ID help - maybe Lymphocytis?

Fiziksgeek · Mar 9, 2023

Copper Banded butterfly from Dr. Reef. Came in clean and clear. I did not do any additional quarantine upon arrival. The fish is acting normal, appears to be eating. No other fish show any signs.

Lymphocytis?

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/possible-cure-for-viruses-like-lympho.732/

MnFish1 · Mar 9, 2023

I would say yes - more information (when you got it, etc etc parameters, etc etc) would be helpful. How old (big) is the fish.

MnFish1 · Mar 9, 2023

MnFish1 said:
I would say yes - more information (when you got it, etc etc parameters, etc etc) would be helpful. How old (big) is the fish.

I'm going to partly change my opinion. The large white spots seem to be lymphocystis. A viral infection - that should resolve. There are some smaller spots though that bear watching - on the body, etc. I would suggest you watch to see if these drop off (suggesting ICH) - quickly - if so - you may have ICH in your tank?

Sharkbait19 · Mar 9, 2023

I agree that it looks like lympho, but I would monitor to make sure the spots don’t multiply (a sign of ich) and that the fish continues behaving normally.

Fiziksgeek · Mar 9, 2023

MnFish1 said:
I would say yes - more information (when you got it, etc etc parameters, etc etc) would be helpful. How old (big) is the fish.

The fish is good sized, maybe 4" or so.

Water parameters:
temp 78
Salinity 1.026
pH 8.2
alk 10.6
calcium 430
ammonia 0
nitrate 8.6
phosphate .03
nitrite 0
magnesium 1400

From Hanna checkers. Waiting on results of an ICP test.

Fiziksgeek · Mar 9, 2023

MnFish1 said:
I'm going to partly change my opinion. The large white spots seem to be lymphocystis. A viral infection - that should resolve. There are some smaller spots though that bear watching - on the body, etc. I would suggest you watch to see if these drop off (suggesting ICH) - quickly - if so - you may have ICH in your tank?

I cant see anything on the body. It may be an optical illusion. When looking for the side, his fin in hardly visible, so the white spots on its edge may appear to be on the body. I also seem to have a lot of marine "snow" in my tank.

Obviously hoping its not ich. I do have a quarantine tank that I could use, but don't want to move it unless I have to as it would add more stress and less natural food sources. I know they can be kinda picky, so I'd rather leave him in the tank with a good source food.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 9, 2023

Fiziksgeek said:
Copper Banded butterfly from Dr. Reef. Came in clean and clear. I did not do any additional quarantine upon arrival. The fish is acting normal, appears to be eating. No other fish show any signs.

Lymphocytis?

https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/possible-cure-for-viruses-like-lympho.732/

This is lympho and very common with large angels and butterflies and is a condition- Not disease. Often it is caused by vitamin deficiencies and/or poor water conditions - can be at vendor and not your tank but provide Good water quality monitored by reliable test kits and diet high in Vitamin E and thiamins. It will fall off by itself in time
This is viral and should not spread to tankmates

Fiziksgeek · Mar 9, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
This is lympho and very common with large angels and butterflies and is a condition- Not disease. Often it is caused by vitamin deficiencies and/or poor water conditions - can be at vendor and not your tank but provide Good water quality monitored by reliable test kits and diet high in Vitamin E and thiamins. It will fall off by itself in time
This is viral and should not spread to tankmates

The fish has been here 6 days and was clear when it arrived. If caused by water, that would leave to be believe there is something unhealthy about my tank, just not sure what, basic parameters (listed above) seem to be fine. If Lymphocytis, can it also be flared up from stress?

I've been feeding some homemade food, seafood mix put through a meat grinder with added things like freeze dried mysis and krill soaked in Selcon and some nori for greens. PE mysis and Hikari B pellets on an auto feeder twice a day also. I dont think the butterly is eating any of the pellets. seems to go after some of the frozen and picks at the rock all day. Hard to tell if it is getting enough nutrition since its only been a few days.

vetteguy53081 · Mar 9, 2023

Fiziksgeek said:
The fish has been here 6 days and was clear when it arrived. If caused by water, that would leave to be believe there is something unhealthy about my tank, just not sure what, basic parameters (listed above) seem to be fine. If Lymphocytis, can it also be flared up from stress?

I've been feeding some homemade food, seafood mix put through a meat grinder with added things like freeze dried mysis and krill soaked in Selcon and some nori for greens. PE mysis and Hikari B pellets on an auto feeder twice a day also. I dont think the butterly is eating any of the pellets. seems to go after some of the frozen and picks at the rock all day. Hard to tell if it is getting enough nutrition since its only been a few days.

Butterfly is low to No with dry foods and likely not ready for this diet however if eating, some good enticers and starter foods are :
blackworms (live/frozen), spirulina brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, LRS herbivore diet and small plankton. Masstiks foods are hit and miss.

Main parameters of effect are ammonia-nitrate and Ph - what kits are you using?
Would not be a bad idea to take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at

MnFish1 · Mar 9, 2023

Fiziksgeek said:
The fish has been here 6 days and was clear when it arrived. If caused by water, that would leave to be believe there is something unhealthy about my tank, just not sure what, basic parameters (listed above) seem to be fine. If Lymphocytis, can it also be flared up from stress?

I've been feeding some homemade food, seafood mix put through a meat grinder with added things like freeze dried mysis and krill soaked in Selcon and some nori for greens. PE mysis and Hikari B pellets on an auto feeder twice a day also. I dont think the butterly is eating any of the pellets. seems to go after some of the frozen and picks at the rock all day. Hard to tell if it is getting enough nutrition since its only been a few days.

Lymphocystis can happen merely with transport.

Jay Hemdal · Mar 9, 2023

+1, that is Lymphocystis. The old joke is: "all treatments for this malady work, just wait 6 to 8 weeks" - so it will go away on its own. As mentioned though, fish can have multiple issues at the same time, so watch for that.

Jay

Fiziksgeek · Mar 11, 2023

vetteguy53081 said:
Butterfly is low to No with dry foods and likely not ready for this diet however if eating, some good enticers and starter foods are :
blackworms (live/frozen), spirulina brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, LRS herbivore diet and small plankton. Masstiks foods are hit and miss.

Main parameters of effect are ammonia-nitrate and Ph - what kits are you using?
Would not be a bad idea to take a water sample to a store that does NOT use Api kits and have them test your ammonia and nitrates and compare readings- then you'll know where your levels truly are at

No Change, good or bad in the last couple days. I did hit the LFS and grab some spirulina brine and mysis. Its pretty shy during feeding, so I distracted the other fish with some pellets and used a long basters to shoot some of the new treats down into the rock cave areas. It appears to be eating.

I have a pretty full suite of Hanna checkers. I also got back the results of the first ICP test back. They were relatively close to the measurements we made. Biggest difference was alkalinity. We measure almost 10, the ICP result was 8.3. Nitrate is 7.5, Phosphate is 0.09, ammonia 0.