Achilles Tang eye parasite / disease

[andrewkw]

For a long time there has been a minor issue with my Achilles eye. This minor issue appears to finally becoming major. It almost looks like he has sand or ich sized particles inside his eye. It has never really bothered him as he swims and eats normally. Just recently the eye has puffed up to look almost like popeye and the white spots inside the eye are worse. For a long time I hoped this would just go away as I have had a lot of other things to worry about. I moved over 700km and not only that I moved with a 6-8 week span of limbo so he spent that time in a 90g tank at my parents house. Now he's back in a normal reef environment with proper filtration flow ect. It's now that his eye has puffed up. He was no worse for wear in the 90 gallon, harassing fish like you'd expect an Achilles to do in a tank with a 3x2 footprint. He lost a little weight as I was careful not to overfeed the tank.

I think it may be flukes, but it's never spread to any other fish or any other part of his body. In the past I have had to catch him and treat for ich a second time after it was introduced to my system through a coral or other non fish item at some point. So counting that time he has been treated twice with seachem cupramine in the little over 2 and a half years I have owned him. He's swimming and eating fine but the eye continues to worsen. It looks like he still has at least limited vision through the eye. I've looked through tons of threads here and elsewhere and cant find a comparable case. Because the problem is inside the eyeball it's very difficult to get a clear photo. This is the best I could do.

I also included a photo of his better side showing he does look normal from one side. Would a freshwater dip confirm flukes? I don't believe he has any on his body and there are no signs of scratching. Other options would be removing and treating with ??? or leaving him in and treating the entire tank with prazi (mixed reef mostly softies and lps currently no sps). I lost a lot of my prized collection in the move all of which were related to not being able to setup the tank properly for 2 months, everything survived the actual move.

I welcome a better diagnosis and treatment option.

https://goo.gl/photos/vTxieMiZkydP4y7r5
https://goo.gl/photos/gL6DMde9BBBTJQ2a6
https://goo.gl/photos/3MjiaE5XUH4nBQJA6

Sorry I couldn't figure out how to directly link the photos haven't used my google image storage in a while.

 

[scooter31707]

Hard to tell, but it could be flukes. If you are able to catch I would put him in a QT for observation and treat with PRazi-Pro.

 

[andrewkw]

Hard to tell, but it could be flukes. If you are able to catch I would put him in a QT for observation and treat with PRazi-Pro.

Is it possible because they are internal that being inside his eye is somehow preventing them from spreading to other parts of his body / other fish?

I don't really believe that but with that being said treating with Prazi should I consider treating in tank since it's reef safe (lps and softies are all I have with a couple of anemones). This would also eliminate any in the tank if it's more widespread then I think. Again this has been a problem for months. It's only within the last week that his eye has puffed but there has been "something inside his eye" long long term. It just never got significantly worse.

 

[andrewkw]

I figured it must be flukes, so as the eye got more cloudy I decided to catch him to do a freshwater dip to confirm it was flukes before treating the entire tank with prazipro. I dipped him for 5 minutes with RODI water and PH buffer and not much of anything fell off. Additionally it appears the freshwater dip has killed him.

I just moved 700km and lost most of my fish in the chaos of being in limbo for 6 weeks before I could properly setup my tank. While I didn't have him that long a little under 3 years he was my second oldest remaining fish.

I'm giving him another 30 minutes just in case he does come back but it's really not looking good. I will reluctantly try and get better pics of the eye after I remove the body to perhaps ID what the heck this was.

 

[andrewkw]

So he did die which again is a little surprising that the fresh water dip killed him. That being said I would suspect he had only months left in him perhaps less.

My concern was the eye has again gotten significantly worse and if it was internal flukes when the eye burst they would infect all the other fish. Now that I reluctantly cut his eye open it almost looks like cataracts.

Unfortunately I don't have a macro lens or a microscope so this was the best I could do.

https://goo.gl/photos/pUf2MREsoE5pk47J9 Photos are graphic and there is one included from less than 2 weeks ago when it started to get bad.

Remember he has had something in his eye probably for 6 months. Nothing new has been added to the tank. He did go through a lot of stress with the big move. I did not have it in me to cut anywhere but the eye. I did soak the body in the fresh water to see if anything would come out now that the eye had been punctured and nothing did.

Anyone have any insight? I am going to dispose of the fish now as much as I would love to send him to a lab to figure out what it was that's not going to happen. Still some closure would be nice.

 

[TheRegion83]

Tough loss on a nice fish. I'm dealing with something similar with an angelfish.