Help..very odd looking disease?

ScubbaDuppa

Hello all, I have a fully stocked 190l tank consisting of rock,leather corals,tangs,torpedos,dottyback,shrimp etc, and until today a boxfish. I already had a boxfish in my tank and further purchased a longhorn ,once I let it into my tank it appeared to have whitespot so I took it back to the retailer who popped it straight back on for sale 'yes I won't be going back lol'.. Anyway I was advised by a reputable store to use minarol and garlic to try to prevent my other fish developing the disease. a week or so went by and suddenly my box fish became covered in white spots, the next day it was smothered in what looked like thousands of bubbles, days later my tangs etc developed white spots, all fish feeding very well on their live diet of shrimp,seaweed etc and active behavior. I was then told to use octozin by a specialist who I trust very much, 3 days on 3 off etc. Only I am just 5 days into this treatment. The other fish look good, no spots. The boxfish looks same, then within hours I glanced at the the tank and its skin was hanging off, almost like shedding and had lost all balance etc and upside down. Naturally I removed it due to the toxin worries, it later died. What I would like to know, if anyone knows..is what on earth was it,why had its skin come away and what can or should I do to stop this happening to my other fish as the octozin seemingly made the matter worse?. Please any advice would be much appreciated,I miss my boxfish ;( .

bobo

just taking a guess here but if the longhorn developed white spots - i believe it may have been under stress and so have released its toxins and for some reason those affected / stressed out your other boxfish. This is just a guess, but perhaps shouldnt be ruled out. Longhorn toxins arent as powerful as a normal boxfish - but they may still cause some damage.

caferacermike

Never heard of octozin.

Be aware that box fishes, cow fishes, and tangs are all very susceptible to ICH. You may have seen a fish attempting to shed it's slime coat, not it's skin, as this is a common way to help rid itself of ich.

ScubbaDuppa

Update, Sadly I have now lost all fish except for my pair of dartfishs, who appear to now be spawning, nature works in mysterious ways. My LFS have set me up with a uv steriliser as they say it sounds like a very bad free swimming parasite and hopefully this will attempt to win the battle. Can ICH be a free swimming parasite?, as all I have read about it seems to sound like what has caused the deaths, Does anyone know if the Uv will cure it?, as I have the dartfishs still in the tank the parasite still has a host and I presume still carrying out its cycle, I am told the uv will break the cycle and wondered if anyone had experience of this?. Thanks again.

okiemavis

It could have been velvet disease. It looks a *lot* like white spot and can cause skin to peel away in strips. It can swim from fish to fish and can live at least 24 hours without a fish although probably a few days.

The treatment I've heard for it (although I've never had this disease problem myself) is to remove the surviving fish and give them a 3-4 week copper treatment. If you raise the infected tank's temp to 30-32C for about 3 weeks it will speed up the life cycle of the parasite thereby shortening the time they can survive without fish and make the tank safe again.

Good luck!

bettababy

In answer to your question about UV, yes, this can help a great deal, although you can't rely on it 100% to kill all parasites. Good maintenance practices, good water quality, lack of stress... all of these things together will protect your fish in the future.
All great advice here for you... one thing I'd like to make mention of though... the stress thing... stress doesn't cause the illness. Stress simply weakens the fish's immune system, making them very susceptible to any type of illness. Once the immune system is weakend, it leave the fish open to catch whatever is already in the tank, and makes it much harder for the fish to fight it on its own.
I agree with caferacermike about the slime coat, but will also mention that 2 box fish don't belong in the tank together. They don't do well with others of their own species in a small confined space.
May I ask... how big of a tank is this?

bobo

when someone gives u a tank in litres just divide it by about 4 to get the approximate gallons , my tank is 160l or 42 gallons .. - 190 l is then about 50 gallons - 49.888 to be exact.

bettababy

Thanks bobo, I missed the number of liters in the original post, sorry guys!