Something on my filefish. Parasite?

[bat21]

Noticed something on my filefish. At first I thought it was just a bristle, bc they have many white bristles on them, but its bigger now, and its been a few days of barely eating and acting weird. I beefed up my cleanup crew last week with some turbos, trochus, nessarius, nerites, and dwarf ceriths. So maybe one of them brought something in?


1. How old is this aquarium? 11 Months

3. What is SG of this aquarium? How measured? 1.024 Refractometer

4. When was the last fish added to this aquarium? August 5th (this fish and its buddy)

5. Was it quarantined? If so, how? And how long? Was it prophylactically treated? How? Yes, a month. No treatment, just observation.

8. Please describe in detail, the appearance of the fish? If there is one or more pimples, are they lumpy? What color? Just one white thing that protrudes, sort of looks like a parasite of some kind. See photos below.

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? Moving slower than usual, hanging out in the back a lot of the time behind the rocks.

10. Is the fish eating? What? Barely. Had a tiny bit a frozen yesterday. Nothing today.

 

[Code4]

Bump, following. Hope all works out.

Shelley

 

[bat21]

Should I just try prazi on the whole tank? Or put him in QT and do it there?

 

[bat21]

So, this took a turn for the worse. Got home from work, he looked the same. I ate dinner, came back to the tank and he was stuck on the overflow grate. Couldve been a minute, couldve been a half hour. But his eye looks swollen, he was breathing extremely fast, obviously. Was in shock. I immediately put him in quarantine. He has calmed down, but now he's sick AND injured.

Pretty dire situation now. Would love some advice. My plan right now is to just let him relax, get used to the new tank, not stress him anymore. And then maybe dose the tank with prazipro tomorrow to fight the initial problem.

Any thoughts would be very welcome.

 

[Code4]

Has the initial white thing changed at all? Could it be a type of parasitic copepods? Anchorworm?

Shelley

 

[MrsReefK]

Bump for you.

 

[bat21]

So, just to post a conclusion. After I put him in QT, I strarted Prazi, and the next day I got him to start eating pellets very well. But then, a day after that, he ended up stuck on the tiny powerhead intake. Probably just swam by and in his weakened state, couldn't swim free. So after a second incident (the first being the overflow in the DT) he was just too injured to make it.

The problem with filefish is that they are so thin and flat, they are like sails, and can so easily be pushed in the current, and if they can't escape an intake, they are just flattened against it. I honestly didn't think the intake on this tiny little powerhead would be enough to trap him, but I was wrong.

So, lesson learned, I guess. I do think it was initially some type of parasite and had I gotten him out of the DT sooner and somehow blocked the intake of the powerhead, maybe he might have survived.

 

[Code4]

This is awful. I have a copperband, same flat body type. I hope you can find another for the remaining fish. It may not have been the powerhead either. He could have just expired during the night and floated over by it. Somethings are not meant to be known. :sad2: Thanks so much for the update.

Sorry for the loss.

Shelley