# My Ornate Boxfish and sea lice



## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Yes, you read the title correctly.
For those of you who have been following along about Kissy, you will know I have been dealing with what I thought (and several other more knowledgable people) thought was a lymphocystis infection.
Kissy arrived last September with a cloudy eye and a growth on his fin. While the cloudy eye cleared up in about 3 weeks, the growth did not.
We treated him with Melafix, vitamins, good food, Prazi, Neoplex, Formalin, Hydroplex and even a partial fresh water dip (only the back half of him, not his gills). Recently I had begun to treat him with polysporin, which I did last weekend. 
During an application procedure for the polysporin, I had enough, and convinced John that the lesions on his fins were only partially attached, and that if I was careful, I could pull one off. Which I did.
I then checked it under my 30x microscope and saw that this "lump" actually had a sucker for a mouth and was moving around trying to find out what had happened to it's ride.
A small freak out occurred.
Which was calmed by a healthy dose of tequila. 
A few quick chats with trusted allies, and we decided it was time to remove all the lumps.
So we set up a small operating theatre, which included 5 different types of sterile tweezers, my optivisor with LED lighting, a small bucket of tank water, nitrile gloves and a set of spare hands.
We netted Kissy, John held the net in the small bucket of water and I cradled the fish in the net with my left hand and proceeded to remove 15 blood sucking, vampire like, parasitical bugs that have been using my amazing box fish as a food source for the last several months.
My hands were shaking so bad from the gross-ness of the experience and the fear that my poor fish would not survive.
A lot more tequila was required.
I am not sure if Kissy remained calm because I have netted him so often to put polysporin on him, or because he was relieved to get the parasites off.
Regardless, he went back in the tank (after another application of polysporin on the sucker marks) and proceeded to ignore me for the rest of the day.
Today he is good. He is eating, the marks are healing and he generally looks better.
I fear that there may be some sub adult sea lice on him still that were too small to pick off, but I will deal with those as I can. When they are a bit larger.
It still freaks me out how many were on him and what they looked like under the microscope. John said they reminded him of some sucker type creature from Star Wars (that I can't remember what is called)
Each of these things looks almost like a poplar seed. About 10mm round, flat, with a slightly thicker middle area. They didn't really have eyes, but did have a very definite sucker mouth (like a leech). They are soft, no shells, and are not segmented.
Considering there are over 4500 different kinds of sea bugs, I have not been able to come up with an exact identification.
So if anyone wants to provide an ID, let me know. I have 15 frozen little buggers in my freezer I will gladly part with if you want to do any research.


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Wow Cheryl, glad you finally cracked the mystery! Is there any other way to deal with the lice other than manual removal?

I have never heard of polysporin used in treatment of fish... Let me know if you need some, I have a new stash of polysporin (don't ask) that you are welcome to.


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Cheryl has sea crabs!!!! EWWWWWWW!!!!


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

fury165 said:


> Is there any other way to deal with the lice other than manual removal?
> 
> I have never heard of polysporin used in treatment of fish...


I don't think so. Formalin didn't affect them. Manual removal seems to be the only solution. Thankfully these are not the kind of sea lice that eat the fish's tongue and then live in his mouth.

The polysporin idea came from Carl, who told me he has used it for many years successfully on scaled fish. He said it was important to use the Vaseline kind, not the cream cause it sticks better to the fish.


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

Kissy is major Drama. kudos to you, I would have prolly given up by now


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

What is the update on Kissy?


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Kissy is awesome so far. Eating like a champ. A small patch of white stuff on his back has cleared up. The sucker marks seem to be disappearing and so far, no infections.

I think there are half a dozen more parasites that will have to come off, so if you want to help me, you are welcome to visit!


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Crayon said:


> Kissy is awesome so far. Eating like a champ. A small patch of white stuff on his back has cleared up. The sucker marks seem to be disappearing and so far, no infections.
> 
> I think there are half a dozen more parasites that will have to come off, so if you want to help me, you are welcome to visit!


I would if I could, but that stuff give me the heebie jeebies.. Along with mantis shrimp, bobbit worms and leeches &#128534;&#128534;&#128534;


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Hey Cheryl, did you cross post this on RC? This would be great info for the community at large. Great work and kudos for your dedication to kissy 👍🏼


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## bluface (Dec 7, 2013)

*Copper*

Copper treatment should work, no?


