What Is This Parasite!!

[SimonDM]

Good morning everyone. Im having a break out of something! Ive lost two fish already. My emperor which was just going through its colour change. And my butterfly!

I have a gem thang that’s also looking rather sick now. He’s just at the bottom trying to stay up right. I’ve just FW dipped him for around 10 minutes thinking it must be flukes as I can’t see any salt like dusting. So I’ve ruled out ich and velvet for now.

The strange thing is! I have experienced flukes before and seen them when they fall off. But this looks different. After the FW dip it’s like he’s shedding and there’s these what look like parasites at the bottom of the bowl but it’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before? Any ideas anyone as I’m trying to figure out what treatment to give!

Huge thanks in advance.

 

[fishguy242]

#fishmedic

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Good morning everyone. Im having a break out of something! Ive lost two fish already. My emperor which was just going through its colour change. And my butterfly!

I have a gem thang that’s also looking rather sick now. He’s just at the bottom trying to stay up right. I’ve just FW dipped him for around 10 minutes thinking it must be flukes as I can’t see any salt like dusting. So I’ve ruled out ich and velvet for now.

The strange thing is! I have experienced flukes before and seen them when they fall off. But this looks different. After the FW dip it’s like he’s shedding and there’s these what look like parasites at the bottom of the bowl but it’s nothing like I’ve ever seen before? Any ideas anyone as I’m trying to figure out what treatment to give!

Huge thanks in advance.

Sorry - I can't see anything definitive in the photo. For freshwater dips, only one fluke is easily seen afterwards with the naked eye (Neobenedenia). The rest are all small and really need a microscope or at least a hand lens to see. Protozoans are even smaller.

This could be mucus from the fish's skin, or it could even be feces.

However, having already lost some fish, you'll need to move quickly to try and avoid losing more. Can you post a clear video of the remaining fish, as well as more information about your tank? This post explains all that:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

 

[SimonDM]

Sorry - I can't see anything definitive in the photo. For freshwater dips, only one fluke is easily seen afterwards with the naked eye (Neobenedenia). The rest are all small and really need a microscope or at least a hand lens to see. Protozoans are even smaller.

This could be mucus from the fish's skin, or it could even be feces.

However, having already lost some fish, you'll need to move quickly to try and avoid losing more. Can you post a clear video of the remaining fish, as well as more information about your tank? This post explains all that:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Sorry - I can't see anything definitive in the photo. For freshwater dips, only one fluke is easily seen afterwards with the naked eye (Neobenedenia). The rest are all small and really need a microscope or at least a hand lens to see. Protozoans are even smaller.

This could be mucus from the fish's skin, or it could even be feces.

However, having already lost some fish, you'll need to move quickly to try and avoid losing more. Can you post a clear video of the remaining fish, as well as more information about your tank? This post explains all that:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Hi Jay!

Thanks for the response. It is very strange. I’m quite the veteran Reefer and I’ve dealt with most things through the years but this one has me baffled!

The tank is a Redsea Reefer 350 G2+ I had the unfortunate case of coming home to find my tank front pane seal had split! So had a full rescue job on my hands. That was over a few months ago now though and since had this tank cycled. The fish have been absolutely fine had them well over a year now and have had no issues with ich or anything. I’ve added nothing new to the tank other than new sand for the bed when I had to replace it which has been cycled etc with no fish in.

Water parameters are bang on. Slightly high phosphate which coming down again after my water change earlier.

What ever it is doesn’t seem to be effecting my clowns or file fish. And the Gem tang seems to be happier after the FW dip. So I’m thinking of running some Fluke Solve to see if that works?

 

[SimonDM]

Hi Jay!

Thanks for the response. It is very strange. I’m quite the veteran Reefer and I’ve dealt with most things through the years but this one has me baffled!

The tank is a Redsea Reefer 350 G2+ I had the unfortunate case of coming home to find my tank front pane seal had split! So had a full rescue job on my hands. That was over a few months ago now though and since had this tank cycled. The fish have been absolutely fine had them well over a year now and have had no issues with ich or anything. I’ve added nothing new to the tank other than new sand for the bed when I had to replace it which has been cycled etc with no fish in.

Water parameters are bang on. Slightly high phosphate which coming down again after my water change earlier.

What ever it is doesn’t seem to be effecting my clowns or file fish. And the Gem tang seems to be happier after the FW dip. So I’m thinking of running some Fluke Solve to see if that works?

Here is a video of the Clown I will try and get more but they are all currently hiding from the water change.

 

[SimonDM]

Here is a video of the Clown I will try and get more but they are all currently hiding from the water change.

Sorry - I can't see anything definitive in the photo. For freshwater dips, only one fluke is easily seen afterwards with the naked eye (Neobenedenia). The rest are all small and really need a microscope or at least a hand lens to see. Protozoans are even smaller.

This could be mucus from the fish's skin, or it could even be feces.

However, having already lost some fish, you'll need to move quickly to try and avoid losing more. Can you post a clear video of the remaining fish, as well as more information about your tank? This post explains all that:

Some Helpful Hints When Posting or Responding to Threads in the Fish Disease Treatment and Diagnosis Section

Aquarium Fish Disease Problem Solving Determining the best course of action for a problem with your aquarium can be a difficult task. Even advanced aquarists will often need to seek the help of others for complicated or unique issues. Our intent here on Reef 2 Reef is to offer expert advice...

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

Hi again Jay,

I’ve just studied my clown a bit more under a different light spectrum and I think it’s velvet. It’s very fine but I think I’m going to have to get them all out in QT!

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi again Jay,

I’ve just studied my clown a bit more under a different light spectrum and I think it’s velvet. It’s very fine but I think I’m going to have to get them all out in QT!

Clowns appear to have secondary bacteria but the appearance is ich bit not large enough to be ich and need clearer pics to confirm

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi again Jay,

I’ve just studied my clown a bit more under a different light spectrum and I think it’s velvet. It’s very fine but I think I’m going to have to get them all out in QT!

That's unlikely to be velvet - the first symptoms of velvet are rapid breathing, not eating and hanging in water currents. If you see any marks on the fish at all, it will be at the very end of the infection. What happens is across the Internet, people have confused freshwater and marine velvet - the former is what produces a fine dust on the fish. There were a lot of photos here that purported to show "velvet" but were actually late stage ich.

If the clown is not showing any other symptoms and since the tang seemed improved after the FW dip, this could all be related to flukes. Fluke Solve will work for that, dosed twice, 8 days apart with good aeration. Many people do a 25% water change prior to the second treatment. I do NOT know if Fluke Solve + is reef safe. It has two other ingredients that I have not used in aquariums before.