Bristletooth Tang problem

[justthewife]

My Bristletooth Tang has become paler in the last week. Then the other day I noticed a dark patch on his under belly just under his fin. I thought at first it was from rubbing along the sand on the bottom of the tank. Then he started looking like he was getting more on his sides and on his nose. He now has a whitish raised look where the spots are darker and he also has a white thing on his one eye. He looks like he is uncomfortable or itchy. He keeps trying to get the other fish in the tank to "clean" him. Especially his darkened belly area. His tail is a bit ragged now and I notice a whitish spot on the top edge of it about mid way toward his body. He is eating fine and swimming around the tank as usual aside from appearing itchy or uncomfortable. I marked the areas where I am asking about. The other fish in the tank don't seem to be affected. Anyone have any ideas? This was the best picture I could get. He does not like to be photographed at all.

[JustinM]

Bacterial infection. Kanaplex and furan 2 should take care of it. This needs to be done in a qt and not in the DT.

Sulfaplex will help for the tail issue


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[justthewife]

Originally Posted by JustinM

Bacterial infection. Kanaplex and furan 2 should take care of it. This needs to be done in a qt and not in the DT.

Sulfaplex will help for the tail issue


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Thank you for your help with this thus far.

I am getting a bit worried now because the lightening maroon fish that the Tang has been wanting to clean him is now showing some fin fraying and not acting as cheerful as usual. Of course he is a $100 fish and the sick Tang decided to make him his closest buddy. I ordered the medicine for the Tang but it wont be here for three to four days. We have no LFS here that carry any medicines for fish. The closest one would be 2 hours away. The Tang is showing larger white spots on his nose and head now but they are only really visible when I look closely.

When the medicine arrives for the Tang, any suggestions on how to administer it? Should I be doing something for the whole tank?

[justthewife]

Still waiting for the medicine to come. should be here by tomorrow. I keep reading about the symptoms my Tang is having. I do believe he has a bacterial infection but I am wondering if that is a secondary thing. When reading about his symptoms, it keeps coming up Flukes. He has white spots on his eyes. Both of them now. A few days ago it was only one eye. He keeps his fins close to his body, he is shaking his head back and forth and he has white spots on his nose between his eyes (could be mucus?) and spiky looking white things on his nose and some areas of of his body. When he was in the DT, he kept wanting the other fish to pick things off of him and he is very itchy. If I treat for the bacterial infection, should I follow with a Prazi treatment? I am afraid if I try a freshwater dip it will be too much stress on him and I am nervous about doing it wrong for a fluke diagnosis. Also, if he has flukes, do I have to treat the DT? If the other fish were picking things off of him (which my lightening maroon clown was only too willing to do), do they have the flukes now? If it is indeed flukes? Sorry for so many questions. I want to treat for the right thing. I am also nervous about treatments in my DT because I have a rose bubble tip anemone and two leopard wrasses which I read don't do well with treatments. This is hard.

[justthewife]

We gave the Tang a fresh water dip and he does have flukes. The dip didn't go as badly as I was thinking it might and now at least I can see the flukes on him. He probably has had them a while and we just never noticed until they got really bad. Anyone know what I should do now?

[lagatbezan]

The best treatment for flukes is prazipro and your whole tank should be treated. Do one round and then wait 5-7 days and then do a second round after a water change. Doing a third treatment in another 5-7 days might not be a bad idea either. Prazipro depletes the oxygen in the tank so make sure to add extra airstone or surface agitation for oxygen exchange. Make sure you shake the bottle vigorously for a little while before you add it.
If the fish is badly infected a 50-60min acriflavine bath after the fresh water dip would be great to help against secondary infections.
There are some flukes that are prazipro resistant in which case hypo for 5-7 days or multiple formalin baths 5-7 days apart would hopefully treat it but I hope that's not a strain you are dealing with.

