart copper or give the fish away if I thought it would spread disease to my other fishes that endured the prazi and copper treatment.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Often when a given fish stops eating, it related either to water quality, disease or both.
How is fish breathing - Normal or rapid?
Any new fish addition which may have intimidated it?

Please if you can post you tube video or clear pics under white lighting

 

[Jay Hemdal]

In the process of quarantine in about 20 fish for my new system. This is a recently imported fish, was feeding well prior to medication. Active and no signs of infection. Started with copper at 2.5ppm, other inhabitants, and tank had active fluke infection. Consequently, treated with praziquantel concurrently to copper. Other fish tolerated treatment well, 20 days into treatment with copper and 3rd dosage of Prozquantal. Well aware not ideal but given severity of fluke infection on angels really didn’t have a good option.


parrot fish is no longer eating as of today and is exhibiting behavior indicative of toxicity exposure. Labored breathing, lethargic, not eating. Already tried water changes, carbon and lowering copper to 2.25ppm.



Other solutions to keep the fish in this system?

Should i move fish into copper free system, have 20 and 90 gallon available that is empty, can establish within a few hrs. Or is the damage already done likely and its a waste of effort?

Did you use praziquantel or Prazipro?
Can you post a video of the fish?
How is the ammonia testing out at?

Some people report issues with wrasses and prazi - I’m still trying to track down if there is an issue or not, I’ve dosed hundreds of wrasse with prazi and never have had an issue.

Jay

 

[ss88]

the system has a stable bio filter. I haven’t tested for ammonia in a few weeks. All other fish are without symptoms in same system eating well. ammonia is unlikely i think. Ill take a video shortly. Praziquantel powder dissolved with fine mesh in bucket using powerhead.

Im going to move him out of copper treatment into a 20 gallon tank. Ill take the video beforehand.

 

[ss88]

The fish is doing much better today and accepting food again. This is after a 50% water change, running rox carbon, isolation done two days ago. Will preform another 50% water change today or tomorrow. I definitely don’t think they like prozi and copper combined for any extended duration. Will likely lower copper to 2.1ppm and continue until day 31 then remove copper. Followed by a few weeks of observation.

Still not sure what to make of the rolling behavior that started this week.

Did not remove from primary qt system.

duration.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

The fish is doing much better today and accepting food again. This is after a 50% water change, running rox carbon, isolation done two days ago. Will preform another 50% water change today or tomorrow. I definitely don’t think they like prozi and copper combined for any extended duration. Will likely lower copper to 2.1ppm and continue until day 31 then remove copper. Followed by a few weeks of observation.

Still not sure what to make of the rolling behavior that started this week.

Did not remove from primary qt system.

duration.

Interesting - that spinning behavior, but with the fish still eating is a classic sign of the "unknown wrasse disease" (UNWD). I've not seen that in parrotfish before, but they are related to wrasse, and this disease seems to be confined to those, so maybe?

Unknown Neurological Wrasse Disease (UNWD)

Unknown Neurological Wrasse disease (UNWD) There is a disease that afflicts newly acquired wrasses, usually Cirrhilabrus fairy wrasses or flasher wrasses, Pseudocheilinus, but occasionally other species as well. The gross visual symptoms are always the same; the fish shows a rapid onset of...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[ss88]

@Jay Hemdal that would be unfortunate. I definitely was thinking neurological as well, just assumed it was related to toxicity exposure from the combination of copper and prozi. As the labored breathing accompany it and lethargy. Time well tell if it becomes progressively worse. Are other fish potential carriers of UNWD? How should I mitigate risk of introduction into display?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal that would be unfortunate. I definitely was thinking neurological as well, just assumed it was related to toxicity exposure from the combination of copper and prozi. As the labored breathing accompany it and lethargy. Time well tell if it becomes progressively worse. Are other fish potential carriers of UNWD? How should I mitigate risk of introduction into display?

UNWD seems to derive from something that happens to the fish during the supply chain. Other wrasse, acquired at the same time may show the same symptoms, but it does not seem to be contagious.

Jay

 

[ss88]

@Jay Hemdal that is weird. If its not contagious that would suggest something with transport, holding or collection methods. Has a specific geographical region been identified to relate this issue? I would think its a toxic exposure event if not contagious, seems like a delayed onset correct? Based on what I read online, it seems similar to whirlings disease without the physical deformities. I do feed salmon to my fish, but its a frozen product.

I will note that this seems more of a deliberate behavior. Mostly obsessed in conjunction with flashing.

Regardless his condition seems to have improved slightly, hopefully he pulls through.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal that is weird. If its not contagious that would suggest something with transport, holding or collection methods. Has a specific geographical region been identified to relate this issue? I would think its a toxic exposure event if not contagious, seems like a delayed onset correct? Based on what I read online, it seems similar to whirlings disease without the physical deformities. I do feed salmon to my fish, but its a frozen product.

I will note that this seems more of a deliberate behavior. Mostly obsessed in conjunction with flashing.

Regardless his condition seems to have improved slightly, hopefully he pulls through.

I should explain - UNWD is not contagious to existing fish in an aquarium (it doesn't spread to your old fish) but newly acquired fish can show symptoms at the same time. One of the confounding factors is that home aquarists most often buy one fish at a time, or at least one fish of a similar species at a time. That makes diagnosing contagions very difficult. I just have one case where a public aquarium acquired a group of wrasse at the same time and about 25% of them got sick,

Jay

 

[ss88]

@Jay Hemdal
Yes not much of a sample size at the hobbyist level.

The fish is back to acting normal for the most part.

I honestly think the combination of Prozquantal and copper with specimens that have a suspected sensitivity is likely a bad idea. Certainly not ideal but given the state of flukes and active ick infection, what choice did one have? If to repeat in future, I would certainly do things a bit differently.

Perhaps

1) water change beforehand to reduce copper levels to under .75 ppm
2) start with Prozquantal at 2.2ppm for 30hrs
3) At 30hrs 90% Water change and increase copper to 2.5ppm.

Repeat 3x at one week interval.

Well aware this will reset time for copper treatment but avoids possible increased risk of toxicity i would assume.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

@Jay Hemdal
Yes not much of a sample size at the hobbyist level.

The fish is back to acting normal for the most part.

I honestly think the combination of Prozquantal and copper with specimens that have a suspected sensitivity is likely a bad idea. Certainly not ideal but given the state of flukes and active ick infection, what choice did one have? If to repeat in future, I would certainly do things a bit differently.

Perhaps

1) water change beforehand to reduce copper levels to under .75 ppm
2) start with Prozquantal at 2.2ppm for 30hrs
3) At 30hrs 90% Water change and increase copper to 2.5ppm.

Repeat 3x at one week interval.

Well aware this will reset time for copper treatment but avoids possible increased risk of toxicity i would assume.

I only run copper and prazi concurrently in very rare instances. I don't know of any sensitivity with both, but it is always best practice to treat fish with one medication at a time.

One other thing - does the parrotfish have any mouth damage? I've had a lot of issues keeping fish confined with egg crate like that, they get easily damaged.

Jay

 

[ss88]

does the parrotfish have any mouth damage?

None. He’s very active again as well, seems to be back to normal. Discontinued as far as I’m aware the rolling behavior.

Its actually not acrylic egg crate. It has a slightly softer durometer material, maybe hdpe. I have been using it for about a year now without issues. But will keep an eye out for issues. Thanks for the heads up.