Are these flukes?

litsoh · Feb 27, 2024

I’ve been monitoring a wrasse that I had ship in a little rough for the last couple of days that hasn’t been eating and showing signs of a spinal injury. It’s been in an acclimation box in my display tank since it’s had some difficulty swimming. I’m still pretty new to saltwater so I didn’t really know what I was looking for until I noticed what looked to be a loose scale on its head. After a freshwater dip a couple of flakes came off of the fish that I initially thought were just scales. I really hope I’m wrong but could these be flukes? I’m going to be getting some prazipro tomorrow just in case but I fear I might have to treat the whole DT.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 27, 2024

Yes - those are Neobenedenia flukes. They are fairly commonly seen in newly acquired fish. Good dealers will try to manage them through treatments. Even one egg can start up an infection in your tank. Don’t treat right away though. Prazipro does NOT kill the eggs, and these can take up to 12 days to hatch. I would wait a week, then dose the DT and then dose it two more times, 8 days apart. Add good aeration, remove carbon and run your skimmer but don’t collect the skimmate during treatment. Most people do a 25% water change before the second and third treatments.

However, the spinal injury symptoms is possibly this: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/unknown-neurological-wrasse-disease-unwd.901856/

Jay

litsoh · Feb 27, 2024

I’m running some chemipure blue at the moment, so once I start the prazi I should remove that from my filtration? Also since the flukes are gone what’s the prognosis on the wrasse in the hopes that it isn’t UNWD. Could it possibly perk up and start eating since some irritants are gone?

I do have some Ruby Rally Pro on hand, in the future would a Rally Pro dip during acclimation of new fish help prevent any more cases like this?

vetteguy53081 · Feb 27, 2024

litsoh said:
I’ve been monitoring a wrasse that I had ship in a little rough for the last couple of days that hasn’t been eating and showing signs of a spinal injury. It’s been in an acclimation box in my display tank since it’s had some difficulty swimming. I’m still pretty new to saltwater so I didn’t really know what I was looking for until I noticed what looked to be a loose scale on its head. After a freshwater dip a couple of flakes came off of the fish that I initially thought were just scales. I really hope I’m wrong but could these be flukes? I’m going to be getting some prazipro tomorrow just in case but I fear I might have to treat the whole DT.

While similar looks more like a flatworm. Are your fish showing any symptoms such as swimming near the water surface, hiding in the corner of tank or behind rocks, loss of appetite, shaking its head, flashing/darting, develop clamped fins, , or scratching against objects. They may also exhibit what looks like yawning from gill irritation develop, cloudy eyes and loss of color.

litsoh · Feb 27, 2024

vetteguy53081 said:
While similar looks more like a flatworm. Are your fish showing any symptoms such as swimming near the water surface, hiding in the corner of tank or behind rocks, loss of appetite, shaking its head, flashing/darting, develop clamped fins, , or scratching against objects. They may also exhibit what looks like yawning from gill irritation develop, cloudy eyes and loss of color.

Definitely a loss of appetite and I’ve seen it shaking its head. The head shakes are actually what prompted me to try a freshwater dip once I noticed the “loose scale” on its head. Anything swim related is a little difficult to tell since I’m not sure what may be caused by the fluke/flatworm or a spinal injury/UNWD.

Thankfully this is the only fish showing symptoms at the moment

Jay Hemdal · Feb 27, 2024

litsoh said:
I’m running some chemipure blue at the moment, so once I start the prazi I should remove that from my filtration? Also since the flukes are gone what’s the prognosis on the wrasse in the hopes that it isn’t UNWD. Could it possibly perk up and start eating since some irritants are gone?

I do have some Ruby Rally Pro on hand, in the future would a Rally Pro dip during acclimation of new fish help prevent any more cases like this?

You should remove Chemipure when dosing prazi. The flukes likely aren't gone though - probably one or more flukes made it through the dip, or they laid eggs prior to the dip and those eggs stick to everything.

Rally Pro doesn't work for this species of fluke. UNWD just doesn't seem to resolve. I'm still waiting for a fish with a confirmed case to recover, and so far, I haven't seen that - sorry!

Jay

litsoh · Feb 27, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
You should remove Chemipure when dosing prazi. The flukes likely aren't gone though - probably one or more flukes made it through the dip, or they laid eggs prior to the dip and those eggs stick to everything.

Rally Pro doesn't work for this species of fluke. UNWD just doesn't seem to resolve. I'm still waiting for a fish with a confirmed case to recover, and so far, I haven't seen that - sorry!

Jay

Sorry I should have said that the flukes on its body were gone at least. I'm sure they're in the system so far but I figure at FW dip is enough for a little relief. Somehow this wrasse is still kicking, so hopefully this will let it perk up a bit and maybe take food. I'm planning another dip later on tonight just to see if any were missed in the initial one.

The little guy is a fighter, rooting for him to pull through

litsoh · Feb 28, 2024

So for prazi I should aim to undershoot the dosage a little on account of water displacement. For my 125 gallon I’m dosing as if it’s 100 gallons right?

Jay Hemdal · Feb 28, 2024

litsoh said:
So for prazi I should aim to undershoot the dosage a little on account of water displacement. For my 125 gallon I’m dosing as if it’s 100 gallons right?

It depends on how much rock you have in the tank, and you also have to add in some water if the tank has a sump. I have found that most tanks hold about 85% of their rated capacity of water. That would be about 106 gallons in your case.

litsoh · Feb 28, 2024

Jay Hemdal said:
It depends on how much rock you have in the tank, and you also have to add in some water if the tank has a sump. I have found that most tanks hold about 85% of their rated capacity of water. That would be about 106 gallons in your case.

If I had to estimate I would say that I have around 90 lbs of rock in the tank. 100 on the higher end

Jay Hemdal · Feb 28, 2024

litsoh said:
If I had to estimate I would say that I have around 90 lbs of rock in the tank. 100 on the higher end

Just a rough estimate - 90# of rock, being much heavier than water, probably displaces 5 gallons of water.

If you want to dig into this further, this thread *might* give you some more insight:

Calculating water displacement of rock

I promise I already searched forums, couldn't find answer. I am currently calculating how much stump remover to dump in my tank. Yikes. I need a formula/calculator to compute the amount of water displaced by 130 pounds of live rock. I know that a "5 pound rock" is a relative idea, if you want...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay