Need diagnosis help, lost a few fish already

[ti_lavender]

I have a 180 gallon cade peninsula. I quarantined my fish last year. Then added them back after a fallow period. That was back in November of 2023. Tank was transferred from a 110 gallon Red Sea to the Cade in early August. Everything survived the transfer except a clown. That clown had stunted growth and what looked like an open sore for months. I figured this was from the vermitid snails nets in the area the clown was hosting a hammer. It was one of my oldest fish- got it in November 2022.

I received an order of fish from an online vendor, which are sold as quarantined. That was August 28th. Didn’t notice any issues until about a week ago. Fish started flashing. My white tail started showing signs of mucous plugs or something. My multibar angel had similar to it and died a few days later. The tang still looks bad. I lost a blue tang yesterday. Then this evening my Borbonious anthia was swimming poorly with rapid breathing but no white specs on its body. I’ve had both those fish since January. I euthanized it since it could hardly move. It appeared to have a sore or trauma to its side near its gills.

Needing helping in diagnosis. Feeling very bummed and disheartened.

Other info:
-QT corals frags for 76 days. I do 76 days from when the frag enters the system. Fishless system
-I added Aquabiomics live sand on September 5. This is supposed to be from a fishless system.
-fired up a 57 watt UV a few days ago
-feeding more to help with nutrition
-3.5” yellow tang who bully’s the white tail tang
-have a stock tank I could setup but worried about fish mortality while being treated. Want to be 95% what I’m trying to cure.

 

[littlefoxx]

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal @MnFish1

 

[vetteguy53081]

I have a 180 gallon cade peninsula. I quarantined my fish last year. Then added them back after a fallow period. That was back in November of 2023. Tank was transferred from a 110 gallon Red Sea to the Cade in early August. Everything survived the transfer except a clown. That clown had stunted growth and what looked like an open sore for months. I figured this was from the vermitid snails nets in the area the clown was hosting a hammer. It was one of my oldest fish- got it in November 2022.

I received an order of fish from Alyssa Savvy Seahorse, which are quarantined. That was August 28th. Didn’t notice any issues until about a week ago. Fish started flashing. My white tail started showing signs of mucous plugs or something. My multibar angel had similar to it and died a few days later. The tang still looks bad. I lost a blue tang yesterday. Then this evening my Borbonious anthia was swimming poorly with rapid breathing but no white specs on its body. I’ve had both those fish since January. I euthanized it since it could hardly move. It appeared to have a sore or trauma to its side near its gills.

Needing helping in diagnosis. Feeling very bummed and disheartened.

Other info:
-QT corals frags for 76 days. I do 76 days from when the frag enters the system. Fishless system
-I added Aquabiomics live sand on September 5. This is supposed to be from a fishless system.
-fired up a 57 watt UV a few days ago
-feeding more to help with nutrition
-3.5” yellow tang who bully’s the white tail tang
-have a stock tank I could setup but worried about fish mortality while being treated. Want to be 95% what I’m trying to cure.

A couple of these fish show mucus cones associated likely with ich and all will need to be isolated in a quarantine tank and treated with coppersafe at 2.25 for a full 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off and with occupants exposed, they too should go into quarantine
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store, a rubbermaid type tub or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

What fish did you receive in August?
Do you know what quarantine process they were given?

Some of the spots look like ich/mucus plugs, however the timing is more like flukes would cause.

 

[ti_lavender]

What fish did you receive in August?
Do you know what quarantine process they were given?

Some of the spots look like ich/mucus plugs, however the timing is more like flukes would cause.

I ordered (4) Lyretail anthias, and (2) pink streak wrasses, and (2) snowflake clowns. All of those are still alive but (1) Anthia who jumped out of the tank when I had my jump net off. I’ve only seen flashing in the anthias. Otherwise the others are eating well. I lost my other borbonious anthia tonight. It was swimming lethargically. I caught it and gave a FW dip hoping to see if I could spot flukes come off it. Nothing seemed to come off.

I asked the vendor what process they use. They told me:
“ As far as what do here, we hold all of our wild fish for at least two weeks before they are offered for sale. We run copper in our systems and also deworm them. We are making sure they are eating well, healthy, and active before they are ready to ship. We are not mixing new incoming fish with fish that have been here. We have many holding systems and keep them batched depending on when and where they came from. Other treatments are species based or as needed. Some species like most butterflyfish and Angelfish we do Praziquantel dips and formalin baths, it really just depends on the species. We feed the fish live brine shrimp that have been enriched/fed Fenbendazole to deworm them. They are getting this food twice daily for the two weeks they are held as well.”

So I’m thinking that flukes could get by this process? If so is Prazi my best route?

Here a pic of the other Anthia tonight.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I ordered (4) Lyretail anthias, and (2) pink streak wrasses, and (2) snowflake clowns. All of those are still alive but (1) Anthia who jumped out of the tank when I had my jump net off. I’ve only seen flashing in the anthias. Otherwise the others are eating well. I lost my other borbonious anthia tonight. It was swimming lethargically. I caught it and gave a FW dip hoping to see if I could spot flukes come off it. Nothing seemed to come off.

I asked the vendor what process they use. They told me:
“ As far as what do here, we hold all of our wild fish for at least two weeks before they are offered for sale. We run copper in our systems and also deworm them. We are making sure they are eating well, healthy, and active before they are ready to ship. We are not mixing new incoming fish with fish that have been here. We have many holding systems and keep them batched depending on when and where they came from. Other treatments are species based or as needed. Some species like most butterflyfish and Angelfish we do Praziquantel dips and formalin baths, it really just depends on the species. We feed the fish live brine shrimp that have been enriched/fed Fenbendazole to deworm them. They are getting this food twice daily for the two weeks they are held as well.”

So I’m thinking that flukes could get by this process? If so is Prazi my best route?

Here a pic of the other Anthia tonight.

Their protocol seems ok, but a bit short.

Seeing flukes in the dip water is tough - only one species can be seen without a microscope. Then, the FW really distorts the flukes and makes identification more difficult.

I’m not 100% certain this is flukes, but the possible ich spots I see are not enough to kill the fish outright.

Can you post a video of the current fish?

 

[ti_lavender]

Their protocol seems ok, but a bit short.

Seeing flukes in the dip water is tough - only one species can be seen without a microscope. Then, the FW really distorts the flukes and makes identification more difficult.

I’m not 100% certain this is flukes, but the possible ich spots I see are not enough to kill the fish outright.

Can you post a video of the current fish?

Thank you @Jay Hemdal so far for the help. When I get home I'll upload a video of the fish today. Hopefully we can diagnose what's going on.

 

[ti_lavender]

I hope that works. @Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I hope that works. @Jay Hemdal

I watched the video a few times, not many clues there, sorry.

Was the Borbononius anthias new? I wonder if that loss was unrelated.

I still think there is ich present on some fish, but the number is spots just doesn’t seem high enough to be fatal.

The best thing to do would be to move all fish to a treatment tank and dose with Coppersafe and praziquantel.

If you can’t manage that, then I would try Prazipro in your display, with extra aeration, 2x 8 days apart with no carbon and running the skimmer, but not collecting any skimmate.