Persistent head shaking, elevated breathing - maybe part of a larger picture

[LobsterOfJustice]

I have a regal angelfish that has been in my care for a little over 3 years. It has started head twitching the past few months. It will have bursts of severe twitching where it will dart across the tank as part of the quick spasm. Also shows elevated breathing. I has been through 4 treatments of Prazi-pro in the DT. The twitching gets better during the treatment but comes back after.

The larger picture...

He, and a couple other fish in the tank, also do not show perfectly clear fins - minor blotchy/cloudyness comes and goes. Occasional ich spots on some fins in times of stress, but nothing major. Some will will occasionally flash, but not much. A cleaner wrasse has a cloudy eye with no swelling (for the past few months). A filefish has a cloudy eye in a different way, swollen with pus, for about a year. I recently lost a diamond goby of unknown causes - healthy fat and eating up until has last day. One day after feeding he was upside-down on the bottom, heavy breathing, and then died an hour later. Sometimes I can tell that something is just "off"... I can't explain it, but something is going on and I can't tell what.

Please help me develop a plan of action. I'm willing to take drastic action, but only if it's warranted. It would be a pain to remove and treat all the fish, but it's possible. I worry that if the Regal is removed and treated, he will be re-infected once he is reintroduced into the tank.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

More information...

The tank is a 180g mixed reef. All corals are happy/healthy, so I don't think this is a husbandry or water quality issue. For the most part, the fish look fine and act normal...

I want to get this under control before adding more fish, but at this point I don't know what to treat for, if anything. To reiterate, as far as actual symptoms:
- Regal angel head twitching/spasms and heavy breathing
- Cleaner wrasse cloudy unswollen eye
- Pectoral and tail fins not perfectly clear, smudges come and go (on copperband butterfly, regal angel, sunburst anthias).
- Filefish has cloudy eye swollen with pus. I think this is unrelated but figured it is worth mentioning.

1. How old is this aquarium?
Aquarium has bene set up for 10 months, was upgraded from a 90g prior to that which was established for about 2 years.

2. If less than six months old, what is ammonia level?
No ammonia, nitrate, or nitrate. Tank is housing soft, LPS, and SPS corals which are happy.

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured?
1.026 via refractometer.

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium?
December.

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How?
Observationally quarantined for several weeks, but not prophylactically treated. Same goes for most other fish in the tank.

6. If you are using a copper based medication, which one? How often do you measure level? When?
N/A

7. If you are using hyposalinity, how did you calibrate your refractometer?
N/A

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color?
See original post.

9. Please describe the behavior of the fish as best you can. Is it acting reclusive? Is it always up towards the top of the aquarium? Is it avoiding light? How active is the fish?
Fish are overall acting normally. Some fish display very occasional flashing. Regal Angel has twitching spasms.

10. Is the fish eating? What?
All fish are eating normally. Pellets and frozen.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I'm thinking the first thing to do is freshwater dip the regal. This should hopefully give me an indication as to if flukes are part of the issue. I have never FW dipped a fish before so I will read up on it. I'm thinking after the dip I will immediately place the fish into a bucket of salt water while I analyze the dip water for signs of flukes, and depending on the outcome of the dip, place the regal either back into the DT or in to quarantine.

 

[ThRoewer]

When was the last wet item (coral, clam, rock,...) added?
Also, what other fish are in that tank?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I added some corals (dipped in Bayer and CoralRx) in january and february, but I first noticed the Regal head twitching in december, a few weeks after a pintail wrasse was added (whom I observationally QT'd).

First Prazipro treatment was in December. 4 weeks between first and second treatments. Second and third treatments were consecutive weeks. I waited a week between third and fourth treatments.

Complete fish list:
Regal Angelfish
Majestic Angelfish
Copperband Butterflyfish
3x Green Chromis
2x Lyretail Anthias
Sunburst Anthias
2x Ocellaris Clownfish
Pintail Wrasse
Ornate Leopard Wrasse
Cleaner Wrasse
Yellow Watchman Goby
Aiptasia Filefish
Valenciennea longipinnis (recently deceased, unknown cause)

 

[microlady]

I'm following along because these are the same symptoms I saw before I lost several fish. Do you think it could be latent marine velvet? Mine had cloudy fins, head shaking, and scratching on rocks, and then a week later I started losing some. They looked sprinkled in powdered sugar, and the spots were smaller than marine ich. All of them that died had labored rapid breathing and ended up on their side. Good luck!

