New Heniochus picky or issue?

[NarakuAulonocar]

I got a new heniochus last Friday.

Day 1: I kept the quarintine tank dark after acclimation to hyposalinity
I freshwater dipped for 1 minute and didn't see anything.
When I feed, fish tries new life spectrum pellet but spits out.

Day 2: I saw head shake and breathing from one gill. I did a 5 minute freshwater dip and saw nothing. pectoral fins got a little cloudy (I believe due to dip). Got scared and dosed prazipro but decided to do water change after 10 minutes because I had bad experience where prazipro killed fish appetite.

Day 3: Fish tried pellets in the morning but still spit. Fish then stopped trying pellets during the evening.

I tried clams with selcon and fish ate eagerly but couldn't swallow pieces and spat.

Day3 till now: Fish doesn't even look at pellet but pecks at the side of tank and gets excited when I net out the leftover pellets. He tries to nip the net.
Occasionally I see fast breathing through one gill but usually he breaths normally. Pectoral fins are not getting worse.


My question is does this fish have flukes causing appetite loss or is he just picky? My previous heniochus have ate.

Should I treat or feed something else. I want to get him feeding on New life spectrum because its more nutritious. The fish hasn't eaten for a week but he didn't loose weight and is still active. :headwallblue:

 

[RJT]

I had one for a few months. He was my favorite fish, always swimming day or night. Only my clowns do that now. He had a voracious appetite-ate everything flakes, pellets, mysis, formula 2 and nori. His head did shake often-seemed to be normal for him for the 2+ months I had him.

Then one day he disappeared, he was the biggest fish around 4in. So if he was killed no one could have eaten him in a few hours. Also, I fed the tank at noon, he ate, then at 4 he wasn't there. Everyone else ate as usual. I checked the floor even though its is covered, the sump, overflow and a visual of the rocks-it is a very open aquascape-nothing. Doubt it was a disease since no one was sick.

 

[Dr Colliebreath]

It could be the hypo. I normally want my fish eating well for a couple of days before starting any treatment unless they have clear signs of disease. I would try a couple more foods today and if the fish doesn't start eating and shows no signs of parasites, bring the salinity back up slowly, get it eating and treat with PraziPro as needed after it starts eating (preferred approach) or sooner if you still suspect fluke and it won't eat. After it is eating aggressively, medicate.

 

[NarakuAulonocar]

update: After some training I got him to eat and he was good until today. Now he is lethargic and still twitching. I notice the twitching becomes worse when meds are out.




Here is how it went out:
1) still kept hypo and did freshwater dips

2) Treated with prazipro for 2 weeks with hypo (eating) but fins got cloudy.

3) Tried the no med approach but started twitching (eating). I thought it could be Brook, velvet or ich. Did quinine sulfate. On day 2 of quinine, I saw fluke like symptom on eye. The cloudy eye looked like fluke attack based on the picture from the sticky fluke thread.

4) Then did tank transfer method with fresh water dips and antibiotics. seachem paraguard but stopped because it didn't seem to help.


5) Today, I did a huge water change and another dip (nothing fell off). After the dip, he is getting weaker and twitching. His eyes became cloudier. The reason I dipped was because I heard that flukes could detach from the eyes.
I called national fish pharmacy and they thought it could be bacterial and told me to try acriflavine due to its wide spectrum. However, I can't find acriflavine so I tried tetra parasite clear and fungus clear which has acriflavine and nitrofurazone respectively. I'm currently waiting for De-Los to arrive.



:rolleye1:
I'm freaking out. This is my second red sea heniochus and they are expensive and hard to come by. Any thoughts? This fish is showing same issues as my first heniochus (passed away). It came from quality marine. Is quality marine currently having fluke issues?

Has anyone experienced fish getting weaker from hypo or freshwater dips? I believe his fins started getting cloudy after the second dip.

I don't think its flukes anymore because nothing showed in the dips but why is he twitching?

1)Am I experiencing a hypo and prazi resistant fluke Or am I misdiagnosing? Do flukes always show up in dips? If yes, could it be velvet or brook? But if so, I doubt it would last this long.


2)I'm completely lost. I accounted for flukes (Prazi and dips), ich velvet and brook (tank transfer, quinine, paraguard, dips), bacteria (antibiotics-maracyn, maracyn II and triple sulfa).
What am I missing?

3) Is there any fish vets or pathologist I can contact

 

[NarakuAulonocar]

1) One thing I might have missed.
What about parasitic isopods? How would you treat that?

2) Is prophylactic hypo and dips a bad idea? I had a flame and damsel die the next day after a dip and hypo.

3) What is a good quarantine procedure that worked for you? Please critique my revised procedure.
a) Fresh water dip and put in normal salinity. Keep tank lights off.

b) Start to training to feed the next day. Feed well for a week. If any symptoms show, treat accordingly (step c or d)

c) Do Tank transfer method with 3 days apart, 3 transfers in slight hypo (1.017). (If actively treating for brook or velvet, combine with quinine and do hypo)

d) Treat with De-los

e) observe

 

[NarakuAulonocar]

He is still hanging in there. Hopefully he can recover.


lesson learned:
dips are very stressful, usually cause more harm than good.
It weakens fish and opens them up to opportunistic bacteria infections.
If first dip didn't work, don't dip again.

prazipro doesn't always work for fluke like symptoms