[justthewife]

I was wondering if a rose bubble tip anemone can get flukes or carry them. I was thinking maybe not but I have not been able to find any info on this. The reason I am asking is because I am observing the Tang in the qt now that he has had the fresh water dip and he really looks like he doesn't have any secondary infections that jump out at me. I was thinking of putting him back into the DT and taking the rose tip out and putting that into the QT and then treating the whole DT. I have heard the rose tip will not survive the Prazi treatment. I just want to make sure if I put the anemone into the Qt, he does not reinfect the tank when I add him back after the treatment as its likely flukes are probably in the rocks he is on. I was hoping if I treat the anemone like a TTM, the flukes will die in the QT. Am I right?

[JustinM]

The RBTA is not a suitable host for flukes. The water it was in could have had flukes or eggs. Your anemone will be fine with prazipro. It may get ticked off but will be fine and you will likely stress it more moving it.

Some fish can overcome bacterial infections, hopefully this is the case with your tang. It’s good to have those meds anyways. Keep us updated!

[justthewife]

I really appreciate your help and knowledge!!! I did end up losing one leopard wrasse before the Prazi treatment. She was acting erratic in the tank and then disappeared and never came out again. So far everything else seems to be ok. The Tang is looking a whole lot better but I don't want to jinx myself. I ended up putting him back in the DT and treating the whole tank.

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by justthewife

I really appreciate your help and knowledge!!! I did end up losing one leopard wrasse before the Prazi treatment. She was acting erratic in the tank and then disappeared and never came out again. So far everything else seems to be ok. The Tang is looking a whole lot better but I don't want to jinx myself. I ended up putting him back in the DT and treating the whole tank.

I just looked into the tank and low and behold, the second leopard wrasse is alive!!!!! She had been missing a few days.

[Kactai]

Leopard wrasses are awesome! My favourite fish. I hope everybody makes it!

[justthewife]

Here is a microscopic picture of the fluke that came off the tang. Please note this specimen has been sitting in a cup for a couple days and some deterioration and alteration of its body may have occurred. But I am posting it anyway. Also, picture was taken with a cell phone. The whole body may not be in view.

[justthewife]

So it looks to me like either benedenea or neobenedenea. In which case I am not completely sure the Prazi with get rid of them completely if they are neobenedenea. I have read that hypo salinity for 7 days is pretty much what I would need to do if it is neo. Any thoughts on my diagnosis?

[justthewife]

So far I have placed the Tang back in the DT, removed the anemone to QT and dosed the DT with Prazipro. I did my first dose in the DT of the Prazipro on Thursday. The Angel fish and the maroon lightening clowns were probably the most affected by the Prazipro as when I first put it in they dropped down to the bottom of the tank and were not swimming for a little bit but then they perked up. It did not affect the wrasses at all as far as I can see. So far the Prazipro has definitely made a difference. The Tang is looking a lot better although he may have a secondary infection of some sort. I wanted to treat for the flukes first though to get rid of cause first. I am thinking after treatment with the Prazipro, I will need to treat the Tang for infection with the other meds that were suggested earlier in this thread. At any rate, the Tang does not seem to be in distress anymore and is acting pretty good. The white spots on his eyes have disappeared so I am thinking they were flukes on his eyes. I have added Selcon to the frozen food and upped his algae consumption with some pellets for herbivores which all the fish seem to love. I am planning a 30% water change on Tuesday and dosing the Prazipro. I hope this sounds ok because I basically feel like I don't know what I am doing

I wanted to add, I had already moved the anemone to the QT before I read the one post from JustinM to not do that so I jumped the gun on that one. In looking back on this, I should probably have not removed the anemone and took my chances. The anemone looks really mad right now so maybe he would have been mad either way. I hate learning the hard way.

[justthewife]

I am almost done with my second Prazipro treatment in the DT. All fish are so much better. My question is, do I need to do the Prazipro for a third treatment?

[justthewife]

Did the Prazipro for third time. My Tang is looking the best he has ever looked and it seems it did the job on the flukes. I hope they don't come back.

When can I put the anemone back into the DT tank? He was not treated for flukes in the QT tank but I don't want to reintroduce the flukes back in via rocks or something. He has been in the QT for about 15 days so far.

[WVfishguy]

This is why I always do freshwater dips on any scaled fish.

Years ago I purchased three butterflies, a Mertins, Raccoon, and Pearlscale. They were for my aquarium service customers.

I always quarantined fish prior to putting them in customer's tanks, and I always did a freshwater dip prior to quarantine.

All three went into the freshwater, and it looked as if it were raining flukes.

Dozens of little black flukes, slightly larger than dog fleas, were coming from under the gills and under scales and falling to the bottom of the container. I'm sure there were also plenty of critters too small for me to see.

Until that time, I had only seen flukes under the microscope, in my invertebrate biology classes at college and in my business, where they were mostly in the gills of discus, goldfish and a few other freshwater fish. I had no idea they could be macroscopic.

To this day when I do freshwater dips, I still see black crud on the bottom of the container. And I'll never stop dipping scaled fish.

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by WVfishguy

This is why I always do freshwater dips on any scaled fish.

Years ago I purchased three butterflies, a Mertins, Raccoon, and Pearlscale. They were for my aquarium service customers.

I always quarantined fish prior to putting them in customer's tanks, and I always did a freshwater dip prior to quarantine.

All three went into the freshwater, and it looked as if it were raining flukes.

Dozens of little black flukes, slightly larger than dog fleas, were coming from under the gills and under scales and falling to the bottom of the container. I'm sure there were also plenty of critters too small for me to see.

Until that time, I had only seen flukes under the microscope, in my invertebrate biology classes at college and in my business, where they were mostly in the gills of discus, goldfish and a few other freshwater fish. I had no idea they could be macroscopic.

To this day when I do freshwater dips, I still see black crud on the bottom of the container. And I'll never stop dipping scaled fish.

I will be doing fresh water dips for any new additions. This is the very first time I have ever come across saltwater fish disease so I must have just been lucky. We had a marine reeftank with many fish and corals before for five years and never had a problem at all. Then we dismantled it and sold everything because of too much maintenance and cost and we just didn't have the time and now we just started this fish only tank in August thinking "oh this will be easy." I am thinking it is because we no longer have a reliable LFS anymore. They went out of business and the closest one that is reliable is two hours away. This sick Tang was totally my fault because he was like a rescue Tang. He had scars on him when we got him, probably from the flukes and I thought it was from aggression wounds. I felt sorry for him. He has become my favorite fish though. So I guess in the long run I am not sorry. I guess I can say I am more experienced now. Live and learn.

[lagatbezan]

Originally Posted by justthewife

I will be doing fresh water dips for any new additions. This is the very first time I have ever come across saltwater fish disease so I must have just been lucky. We had a marine reeftank with many fish and corals before for five years and never had a problem at all. Then we dismantled it and sold everything because of too much maintenance and cost and we just didn't have the time and now we just started this fish only tank in August thinking "oh this will be easy." I am thinking it is because we no longer have a reliable LFS anymore. They went out of business and the closest one that is reliable is two hours away. This sick Tang was totally my fault because he was like a rescue Tang. He had scars on him when we got him, probably from the flukes and I thought it was from aggression wounds. I felt sorry for him. He has become my favorite fish though. So I guess in the long run I am not sorry. I guess I can say I am more experienced now. Live and learn.

Great job on the rescue! its always a great feeling when it works out!
I would wait 10-14 days after the last prazi treatment and then do a 3-5 min freshwater dip on him to confirm no more flukes are present.

[justthewife]

Ok, so I am over with round 3 of the Prazipro treatment. All was looking good. Then I am watching the Tang in the tank and he starts shimmying and and shaking back and forth and then flashing a bit. I notice he has a white spot between his eyes. One single white spot. It looks nothing like the flukes. I can see it is bothering him. No other fish seem to be affected. What do I do now? this is so frustrating

[lagatbezan]

could it be ich?

[justthewife]

Originally Posted by lagatbezan

could it be ich?

I don't know I suppose it could be but would it be on other fish if it were ich? It is literally one small white spot that seems to be itchy. Should I wait a few days without any treatment at all to see what happens? Just did a water change yesterday and turned on filtration. Do I treat for ich to be on the safe side? I have some fish that will probably be sensitive to copper. Two leopard wrasses and Bi color angel. Maybe a cleaner shrimp addition (except I have a nasty long nose hawkfish)?