Parasites or Fungus??? and setting up quarantine tank...

[Stephanie]

I'm having trouble with my coral beauty. I've been told that it has head and lateral line erosion. It doesn't seem to bother the fish, and I've been treating it. But I've recently noticed that the fish has tiny white marks between some of the scales on its sides. It swims normally and eats a lot, but shakes or shimmies once in awhile. I bought medicine from the fish store because I was told that white stuff means fungus, but now I'm not so sure. Could it be parasites instead, and how should I treat this?

Also, I set up a quarantine tank for the fish but I haven't yet put it in because the nitrates are extremely high. Its a 10 gallon tank with a filter for 20 gallons hanging on the back. I put live rock and live sand from the display tank in it, and half old water and half new water. I didn't have enough water in the display tank to use all the water from it. I want to treat the fish but I want to get the nitrates down first. Any advice would be helpful.

Thanks!

Steph

 

[reefrunner69]

You can get the nitrates down with a water change. The bacteria responsible for nitrification are present on surfaces, while there will be some free swimming in the water the number will be negligible.

As for the coral beauty, is there any way you can post a pic? Do the white spots follow a line down either or both of it's sides? You could simply be seeing the progression of the HLLE, or it could be parasitic infestation or lymphocystis. How big are the white spots? Do they resemble cauliflower? Does the fish scratch on the sand or decorations? What medication have you used to treat the fish?

 

[Stephanie]

The spots are tiny, I can hardly see them. Its like the light has to hit the fish a certain way even to notice them. They don't look like cauliflower, but they look a little raised, and almost under the scales. There are very few of them and they don't seem to follow the lateral line pattern. The fish shakes its body a little once in awhile, like it has an itch. I haven't seen any rock scratching though. I seem to remember the spots being more visible the other day, and looking more like fungus. Is it possible the fish got better on its own?

I've been having a lot of trouble with this fish picking on the other fish. I actually bought a 55 gallon tank today and am going to set it up tonight because of the coral beauty chasing my perculas and my new blenny and goby. Thats another reason why its hard to tell if the "flickering"is because of a disease, or if its aggression. In my opinion, it does look like she's doing it because of an itch or irritation.

I still haven't put her in the quarantine tank yet because I've been waiting for advice on what to do. Its hard to remove the fish when I really don't know if anything is wrong. And she's swimming around like crazy, and eating fine. I need to know what to do soon though because I will be setting up the 55 gallon tonight, and I dont know if I should put the coral beauty in or not. I have several different meds that the people at the fs told me to get. One is for fungus and bacterial infections. I also have Rid Ich and methylene blue. What should I do???

P.S. The spots won't show up in a pic, sorry.

 

[reefrunner69]

OK, without actually seeing the fish, I have to assume the fish has either Ick (Cryptocarryon irritans) or velvet (Amyloodinium occelatum), in either case I would recommend you put the fish in the quarantine tank and treat with copper sulfate at a level of .15-.20ppm for a period of 3 weeks. You may notice that the spots are gone very quickly, but the fish must be treated for 3 weeks to break the life cycle of the parasite (which is only killed by the copper i it's free swimming stage). During the treatment you should monitor the water closely and have water mixed and ready at all times for an emergency water change, as any med has the ability to effect the biological filter. The LR in the tank should be removed as the copper will kill the life on the rock, the rock will also take up the copper and slowly release it back into whatever system it is in. Other members may have other cures, but IMO copper is the most effective and reliable.

 

[Stephanie]

Well I now know that the coral beauty has parasites. The white spots are gone, but the fish is scratching on rocks now, and is also going up to the other fish (like it used to do to with the cleaner shrimp that we used to have) asking to be cleaned. Its really sad. I'm scared to remove the fish because the quarantine tank that I set up has high nitrates in it and some ammonia. It has very low nitrites though. Once I put the fish into this ten gallon tank, won't the levels spike? And if the copper kills the live rock and sand, how do you control these levels once food and waste accumulates in the water? I'm also assuming that you can't use carbon in the filter because of the medicine? The filter that I have for the quarantine is just a Whisper for a 20 gallon, and it hangs on the back. I've never set up a saltwater quarantine tank before and I'm new to saltwater fish diseases, so any instructions that you could give me would be such a big help. I really don't want to lose this fish.

Also, are there any other methods besides the quarantine tank?

Thank you!

~Steph

 

[PrettyFishies]

In my hospital tank I use a sponge filter for bio filtration... It's cheap and effective, I put some live rock in to seed it and it's fine now... no Ammonia, trite and low trates....

 

[delpro]

head and line

have been told several days of vitamin c soaked food can help...have not had this problem myself so please do more research