Terryb, Leebca, Opinions please!!

BTTRFLYGRL

New member
Her is a letter I sent to another website, I didn't feel like rewriting everything. Could you please read and give me your opinion on the situation
Thankyou!!




Hello Crew!
In January, I received my new 240 gallon. 8' tank. I had been so excited when I ordered the tank [early Dec.], I went out and purchased a small Hippo Tang and a three inch Whiteface Tang [Ancanthurus Japonicus] [ I know-patience, sometimes I lose control!! lol] I had two cycled 55 gallon tanks set up to quarantine them and I figured they could stay in those tanks until my 240 was ready or I could move one or both into my 125 for awhile. Well they both had ich , no surprise there. Both went through 5 weeks Hyposalinity..SG at 1.009 ..I know Bob is not a fan of Hypo but it worked. Both fish were spot free for 5 weeks before I started raising the SG to normal. Both fish did well and two weeks later I stupidly moved the Whiteface into my 90 to give him a little more room. In this tank I had two Ocellaris Clowns, one Arc Eye Hawkfish, one Salon Fairy Wrasse and one Blue Devil Damsil. He did well and loved to play follow the leader with ole 'Charley Brown Wrasse' [everyone picked on him]. After about a week, He started swimming in front of the powerhead. And to my surprise, someone came in while I was sleeping and painted light colored polka dots all over him! He looked as if he was ready to join the circus. I thought maybe this was due to stress, maybe the bully of the tank [Hawkfish] had been at him. I left him in there for another 2 weeks as he seemed fine otherwise. After 2 weeks I got worried. I moved him back to the 55. At this point I was not sure what I was dealing with, none of the other fish in the 90 were having problems [and to this day, they are all still fine] I dropped the SG to 1.015. I treated him with Furan-2. This cleared up the polka dots but left tiny bumps all over him. You could only see them if you were right up against the glass of the tank. Okay, so I am still not sure what I am dealing with..I had thought Flukes was a possibility, but I thought the Hypo treatment would have gotten rid of that issue. I decided to give him a Paraguard dip. I prefer this over Formalin. It was an hour dip at their recommended dose. I watched him through the 20 gallon tank and to my amazement saw tiny strings coming off off the fish. They were all over, I even saw some come out of his gills. After the hour was up, I placed him back in the 55. I preformed 2 more dips on him, only these were freshwater dips. I unfortunately didn't have an hour to sit and watch the fish. Both times more strings [or worms] came off but less with each dip. I followed with a treatment of Spectrogram . He returned to his beautiful self! And after two weeks I moved both my Tangs to my 125. My 240 has been up and going for two months, but I wanted to let the tank age a little more before adding fish.
I need to give you a little info on my main [are you still awake?] Its been running for 15 months. All occupants have been in the tank for 12 months with the exception of two Ocellaris Clowns who were added six months ago after they spent 4 weeks in quarantine. I had no problems,all fish were healthy. Occupants include, 1-Iridis Wrasse [awesome fish] 2- Argi Angels, 1 Candy Hogfish, the 2 Ocellaris Clowns and my favorite Raccoon Butterfly [Queen of the tank]. Around October of last year, after talking with others that had Raccoons, I decided to try some coral. YIKES! I know, Raccoons are not reef safe but a few other people had been successful in keeping both. I added some Button Polyps and Hairy Mushrooms. Well, my Raccoon loved them. I had to remove them to another tank. I noticed after adding the corals [I did not quarantine the corals, I know I'm bad] white specks on my Raccoons face. Very tiny flat white specks. Kind of looked like debris.Its not ich, lord knows I know what that looks like! In November, I notice one of my Clowns had a small abrasion. After a week or so it appeared as if her skin was peeling. She did appear irritated and even let the Cleaner shrimp clean her. She was eating well and not gasping for air so I kept an eye on her, did a few very large water changes and after a couple of weeks she was back to normal. A couple of days ago, I found a crab. I am wondering if this is where the abrasion came from. They have found a new spot on the other side of the tank from the crab.
Anyway, since then, all has been fine except for the occasional specks on my Raccoons face. I thought it safe to add the Tangs now. I added them on a Sunday . I did a water change on Wednesday .I cleaned off the rocks which sent debris flying..When I turned on the lights a few hours later both Tangs had tiny bumps ! Many of the bumps appear under the skin .You cannot see them unless your right up at the tank.It looks a lot like what the Whiteface had before only without the polka dots. No other fish are effected, just the Tangs.. Along with the bumps under the skin, are a few tiny white specks [like the Raccoon] I am so disappointed. And very confused. This still does not look like ick to me. The fish do appear irritated, often swimming in front of the powerhead at night. I am getting my quarantines ready again, bummer! I recently ordered a book of fish diseases which will hopefully give me some answers. You can always find lots of info about Ich, but not much on other issues such as Flukes. So I come to you for help as usual. I just don't know where to go from here. I plan on giving both Tangs a Paraguard dip, I would like to see if the little worms or strings appear again. I plan on placing them both back into quarantine. I am ,at this point, not sure what to do with the other fish. I plan on giving them all dips before moving them to my 240. I had planned on moving the sand and rock from my 125 into the new tank but now I don't think that's such a good idea.
Could this be a type of Fluke? Is it possible to have a Specie specific parasite? Can you come to my house and take a look? Just kidding. Any advise is appreciated. Sorry for the long letter but I felt I needed to give you as much info as possible
 
