Does my powder blue tang have velvet (Amyloodinium)?

[shelburn61]

I've had a PBT in hypo at 1.010 for a week now. The fish is obviously feeling some sort of irritation, scraping himself against objects every minute or two, but shows no visible symptoms of disease. Respiration is fairly rapid, but pretty normal for a tang IMO. Color is deep blue. No spots.

What could this be? How should I approach the problem?

He appears healthy, eats very well, and is very active, but I'd like to head off any problems before they get worse. The flame hawk and CBB cohabitating the 75g QT show no flashing behavior. I'm considering Cuprimine treatment for the PBT in a separate tank, but not sure if the stress on the fish is worth it?

[flameangel88]

More info is needed to help here. How long have you had the fish?, Added anything recently?

Have you tested the fish for flukes? Do a FW (matching PH) dip for 4 minutes to see if there's any flukes.

[shelburn61]

All the fish arrived by mailorder 7 days ago today and were placed in QT. I'm considering FW dips, but have found PBTs to be delicate and would like to avoid unecessary stress...

[flameangel88]

The sooner you know what the cause is the better their chances. I understand the stress very well but at the same time you don't want to treat them with copper or prazipro if they don't have ich or flukes. I'd a vendor that told me he gives every fish a Foralin bath and runs it in the system. Guess what? The fish came in with flukes and next thing was outbreak of ich. Needless to say the fish died and the outbreak caused hell. See one of my recent post on this forum.

[shelburn61]

Gotcha. I've got Cuprimin and Prazipro arriving tomorrow. I may just treat the tank to be sure since I'm sure something must have come in with all the fish in there.

[flameangel88]

I left out the 'm' in Formalin on the last reply. If the fish has jerky or head shaking motion then it's most likely caused by flukes. I don't know for sure but a simple FW dip will reveal flukes. There's a picture of flukes in this thrd and also a good link to another thrd about flukes with lots of info:

Flukes thrd & link to info (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12997766#post12997766)

[shelburn61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13277015#post13277015 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by flameangel88
If the fish has jerky or head shaking motion then it's most likely caused by flukes. Flukes thrd & link to info (http://reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=12997766#post12997766)

I haven't noticed jerky movements, just body scraping...

I've dealt with flukes before. I guess I'll dip tonight to get a better idea what it is.

[shelburn61]

FW dip last night. No flukes...

[flameangel88]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13281842#post13281842 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by shelburn61
FW dip last night. No flukes...

Great...one less medication to deal with. Is the scraping against the rock more, less or about the same?

[shelburn61]

Morning after the dip, no more scratching. He seemed to be agitated all the time before the dip, nervously darting around the tank. Seems to be acting more normal now, just kind of cruising along.

Then today still no scratching, but he seems to like swimming in front of the seio again. I think the signs are pointing to amyloodinium at this point, but it's strange the other fish aren't showing signs. Time for copper i guess...

[saltyESQ]

if you are going to keep the salinity so low, why not go the extra centimeter and take him into hypo.

[shelburn61]

What's your definition of hypo?

[dones20]

i would only pick one of the obove treatments and it wouldnt be hypo its a waist of time and time is preciouse when your dealing with fish and disease go for the copper treatment imo

[limitdown]

If you're sure it's not flukes and he's doing better after the freshwater dip, then it's likely to be velvet. If you're certain, then you should start copper treatment as soon as possible. Hypo does not work with velvet. Velvet kills much faster than ich so time is of the essence.

[shelburn61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13293129#post13293129 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by limitdown
If you're sure it's not flukes and he's doing better after the freshwater dip, then it's likely to be velvet. If you're certain, then you should start copper treatment as soon as possible. Hypo does not work with velvet. Velvet kills much faster than ich so time is of the essence.

That's my thinking. Unfortunately, I'm leaving town tomorrow so Cuprimine will have to wait until Sunday. :( He still eats like a pig and not scraping yet so hopefully he'll be ok until then?

[jnc914]

Sounds like the beginning stage of velvet. If you actually start to see powdery dots and a yellowish film on the fish, it is velvet and it is likely pretty far along at that time. I just had velvet wipe out my tank 2 months ago. My fish were doing the same things as your PBT, and next thing I know they are covered with parasites. By the time I treated it was too late; most fish dead within a two week time span......Copper is the only way to go with velvet.

[shelburn61]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=13298779#post13298779 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by jnc914
Sounds like the beginning stage of velvet. If you actually start to see powdery dots and a yellowish film on the fish, it is velvet and it is likely pretty far along at that time. I just had velvet wipe out my tank 2 months ago. My fish were doing the same things as your PBT, and next thing I know they are covered with parasites. By the time I treated it was too late; most fish dead within a two week time span......Copper is the only way to go with velvet.

Yep, I'm pretty positive it's velvet, but copper should take care of whatever it is. I did another FW dip before I left yesterday as a temporary measure. Cuprimine treatment starts tomorrow :hammer: :uzi: