Not sure if my wrasse has something wrong or he tried to squeeze through a small opening and got hurt. I got him a week ago and he's been in QT. Treatments include PraziPro (just added the second round yesterday), Seachem Focus, API General Cure, and Seachem ParaGuard. Pictures below. Water is cloudy due to algae wafers and I'm managing it best I can (he's in QT with 2 others, a tail spot and starry blenny). The blemish is slightly above and behind his left eye.
Yellow Banded Possum Wrasse skin disease?
- Thread starter TedsReef
- Start date
- Tagged users None
Not immensely common But this looks like parasitic copepods to me from this picture.
Will let more trained eyes take a look before suggesting a treatment. As if wrong no need to put a fish through that.
But the rocks in your qt will absorb medications making fish treatments difficult, and would hold off on nutrient heavy dry foods in qt. Its far easier to maintain nitrogen and phosphorus levels with frozen food in a smaller space
Last edited:
Hey Thanks for the reply. What frozen works for algae eaters? Also, these rocks are fake so they won't absorb the meds.
Not immensely common But this looks like parasitic copepods to me from this picture.
Will let more trained eyes take a look before suggesting a treatment. As if wrong no need to put a fish through that.
But the rocks in your qt will absorb medications making fish treatments difficult, and would hold off on nutrient heavy dry foods in qt. Its far easier to maintain nitrogen and phosphorus levels with frozen food in a smaller space
I like mix my frozen foods and very few fish are obligate vegetarians or carnivores. Brine with spirulina and angel diets offer a good mix.
For diagnosis do any of these look like what you see in person?
Sadly no. The medications used are Dimilin(insecticide wear gloves) follow dosing precisely or cyromazine(easier to find) now this is not 100% for treating already afflicted fish. There needs to be enough of the copepod out of the fish to work at all. When i treated it was about 50/50 the half it didnt treat i removed via tweezers.
This will kill any eggs in the water, i have only used cyromazine its a two week treatment 50% wc then dose 1 then a week later 50% wc then dose 2.
Hopefully i am wrong and seeing things, anchor worm i had a 100% fatality rate if left untreated.
I am not sure what i see here perhaps @HotRocks or @4FordFamily can tell.
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Staff member
Super Moderator
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Expert Contributor
Article Contributor
Hospitality Award
INDMAS Member
My Tank Thread
It does look like an anchor worm in the first photo to me. I'd start with a freshwater dip and see what happens. In your last photo, I cannot tell if it has white peeling "skin" like with brooklynella but if that's an accurate observation perhaps what we see is the slime coat coming off.
It looks like an abrasion. I’ll check again after work today but he does like to wedge himself in tight spaces to sleep. He also chases food into narrow areas where he can’t fit like a dog getting stuck in a fence [emoji28]
I’m hoping it’s just an abrasion that won’t get infected since he’s in medicated QT. Thanks for the input will keep you guys updated.
4FordFamily
Tang, Angel, and Wrasse Nerd!
Staff member
Super Moderator
Excellence Award
Reef Tank 365
Expert Contributor
Article Contributor
Hospitality Award
INDMAS Member
My Tank Thread
Unfortunately with other medications, infections are more likely. For all the benefits of medications, they do lower the immune strength of fish a bit.
Okay, I got a bunch more pictures. I can’t tell if it’s healing or getting worse. I still think it could be an abrasion that’s healing. He hasn’t lost his appetite at all. Here are the pics I got while he was eating today. Thoughts on diagnosis and treatment? I haven’t done a fw dip yet.
Lasse
10K Club member
Are you saying that you treat a possum wrasse with all of these drugs just in case of? A possum wrasse? These fish have very small scales and have a rather effective mucus layer on the body as first defence line. This mucus layer is essential for the fish in order to survive bacterial and other microbial attacks because of the small scales. These fish are secretive fish - hiding in narrow crevices and corridors among the stones. they often get scratches and that´s normally no problems because the antibacterial mucus helps them to heal. All medication normally lowers the effectiveness of defence system in fish – including mucus production. A tiny, newly imported fish of this genus can´t manage both processing drugs, produce antibodies, produce mucus and defence itself against normally not harmful microorganisms invading wounds IMO. I normally not do any analyses of possible disease only based on pictures but if I look at the last pictures – it looks like a secondary bacterial infection of some bacteria that form a fluffy population. IMO often misidentified as water moulds from the order Saprolegniaceae. But you can´t be sure before proper investigation.
Advises – with risk to be named a murder if you follow my advises and the fish die – I only can say what I had done if it was my fish.
I should move it to a environment without any medications but with a good conditions for these fish to feel calm and not stressed. If possible – treat the wound with lugol's solution or a short bath in an antiseptic chemical like acriflavine. If it is a bacterial infection – it is an external infection – not needing antibiotics. I would feed the fish with frozen black mosquito larvae or foods that he/she like. If it is mould - the treatment will help the fish too. If you treat the wound with lugol - use a soft brush or fabric and take it careful
Observe – this is IMO – there is other opinions out there. And this is not a general attack on the chemical prophylactic treatment even if my opinion on these questions is well known to be negative. This is a reaction on a question according to a fish that I´m very experienced with because during the last 8 years – it has always been a species of possum wrasse in my aquaria. Here you can see a well feed example of yellow banded possum wrasse - start 1:00 in the video
Sincerely Lasse
Hi Lasse and thanks for the reply. Yes, I treat with all of these meds when I first get a fish as part of my QT process. I wasn’t aware they’d interfere with the wrasse’s natural slime coat. There are two other fish in QT with him (tail spot and starry blenny) and they show no signs of illness. I use the focus and general cure on their foods to treat internal and external at the same time. Should I adjust my QT process for wrasse? Do you think I should start to remove the meds from the water?
