Triggerfish with white dots

[alpenreef]

Good morning,

I found that my blue jaw triggerfish developed white dots on her back overnight. 3 dots on one side, 6 on the other, and 3 dots on top fin.
Some stats: had the fish in QT, following Jay’s protocol up to day 46.Observation, Copper, Prazi, Freshwater bath. Has now been in my 180g tank for 30 days. Eating and swimming around very actively.
She is the latest addition, all others I have had for 3 months at least (clowns, tangs, damsels, wrasse, foxface) - all QTed either by myself or Dr Reef. No aggression except 2 clowns bickering about anemones occasionally.

Is this flukes? What is my best treatment plan? And just her or all of them?
Pictures attached.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

alpenreef Welcome to the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Forum!

The #fishmedic team and other knowledgeable members of our community will do our best to help you resolve your questions. Please provide as much of the following as you are able:

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)
• Current water quality measurements
• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

If you can help us by providing as much of the above info as possible, it will make diagnosing and providing recommendations for treatment MUCH easier! The Fish Medic team will get back to you as quickly as possible. In the meantime, other members of our community may also share their experience with similar situations and advice that they may have regarding your situation.

You may also feel free to provide a more detailed description of the condition if you wish to share more info than the above list.

Additionally, these links may be useful while you await a response:

• CURRENT QT PROTOCOL LINK
• HOW TO ASK FOR DISEASE DIAGNOSIS HELP LINK

 

[alpenreef]

• Brief description of the issue you are observing and answers to the following questions:
  • How long have you had the fish with the condition?
• 3 months
  
  • Did you quarantine with medication when you first acquired the fish? (If Yes, which medication?)

• Copperpower, Prazi, Freshwater bath

• Current water quality measurements

Ammonia 0, Nitrate 15, Phosphate 0.1, Alk 10.4, Ca 510, Mg 1350, No Copper or medication

• Clear photos of the issue taken using WHITE light and/or a short video of any behaviors (post in your response or on YouTube).

 

[MnFish1]

One possibility would be irritated mucus (mucus cones) - another would be that your copper levels were perhaps lower than you thought? I would not think flukes would look like this. The size of the spots seem a little large for ich (some of them). I'm assuming there are no other symptoms (breathing, etc). At this point I would watch - see if the spots are coming and going (suggesting ich) - and carefully watch your other fish for similar spots. If they develop, the recommendation would be to re-start your quarantine for all of your fish. I'm hedging a little because looking at the pictures of the fish and your tank, it would be extremely difficult to catch and restart the QT process - and people can have success with ich management type protocols. I'm sure others will have an opinion as well #fishmedic

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Those look like mucus plugs to me. They arise from some stress agent causing the fish's skin to produce thick mucus extrusions from the skin pores. Sometimes, these are caused by ich, other times they have no apparent cause. In my experience, flukes don't cause them.

I would just observe for now, and watch for any other symptoms to crop up. Look especially closely for any smaller spots, which could be a sign of an underlying ich infection.