fungas on orange shoulder

[screwsloose]

i ordered this guy the other day from the only lfs in my town and he came in today with a fungas on his side. the guy said it looked like a bite from another fish but it is clearly a fungas. i know i should have just left him there bt he would have went untreated and died and i am hoping i can cure him asits not that bad right now. he is in my 75 gl qt tank currently and i have lowered the salinity down to 1.011, temp is at 76 and i have treated with melafix to start with. is there anything else i can do or should do differently? he is still active and swimming so i think its a new infection.

 

[JHemdal]

screwloose,

Since nobody has answered yet, I'll chime in. External fungal infections of marine fish are rare to the point that I haven't seen one in recent memory. Internal fungal infections such as Ichthyophonus are common enough, but difficult to treat.
Any chance of you posting a picture? I'm guessing what you are seeing is a secondary bacterial infection.

Jay

 

[screwsloose]

i will take pics and post them tonight. from looking this morning it has lightened up already so the melafix has helped.

 

[screwsloose]

sorry for the poor quality but you can get the idea of what it is. the qt tank is in the garage and the front glas is dirty right now.

 

[screwsloose]

bump

 

[JHemdal]

Sorry - I'd just be guessing if I tried to diagnose that...just can't get a clear enough view.

jh

 

[screwsloose]

i will clean the glass and work on a better veiw. i have coppersafe. should i dose this as a precaution or wait?

 

[screwsloose]

here are some better pics

 

[JHemdal]

Thanks, those last two pictures are clear enough to show me....that I have no idea what that is. It looks superficial, with no signs of inflamed tissue. Do you have anemones or LPS corals that could have stung it?

I don't seen anything that would indicate that you should use Coppersafe on it. An arguement could be made for moving the fish to an isolation tank and treating with a broad spectrum antibiotic - but there are risks associated with that.

jh

 

[screwsloose]

he is in my qt tank. i ordered him last week and pickedhim up friday and this was on him. it is raised if you look form the top of the fish but he shows no signs of flashing or irritation. i started a round of general cure last night just to be safe. i will finish the treatment in a couple of days and if nothing changes then i will leave it be. so far i have not seen the little guy eat and a little hippo tang i bought with him is about to pass today. i woke up and he is on his side in the bottom breathing rapidly.

 

[screwsloose]

one last bump for hope of a diagnosis

 

[Aqualove182]

I just brought home an Orange shoulder adult today and could not help myself in reseaching into the issue... I found this information at and I believe JHemdal already mentioned this disease after re-reading the forum

http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/otherdiseases/Bacterial_Fungal_Viral_Other_Fish_Diseases.htm

http://saltaquarium.about.com/cs/compldiagnodisease/a/aa042801.htm

I can only hope that this points you in a different direction to finding out what is wrong. This link has much more information about other possiblities. I am not an expert, just taking the time to see if I can find different information on our never ending web and to educate myself.

Other Fish Diseases


Marine Fungus

Other Names: Ichthyophonus, CNS Disease

Symptoms: Darkening in color, sandpaper appearance of skin, poor appetite, listlessness.

Comments: This disease is usually associated with stress, sometimes brought on by poor water quality. This is not a very common disease and treatment is very difficult. The fungus is usually introduced into the tank when adding new animals.

Treatment: Treatment for this disease is difficult. Improve the environment and remove any possible causes of stress. Try a proprietary anti-fungal medication in a hospital tank. Food soaked in phenoxetol can also be effective if the fish is eating.

Prevention: Insure good water quality and temperature parameters to prevent animals from getting stressed. Stress breaks down the protective mucous coating on a fish and allows the fungus to gain a foothold. Additionally, any new fish should be given a short freshwater bath and kept in a quarantine tank for two to three weeks before being introduced into the main aquarium.