What are these white patches?

[bluecoyote79]

A few days ago my female McCosker's Wrasse became lethargic and developed a reduced appetite. She had a small white patch on her tail for at least 2 weeks prior to this. Since becoming lethargic she has developed white patches on her head and eye. The male wrasse has a white patch on the middle of his head. I tried erythromycin for 2 days without any improvement, so 3 days ago I switched to Furan 2. Since using Furan the female seems to have gotten a lot of energy back, but still has a reduced appetite. I haven't noticed much of a change to the patches, but I think they have been reduced somewhat. The male seems unaffected other than the 1 patch on his head and still eats and behaves normally. They were previously treated with Prazi and finished the TTM to prevent ich. Both fish have been in QT for several weeks.

My question is what am I dealing with and how should it be treated? This doesn't look like any of the common ailments that I've searched for and read about in the past.

This is the original white spot on her tail.

 

[bluecoyote79]

I know there are some really knowledgable people on this website, any of them want to chime in?

 

[Deinonych]

Looks bacterial to me. My Royal Gramma has something similar around his eye when he was in QT last year. I used kanamycin and it cleared up. You might try a different antibiotic to see if that resolves it. Another possibility is Brooklynella, but timelines given above are not consistent with a brook infestation (brook kills pretty quickly).

Is the male wrasse breathing heavily? It looks like his gills are pretty flared in those pictures.

 

[bluecoyote79]

No he's totally normal, I think it was just the moment the camera captured.

The female is very lethargic today but she has less of the white patches on her today. She looks to be improving so I don't know why she's just laying there. She doesn't seem to be in distress otherwise.

 

[bluecoyote79]

Just an update in case anyone runs across this in their fish. After 4-5 days on Furan 2 the white patches completely cleared up and the fish are doing great, back to eating like pigs. The spot on the female's tail is still there so that may be a separate fungus.