Need help identifying ailment of foxface

cesau

New member
I noticed some dark spots on my foxface rabbit fish, other than his normal spots/camoflauge. I have also noticed some reddening of his tail, and a small piece of his tailfin missing. For the time being I have set him up with his own 10 gal. qt, atleast until I can get a decent diagnosis. Any ideas?

foxface-left.jpg



foxface-right.jpg
 
Note that in the description in the link you gave that other bacterium are often isolated from infected fish. What this means, based on my experience, is that bacterial septicaemia can be caused by a wide variety of bacteria and one shouldn't jump to conclusion that it's Mycobacterium marinum. You can't really tell from the external lesions, such a black patch/spot. If your fish dies and you decide to cut it open and you see lots of cottage cheese-like lumps in the visceral organs (aka granulomas) - that's a different story! Even then, however, granulomas don't positively mean M. marinum is involved as many other bacteria can cause these types of lesions. Note that other things can cause black spots, in particular localised skin reactions (aka melanization) to parasite infections. Looking at your pictures, however, leads me to suspect your fish might have a bacterial infection of some sort. Note the haemorrhaged areas on the caudal peduncle and the area where the soft dorsal rays insert. You might look for other signs of bacterial infection (swelling, pop-eye, and additional lesions with haemorrhaging, and in particular small red spots, listlessness, to name a few key signs). If this is the case you should consider an antibiotic treatment, preferable using an orally administered preparation (eg: Seachem Focus + any of Sulfathiazole/Kanaplex/Neoplex or Aquarium Products Gel-Tek Ulta Cure BX). If, ultimately, your fish is infected with M. marinum, which is a possibility, don't get your hopes up of successfully treating it. Infections from this bacterium are very difficult to treat.

Hope this helps - good luck with it.
 
Rondelet,

Thank you for your very insightful post.

I stopped by my LFS last night on my way home from work and showed them a few pictures. They didnt know what to make of it.

I think I have ruled out a lot of the more common "new tank plagues". (My tank is about a year old, and I've had the foxface for about 6 months.) I think right now I just need to be observant, patient, and try to keep him from being stressed. (Sometimes the low stress and observant thing seems to conflict, he doesnt like being watched so much.) I hope to see some signs of a change one way or the other over the weekend, which may give me a better idea of which way to go.

If he does end up parishing, I will attempt an autopsy, but to be honest I havent done anything similiar since I disected a fish in highschool biology, and I'm not sure that even counts. =)

I have read a few refresher articles on basic fish anatomy. Is there an abstract "saltwater hobbyist's guide to performing an autopsy" somewhere online?
 
I have noticed a variety of Rabbitfishes coming through these last 2 years with this condition, or which develop the condition shortly after arrival. I've usually seen no less than 6 spots and up to 18+ spots (I can't count that quickly!). They look just like your photo.

I've treated some fishes as if it were an unknown fluke and given it formalin dips per the literature. They cured quickly.

As an experiment, I let a couple of them just acclimate, in isolation. Once eating well in super good water, they both recovered and 'lost the spots.' They 'cured' in about twice to three times the time as the ones I treated. I kept them in isolation for 10 weeks after the spots disappeared. One such fish that was untreated is going on 1 year in its display tank and it and no other fish has ever shown signs of this.

In short, I'm not sure what it is/was, but so far no fish has died in my care having this condition, so I've been unable to effect any kind of post mortem.
 
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