uh oh... bad cut on tail

[Timbor]

Hey everyone,

I got a tri of yellowheaded jawfish last friday. They seem to have acclimated well. But, there is a problem. The largest of the 3 has some sort of cut on its tail. It started out as a scrape or something, but now it is spreading and looks pretty red and painful. Here are two shots from yesterday:

Today, the lesion appears to have spread a little bit, and it seems like he is starting to have trouble moving his tail. He has been eating well, and has been active since being introduced. All of the fish were held at the store for almost a month, and were healthy when purchased.

My best guess is that he got a scrape when being moved, and perhaps it got infected?

Any ideas on possible treatment? I was thinking of crushing a clove of garlic and putting some of the juice in with the food. They are eating mysis right now.

Well, thanks for the help. Hopefully this can be reversed.

Tim

 

[chaseracing]

Keep your water parameters as close to perfect as possible. This will allow for quicker healing.

There might be a medicine of some type but someone else will have to chime in.

-=E=-

 

[Aquabucket]

Once a marine fish gets red spots like that the odds of recovery are pretty slim. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.

Do a search on nematodes or internal parasites as this could be the cause.

 

[Timbor]

Do you have any idea how long something like this would take to manifest itself? The fish was at the store for about a month, and has been in my tank for almost a week. It did not appear to have any problems in the store.

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Aquabucket]

Nematode infections are one of the more common causes of death for marine fish. It can take awhile to manifest itself and the fish can contract it from feeding on on infected foods.

It really does look like a nematode infection to me and there really is nothing you can do about it. You should quarentine the fish so others can not get infected.

Here is a pic I found of an infected freshwater fish:

Source:

http://www.2cah.com/pandora/Disease.html

 

[Timbor]

Im not sure it is worms, as there are no worms visible. Just a lesion that keeps getting worse.
Im kinda stuck right now as well, because I have to go away this weekend, and I am busy until I go away finishing med school applications, so I really won't be able to try moving him until next week, if he makes it that far

Tim

 

[Timbor]

I don't have any of the prepared garlic additives, but would it be a bad thing if I crushed a clove, and added some of the juice in the food dish and let it soak for a while?

Tim

 

[Aquabucket]

In most cases you won't see the tiny worms. As someone who has seen plenty of nematode infections I am pretty confident that is what your fish has. The most common type of worms I have seen also like to feed on muscle tissue at first and that is the location on which your fish is showing symptoms.

 

[Timbor]

Would you be able to do a search for me to find some more threads about nematodes? I can't search since I am not a premium member...

Tim

 

[Aquabucket]

Do a google search and I'll try to find something here for you.

 

[Aquabucket]

I did a search here and in the disease forum. Almost all the results where about intestinal nematodes. I will try to find a pic here for you but I am not having the best of luck so far.

 

[Aquabucket]

No luck. You should post your pic in the fish disease forum though.

Remember this is just my opinion based on my experience. Its always a good idea to see what others might say based on thier experiences.

 

[Timbor]

I started a thread in the disease forum. I also got some pics of the tail today, and if you take a look, you can see that it has gotten worse.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8234646#post8234646

How contagious would it be if it was nematodes?

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Scopas Tang]

i dont think its worms and i dont think its that bad. ive seens tons of fish recover from much much worse. the fish looks kinda skinny in the butt region. powerfeed it! the wound looks like it might be from scraping/falling rocks or like u said, shipping and handling. if you are super concerned set up a hospial tank and treat it with aquarium pharmacuticals Mela-fix. That stuff is the Shiznit brother. it heals wounds super quick and fights bacterial issues. its all natural too. Melaluca oil? it smells like vicks vapor rub. well.....anyway it gets my top 10 best fish product award.

something thats reef safe that hardly works is Aquarium Pharm. Stress Coat. i guess it would werk better than nothing.

 

[edwing206]

my yellow watchman got that and it started swimming all over th place and runnig into the live rock and started floating around like he was dead to i took him out and right when i was gonna flush him he moved so i put him back and was normal but still had the red mark, a few weeks later same thing happened but this time he was really dead. then it happened to my sixline wrasse so it might be conatgious. sorry for the reply. try looking for something at liveaquaria.com

 

[Aquabucket]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=8234666#post8234666 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Timbor
I started a thread in the disease forum. I also got some pics of the tail today, and if you take a look, you can see that it has gotten worse.

http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=8234646#post8234646

How contagious would it be if it was nematodes?

Thanks,

Tim

It can be contageous. If other fish pick at it after it dies they can become infected. I am not sure how long the worms can live in the water though. You should really get the fish out of there to be safe.

Your picture today definately resembles the symptoms I have experienced several times with newly aquired fish at the store I work for. Its really a tough thing to reverse. I have tried Maracyn 1 & 2 , Melafix and Hexamit. None of those prevented the infection from spreading quickly. Most effected fish died in a few days or less.

I know Pipezine works for intestinal nematodes but never tried it with the lesion variety.

 

[Aquabucket]

Bump ~ previous post did not load to forum.

 

[Timbor]

Just a note.. you might not be able to see it in the picture, but as of today, the redness has spread a bit to the back of the anal fin.

Also, it looks almost as if the anal fin is swollen or something... almost like the part that is connected to the body is swollen into a bubble or something. It is hard to describe, and I doubt I can get a picture of it.

My problem is that I don't have time until Monday to do any sort of trying to get the fish out. My med school applications are due then. So, if I don't get those done, its no future for Tim... at least not in the medical field. I hate to say it, but that is more important than a $35 fish

Any ideas on how I could even get him out of the tank? It is a 35 gal tank, 36"x12"x18", and it has about 4-5" of substrate, and close to 50 lbs of rock.

Thanks

 

[Timbor]

Well, it seems like moving the fish will not be necessary.

I woke up this morning to find the fish had passed away. The odd thing was that it was half-buried under a rock in the tank. Not sure if it somehow buried itself before dying, or if it happened another way.

Hard to see much in this shot, but this is it in the sand:

Here are some shots I took of it to show the damage that was done to the tail.

Does anybody have an idea if this would be something that was caused by being in my aquarium, or would it be something that came from the LFS? It appeared very healthy, and fed greedily until yesterday. The other two jawfish are out and active today, and readily ate the food I gave them.

I tested the params yesterday, and here is what I had:
NH3 - 0
NH2- 0
NH3- undetectable
alk - 2.5 - 3 meq/L (a tad low)
sg 1.025 (via refractometer)
temp 78-80

Thanks,

Tim

 

[Aquabucket]

Sorry about the loss.

The fish was most likely infected before you placed it in your tank. All you can do now is keep an eye out for symptoms with your other fish.