Tiger Stripe

[Mental1]

So here's a picture of my new Tiger Tripe (striatus). He's cute, eaten a couple of mollies but he's got these weird spots on him .. can you look at the picture and see what you think? What could it be? The spots are near his tail and on his feet ...

 

[LisaD]

If I saw something like that on a seahorse, I'd think it was a bacterial infection. On an angler, I'm not sure. Hopefully someone who has seen this before can chime in soon.

 

[Mental1]

I have posted the picture in several places including sending an email to Wetwebmedia. I thought he looked a bit skinny -- he ate silversides for me the first day but then the last two days fed him a live mollie each day. When I look at it magnified it looks almost like a wound healing as there's the round spot and then an edge of white and then it goes to his normal looking skin. The LFS was feeding him a lot of freeze dried krill and silversides. I am going to give him mostly other stuff and thought my fat live mollies might give his immune system a jump start. He's acting normally as far as I can tell -- haven't had him for long. He's all by himself in a 40g tank and he's about 3.5 inches long. Wee little guy ...

I guess it could be a kind of parasite too as it is raised in the center. Very weird whatever it is. I did not see it at the LFS but they said they saw the spots on him and thought it was part of his coloration. I guess they did not look very closely.

 

[Mental1]

Just a bump to see if anyone has any idea of what it is. Also, how well do anglers do with being medicated? I have not decided which way to go but just wondering.

 

[Mental1]

This was the answer from WWW:


<Am hoping these are part of the camouflage repertoire of this, other
Antennariids... Can/do change to make themselves less obvious in the
wild... to fool food organisms as well as predators. A skin scraping, look
under a microscope might reveal this these areas are "fungussed" (bacterial
more likely) infected. See a standard fish pathology tome re this last. Bob
Fenner>

Well, I don't have a microscope, wouldn't know what I was looking at, and don't know what to do next. HHHMMMMMM!

 

[namxas]

First, go smack the LFS employees in the head for feeding the angler "fish crack" (FD krill)...[/rant]

It's hard to tell from the photo. The fish could have been injured during capture, or by a tankmate at the LFS, or it could be an infection. You could keep a close watch on them and see if they appear to be healing (you mentioned that they seem like they may be doing so) or whether they appear to be worsening/spreading (check for redness especially). If they seem to be spreading, you could administer a course of Furan 2, as this is a good, broad spectrum antibiotic.

 

[Mental1]

The good news Greg, is that I have him off of the crack. The other good news is he takes anything I want from the tweezers. He had a very small lion as a tank mate in a very small tank. So who knows as his first picture shows no spots. So I need to tell the LFS two things - no lions with anglers and no krill for any of them.

I do not see any redness even under magnification. I will keep an eye on it and will get some Furan 2 in the meantime. Thanks Greg ...

 

[Mental1]

Bummer, it's looking worse and QT is occupied by a clown. She's got another ten days at least to finish off two weeks of prozipro, several days of carbon and then marycin 2... sigh.

 

[jlong11]

from alot of common things with fish fungal and parasitic problems u need to keep the stress of the fish down and make sure the water qualities are as good as u can keep them sometimes rushing into an unknown medication for a possible infection or wound could be another stress and even kill your fish if still feeding i would try something frozen and soaked in amino acid and high vitamins but no drastic changes until signs of improvement as even a trip to a quarantine could push him over the edge - jamie

 

[Mental1]

Hi Jamie -- welcome to reef central! I don't disagree with you generally but the problem is that this is some kind of external infection. I do have a friend with a microscope and access to a vet tech so we are talking about doing a scraping and looking at it. I just don't like how quickly it is spreading on his tail. He is eating fine and will take anything I give him. Like I said, the fact that it is getting bigger bothers me as it is quick, bad things can happen quickly in this hobby! But my other problem is that I only have 1 QT and it is currently occupied.

 

[Mental1]

I just found out that his diet was much more varied than I first understood. The LFS did a great job getting him onto frozen anyway. So what do you think of this link? It looks very similar to what my guy has but that doesn't mean it's okay does it?

http://www.frogfish.ch/image/frogfi...ius-striatus/guest/Anthony-Calfo-striatus.jpg

 

[jlong11]

well the look of that picture is almost like that angle has a coloration like that maybe as they age they get different patterns i would also think ammonia burn or something but from the sounds of it i highly doubt that is it it could be a fungus or parasite keep me updated and i will let u know of anything i hear - jamie

 

[Mental1]

Thanks Jamie -- I will leave him for now until I can find out more about this.

 

[Mental1]

Good news -- his colors have lightened up and the spots are gone! Must be the mollies and the h2o vitamins. Looking great and have taken him off the tweezers and is on the stick. Looking just awesome!

 

[namxas]

Great job Sherri!