Kim, that's quite a bit of information and I'm having a bit of trouble following the time line, so if my answer seems confused please forgive me. Most of the following is drawn from Noga, by the way.

My theory is the parasites came in with the tangs and stayed with the tangs, so the bit about the coral & crab are unrelated. If this is true, it implies that the parasites can be on the fish undetected at least under some circumstances. It could be that some stages of the life cycle are not detectable to the eye. Alternately, they may only show when the fish are stressed.

My guess is they are in fact a type of "fluke" or monogenean. It's also conceivable they are parasitic copepods, (e.g., anchor worms). You would have to look at them under a microscope to distinguish. There are a wide variety of these and I would expect many of them to be resistant to hyposalinity. You are lucky that the Paraguard and freshwater dips appear to be at least partially effective.

There are two possible life cycles involved. Either the parasites drop off the fish to reproduce (similar to Ich) or they lay eggs on the fish. This affects treatment. You are apparently able to kill the adults on the fish with a dip. However, if the parasites reproduce off the fish then you miss them... and if they reproduce on the fish the eggs may be resistant. In either case, if you repeat the dips for longer than the maximum reproductive cycle (sorry, can't say how long that could be), then you can eradicate them.

If you're inclined to treat the tank rather than using dips, try an organophosphate, such as Clout or Fluke-Tabs, or something containing praziquantel. I know you know better than to treat your reef tank... there it's better to wait them out.
 
This isn't my area of experience, sorry.

There are worms/flukes which are not obligate parasites. Meaning, they can infect fish and they continue to live in a fishless tank until fish come along.

There are definitely flukes which are Family specific, but I haven't ever run across them.

Photos would be helpful in case I've seen this before but don't recognize it from your description.

A photo was posted in this thread:
http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=803623

Do your 'bumps' look like those?

:rollface:
 
Thank you both for responding..I was hoping my info wasn't too confusing;) Its been three months dealing with these guys, I had to think hard.

I just ordered the book from Noga and I am looking forward to reading it.

The bumps do not look like that photo at all..I will try to get a picture. The bumps are very small, if you are casually looking at my tank, you cannot see anything wrong [maybe I should just stop looking so close;) ] The Hippo appears more irritated than the P.B. The Hippo looks almost as if he has Eczema:confused: It appears more like a rash. Reading the info you posted from Noga's book makes sense. Both fish were stress by the move to the main tank. They were given a hard time by the Raccoon and Angels. The Raccoon would turn sideways and try to 'spike' them:rolleyes: I do have Prazipro, which contains Praziquantil...and its a FOWLER that will be taken down soon....but I have Cleaner shrimp and snails so I am soooooooo tempted to treat my main, but I won't:) I am leaning towards these flukes being the type to reproduce on the fish. They don't fall off, they just seem to spread, get more numerous. But that doesn't explain the Raccoons spots.. Oh well. For now, I may remove the two Tangs and give them the dips and I'll keep an eye on the others. I will treat the others if they too become affected..I do plan to dip the others before placing them in my 240 regardless. I am going to do a few large water changes also. I have been soaking the food in Prazipro, hoping that will have some affect.
Thanks for the info, I'll post results and I'll try to get some decent pictures!


Thankyou both again for taking time to read this!
 
I'm not...I've learned to keep my mouth shut around you, but Lugol's not a fruit. I'm not out to convince ppl about natural immunity, there are other who believe as I believe, but Lugol's is a disinfectant, it should help.
 
Updating for search purposes!


I removed both Tangs to a qt, treated them with Prazipro and they look great! I plan on leaving them in qt 4-6 weeks and possibly retreat if necessary
 
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