I also no longer see the signs of anchor worms in the new photos.
Yes you can remove the meds from the water. Antipatrsitics of almost all varieties interfere with a myriad of fish immune responses. And the prazi does most of its work in the first hour after added.
Personally since looks bacterial in nature now, would probably run some carbon, a pwc, then focus on feeding and water quality. For planktonvores i like live baby brine, pods, and smaller frozen foods. I am biased lol. i really like the hikari ones, they have small cubes where easy to feed 2 or 3 times a day without over feeding.
If the infection gets worse(spreads, changes color) i prefer water added antibiotics over iodine(personal choice), like neoplex, triple sulfa, etc.
Most of the time small infections clear up on their own in stable water and coupled with good nutrition.
As to should you change your QT practices i think this maybe best answered reading the numerous threads on the matter, from members like paul b or hot rocks. Research and find what you feel offers the best husbandry for your reef creatures
Yes you can remove the meds from the water. Antipatrsitics of almost all varieties interfere with a myriad of fish immune responses. And the prazi does most of its work in the first hour after added.
Personally since looks bacterial in nature now, would probably run some carbon, a pwc, then focus on feeding and water quality. For planktonvores i like live baby brine, pods, and smaller frozen foods. I am biased lol. i really like the hikari ones, they have small cubes where easy to feed 2 or 3 times a day without over feeding.
If the infection gets worse(spreads, changes color) i prefer water added antibiotics over iodine(personal choice), like neoplex, triple sulfa, etc.
Most of the time small infections clear up on their own in stable water and coupled with good nutrition.
As to should you change your QT practices i think this maybe best answered reading the numerous threads on the matter, from members like paul b or hot rocks. Research and find what you feel offers the best husbandry for your reef creatures
Thanks for the info. My QT practices are based off of Hot Rocks post that is stickied in these forums.I also no longer see the signs of anchor worms in the new photos.
Yes you can remove the meds from the water. Antipatrsitics of almost all varieties interfere with a myriad of fish immune responses. And the prazi does most of its work in the first hour after added.
Personally since looks bacterial in nature now, would probably run some carbon, a pwc, then focus on feeding and water quality. For planktonvores i like live baby brine, pods, and smaller frozen foods. I am biased lol. i really like the hikari ones, they have small cubes where easy to feed 2 or 3 times a day without over feeding.
If the infection gets worse(spreads, changes color) i prefer water added antibiotics over iodine(personal choice), like neoplex, triple sulfa, etc.
Most of the time small infections clear up on their own in stable water and coupled with good nutrition.
As to should you change your QT practices i think this maybe best answered reading the numerous threads on the matter, from members like paul b or hot rocks. Research and find what you feel offers the best husbandry for your reef creatures
Lasse
10K Club member
IMO - the possum wrasses are pickers of benthic prey - not planktonvores - therefore the advice with black mosquito larvae. I have started many picky fish with this food
The reason why I do not like water soluble antibiotics in saltwater is that SW fish drinks and they will get these antibiotics oraly and they will - as the fat solouble - effect the gut flora. I prefer antiseptic chemicals in this case.
As to should you change your QT practices i think this maybe best answered reading the numerous threads on the matter, from members like paul b or hot rocks. Research and find what you feel offers the best husbandry for your reef creatures
And I have write a little about it too
But if you have chose a path to take care of your animals and is satisfied with that - keep on do it the way you feel safe - but if you get backslash like this - maybe you should read different opinions of the matter - just in ordet to have a way to handle your QT.I think @Gareth elliott advises are wise (maybe not the use of antbacterial antibiotics as state above) - at least I would clear the wrasse´s water from chemicals.
Sincerely Lasse
Is Lugols an antiseptic? If so/not, any others you would recommend? So to treat your fish in this case you would manually handle it once or more a day to apply the antiseptic? How long would you continue treatment? I'll have to hunt for your QT posts
Also, the wrasse has not been a finicky eater and is enjoying his feedings!
Edit: I think the mistake I made this time around was adding algae wafers right away to provide a hopefully more familiar food source for the starry blenny. It clouded my water and, despite numerous wc's, I haven't been able to get it fully clear yet.
Lasse
10K Club member
In this case I would only treat him/she once with Lugol - just clean the wound with it. Just to give him/her a good start. Lugol is an iodine solution - perfect to clean wound with. I´m not complete sure if you need to treat the wound at all - it depends on how heavy the infection is. Maybe just move the fish to clean water (important not completly new mixed water - mix 50% DT water with 50% new mixed water - IMO - old water contain organic molecoules that make it more "kind" to fishes mucus layer - maybe snake oil - but I always try to do that way if possible). You are in the learning curve - and I´m not able to see and understand your fish behaviour - therefore trust your own common sense.
Sincerely Lasse
Sincerely Lasse
Lasse
10K Club member
Similar threads
TOP 10 Trending Threads
-
- Sticky
