White Spots on Regal Angel

[Ikan60]

Looking for help with my new regal. He had ich so I started treating him with cupramine. I raised the cupramine levels very slowly so he has been in the full treatment of cupramine for almost a week now (tomorrow it will be a week). All of the ich spots have disappeared. However, he continues to have a large white spot on his tail and one in the middle of his eyeball. These white spots have not responded at all to the cupramine and may even have gotten bigger. They have not fallen off or moved location at all during the week and a half I have had the fish. They are both bigger than the ich spots that he had on his body. He is eating very well, swimming out in the open, and curious and interactive. He is in my QT tank. Does this look like fungus? What should I be treating him with? Can I do any treatment at the same time as cupramine or should I wait until I remove the cupramine from the system? Thank you for any help!

 

[jahmic]

Can't say what that spot is...but I'd suggest you watch and wait until you are done with the cupramine before you move on to another treatment. If the fish is healthy otherwise after cupramine...I'd probably ignore the white spot. Does it look fuzzy like a fungus? Or is it more like a cyst on the skin. My first guess if it looks like a cyst would be lymphocytosis, which is fairly common, and I don't know that any treatments exist for it. It's caused by a virus and is common when the fish is stressed...which could easily be the case since it's in QT and being treated with copper.

Just a word of caution...the one thing you absolutely do not want to mix with Cupramine is Formalin. It will reduce the Cu+2 to Cu+1 which is highly toxic and will likely kill the fish. I mention it since formalin is somewhat commonly used for fungal infections. If you suspect it's a fungus...be 100% sure that there is no copper in the tank if you treat with formalin.

 

[jda123]

Is that real rock in the tank? If so, have you checked the copper level with a test kit? Real rock of many different kinds will bond copper and it won't be doing it's job. If it is plastic, then nevermind.

 

[Ikan60]

Can't say what that spot is...but I'd suggest you watch and wait until you are done with the cupramine before you move on to another treatment. If the fish is healthy otherwise after cupramine...I'd probably ignore the white spot. Does it look fuzzy like a fungus? Or is it more like a cyst on the skin. My first guess if it looks like a cyst would be lymphocytosis, which is fairly common, and I don't know that any treatments exist for it. It's caused by a virus and is common when the fish is stressed...which could easily be the case since it's in QT and being treated with copper.

Just a word of caution...the one thing you absolutely do not want to mix with Cupramine is Formalin. It will reduce the Cu+2 to Cu+1 which is highly toxic and will likely kill the fish. I mention it since formalin is somewhat commonly used for fungal infections. If you suspect it's a fungus...be 100% sure that there is no copper in the tank if you treat with formalin.

Thanks for your help. Can lymphocytosis occur on the eye? I am fairly certain that the white spot on the eye is the same problem as the white spot on the tail.

 

[Ikan60]

Is that real rock in the tank? If so, have you checked the copper level with a test kit? Real rock of many different kinds will bond copper and it won't be doing it's job. If it is plastic, then nevermind.

The rock is plastic. I do have a copper test kit. I strictly followed seachems advice for dosing copper and when I finished with their suggested dosage, my copper levels were at about .3. I decided not to push it beyond that since angels are so sensitive to copper.

 

[scchase]

Could be bacterial I see that fairly often in angels. Generally with good water quality and no stress it clears up on its own and is ussually seen on the eyes and fins. Some food with metradonizal can be used to help with bacterial infections as well if the angel will eat it.

 

[jahmic]

Honestly don't know enough about lymphocytosis to say whether it could occur on the eye. I agree that bacterial infection is also a possibility...and would make more sense with it being on the eye. Unfortunately it's really difficult to diagnose from a picture, but I did have an angel that had a similar spot on it's tail and it cleared up on its own. No clue what it was though, to be honest. Just kept the water pristine and kept it well fed.

If you can get metronidazole, I've found it helps to crush it up into a powder, mix it with some selcon and a touch of garlic guard, then squeeze the water out of some frozen food (mysis works well), and allow the food to then absorb the metro+selcon/garlic mix. Even picky fish seem to go right after it...otherwise they do tend to avoid the food that's just coated with medication.

I may have some metronidazole I can give you, I'll have to check when I get home.

 

[Ikan60]

Thank you guys so much! Great info. Can I use metronidazole at the same time as copper or do I have to wait until I clear my system?