 

[microlady]

My fish had symptoms about 3-4 weeks after adding two new fish. Is your timeline about the same? Maybe the wrasse brought it in?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I'm not sure I've ever dealt with velvet, but I was under the impression it doesn't really take it's time - shows up quickly and ravages everything quickly.

I worked on setting the QT up yesterday so I guess I will try to nab the regal out of the DT some time this week and dip him. I'm still not sure how to proceed from there - the idea of housing all my fish somewhere other than the DT for 3 months is daunting. I don't want to up the dose of prazipro because the wrasses have sown they don't like it at the current dose... but assuming I am dealing with flukes, maybe I could remove the wrasses and dose the tank with a 2x dose instead of letting it go fallow. That's assuming a 2x dose would take care of it (or even multiple 2x doses), which I'm not 100% confident in...

 

[microlady]

When it shows up it kills fast, but many say it can be latent for weeks. It's life cycle timeline can vary too. This is especially true if the distributor treats with low levels of copper.

 

[Deinonych]

When it shows up it kills fast, but many say it can be latent for weeks. It's life cycle timeline can vary too. This is especially true if the distributor treats with low levels of copper.

Yes, sub-therapeutic levels of copper can mask the symptoms, likely due to sub-clinical levels of infection (some dinospores are killed, but not all). Although the life cycle period of Amyloodinium can vary, it is considerably less variable than Cryptocaryon (3-6 days vs. 7-72 days respectively).

https://srac.tamu.edu/serveFactSheet/227

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Here is an example of the cloudyness that comes and goes on the fins, showing on the copperband today:





Came home today to find the leopard with a pale spot on his side... the regal had something similar a few days ago that came/went.





I'm ready to take action... I just don't know what to do.

 

[CHSUB]

I'm ready to take action... I just don't know what to do.

not seeing much there, maybe flukes? i have had flukes and treated them successfully with prazi. however, i have read about accounts were it has failed even with higher doses. iirc at a university in texas, where all the fish were treated with prazi, but still most died! i think removal and formalin dips might be your only solution?

 

[ThRoewer]

How about hyposalinity? I would think two weeks at 1.010 kg/L would put an end to all flukes.

 

[Fishkeeper44]

Sorry to intrude but how do you start a thread?

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I guess the good thing about flukes is that, from everything I've read, the fallow period for them is much shorter than something like ich. I'm trying to figure out in my head how to do this... if I've got to tear the tank apart and take all the rock out to get all the fish out for treatment anyway, it's probably easier to keep the fish in the system while the rock and corals go fallow somewhere else, rather than trying to house all the fish somewhere else for a few weeks.

Since the standard prazi dose didn't work, I'm wondering what the next best move for full system treatment is. Maybe a series of freshwater dips while the tank goes fallow. Plan is still to catch the regal this week or weekend and do a dip to see if anything falls off.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

I was able to remove the copperband and dip him (while he was displaying blotchy cloudyness on fins) - I examined the dip water and I don't think anything came off of him. Still waiting for the regal to get a little more comfortable with the trap, but I will dip him as well when I can catch him. I guess it's good that the copperband didn't have flukes, but now I don't know whats causing his cloudy fins...

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Dipped the Regal - I examined the dip water closely, and although there were a lot of small dusty particulates, there was nothing that I think are flukes based on the descriptions I've read online.

I've had low levels of ich in the tank since getting in to the hobby, I just never went through the ordeal of letting the rock and corals go fallow so I know it's always been there at low levels. I wonder if ich in the gills is causing the regals head twitching? And the marks on the fins and body - maybe that's bacterial? Although I wouldnt expect bacterial diseases to exist long term at sub-outbreak levels and display symptoms that come and go. I'm not positive the opaque marks arent just coral stings - I do have a lot of euphyllia.

 

[LobsterOfJustice]

Following up on this - I have still not determined a diagnosis. I continue to see rough patches on the sides of fish (most recently a chromis) along with cloudy blotches on clear fins.

I am also seeing a few spots of ich on the fins of the regal and copperband consistently now, so I am in the process of removing all fish and performing tank transfers on them. At this point, I think I am just going to put each fish through a treatment of Bifuran+ and/or Nitrofuracin Green after tank transfer just to make sure there isn't something bacterial going on.