Eye Parasites

[tuwhada]

ok Here is the story. I work at a tropical fish store and we do service on tanks. One of our customers has a 3,000 gallon sw tank with sooooo many fish and inverts and tons of live rock. I know it has a uv sterilzer and the works....

Well about 2 weeks ago they state that there Vlamingi tang which is well over a foot long was not eating and was not doing well. They thought maybe one or two of hte other fish were picking on him. So we took him out of hte tank and now have him in a "quarantine" tank in the store. I use quarantine lightly b/c there were like 1-2 other fish in this tank and various inverts. THis tank is seperate from all of our other systems.

So he started out just being kind of skinny. and a little cloudiness in the one eye. Nobody really did anything for this guy at all. Everybody kept trying to feed it all sorts of stuff but he would not eat. I made a mixture of some flake (formula 2, prime reef and some frozen brine and I soaked it in some garlic and vitamin c) well he ate that mixture up!!!! He was quite happy. I felt like he was doing much better. About a day or two latter they noticed that he was kind of gasping and was not using one of his gills. I suggested throwing a cleaner shrimp with him. Well we threw this shrimp in and he just went right up to him and open his gill. While the shrimp cleaned him he changed colors and was absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! I still got him to eat that same mixture but not much else.

Now all of the sudden he looks WORSE then ever!!!!!!!! His eye is completely clouded over (just the one) and even looks like there is stuff on it. My co-worker felt that a freshwater dip would help b/c he felt that they were parasites in his eye. Well we dipped him yesterday and will probably dip him again tomorrow. We are also going to lower the salinity in the tank he is in and pull out all the inverts.

So basically this poor fish. I have grown quite attached to him... he did eat for me today (obviously he won't eat for anyone else). I just don't know what to do for him. He is beautiful, sweet and I really feel bad for him.
I don't notice any other spots on him mostly just hte eye. ANY suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated!!!

Thanks
Christina

 

[steve-s]

Tell them to do several large water changes with well aged SW and STOP the FW dips, that will only make matters worse. The eye was most likely injured when captured/transfered and with all the attempts of the staff to entice feeding, there would most definately be higher DOC in the water which in turn will feed any bacteria that might make it worse. Be sure you continue your enriched feedings as well.

For mild cases of eye injury, large water changes with well aged SW will usually do the trick. For more severe cases, a gram negative antibiotic would be required but by the sounds of it, the water changes should show some improvement.

Cheers
Steve

 

[tuwhada]

So you don't think it is a parasite at all? You think it might be an injury??? It is pretty clouded over... It almosts looks like there is something on it b/c there is white actually sticking out of the eye.

Thanks
Christina

 

[steve-s]

It almosts looks like there is something on it b/c there is white actually sticking out of the eye.

Sounds more like the eye has become severely infected by that description and treatment should be started ASAP. FW dips will not help an eye ailment whatsoever, just speed up the damage. Make sure the fish is not netted if transfered to a treatment tank or there is a very large chance the fish will lose they eye. If at all possible, treat the fish in it's current location since it is on a seperate system from the rest.

Cheers
Steve

 

[tuwhada]

when you say gram negative antibiotic which ones would you suggest?

Christina

 

[steve-s]

when you say gram negative antibiotic which ones would you suggest?

Maracyn II and double the dose treated each day for a full seven days. If you need to do water changes during the process (as the med will destroy the biofilter), be sure the change water is medicated prior.

Cheers
Steve

 

[tuwhada]

thanks... I will make that suggestion.

Christina