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

I don't know about copper. This is a cold water Boxfish and I have not investigated copper on a fish that lives in a tank at 60 degrees. Everyone who has information on cold water box fishes doesn't seem to use copper, but at this moment, I can't remember if there was a reason.

I have narrowed down the parasite to being flukes. Taipan linked me an article that appears to be very similar to what I saw on the fish. Am researching how to get rid of flukes now.

And no, I have not posted on RC yet. Probably will though.


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## Taipan (Feb 12, 2012)

*On the Topic of Parasitology.....*



Crayon said:


> .....I have narrowed down the parasite to being flukes. Taipan linked me an article that appears to be very similar to what I saw on the fish. Am researching how to get rid of flukes now.....


.....Because someone will inevitably ask (I've also added a few more references - some will fall asleep to the reading material; others will lose sleep; some will find it disturbingly fascinating) :

http://www.slideshare.net/trichards3/parasitology-lab-notes-2997562

http://www.marineparasites.com/introduction.html

http://www.marineparasites.com/index.html

http://spo.nmfs.noaa.gov/tr25opt.pdf

Parasitology - I have no life. Good luck on your quest and your battle.


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## Cimmel1 (Nov 17, 2009)

I used prazi pro when I had a fluke outbreak. I dosed it in my reef at double strength with no ill effect. Make sure you follow up with a second treatment as I don't think the prazi kills any eggs so you have to kill them after they hatch. Just make sure to remove any carbon and remove the cup from your skimmer.
Haven't seen a fluke since!


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## altcharacter (Jan 10, 2011)

Just a heads up, she already used prazi with no positive effects


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## Cimmel1 (Nov 17, 2009)

Sorry I missed it but I see it now.


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## Sunstar (Jul 29, 2008)

Thanks for all that info and good luck with the rest of the creepies.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

*Doesn't hurt to try again*



Cimmel1 said:


> I used prazi pro when I had a fluke outbreak. I dosed it in my reef at double strength with no ill effect. Make sure you follow up with a second treatment as I don't think the prazi kills any eggs so you have to kill them after they hatch. Just make sure to remove any carbon and remove the cup from your skimmer.
> Haven't seen a fluke since!


I have never had a fluke infection in a tropical tank. What do tropical flukes look like? The flukes I am dealing with feel like the Hulk of flukes, super sized, big dudes.

Regardless, I am treating again with Prazi. Thanks Cimmel for the thumbs up. I fear the Prazi has no effect on the adult dudes, but if I can break the cycle and kill any free swimming juveniles, then it's a good move.

My babe Kissy is looking better than he has ever looked in the last few months. Hopefully there aren't flukes inside him, just on the outside.


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

Hey April 2 update. I reached out to a few US gurus and got some feedback. Not sure how everyone feels about Bob Fenner at Wet Web Media, but here is what he wrote back to me:


> I appreciate your comments on melafix, and will keep it in mind for future
> use.
> <Ah good... if only there were statutes for selling such products as there
> are for human remedies....>
> ...


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## Crayon (Apr 13, 2014)

My Boxfish died last night. 

About 10 days ago, we treated him with Prazi. At 5 days in, he lost buoyancy, so we did a big water change, added carbon and kept him fed. But he never got upright again after that.

Unfortunately last night was the end.

After the fluke removal, we were fairly certain he still had juveniles on him. He also went through a lymphocystis outbreak as his fins were all covered and frayed. I think that got the better of him.

I am very sad about the outcome, as it has been a long battle for us, since the day he arrived last September, to get him healthy. We could just never get on top of the diseases and infections he came to us with.

Here is what I do know: yes, you can do a freshwater dip on a box fish. For sure I will start with that next time. Formalin is the medication of preference to get rid of anything. Possibly dips are better than long term bath, so will do that.

And I hope there will be a next time. This was the best fish we ever kept and had more personality than any of our other fish.

I am very sad.


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## Bullet (Apr 19, 2014)

What a day Ms C. : ( 
I am sorry for your loss and i am sad too
I have tried to save fish, corals etc and sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn't
In any case, it is traumatic and we all can appreciate your feelings as we've had the privilege of following your journey with Kissy 
I'm proud of you for posting your experiences - I'm not that brave 
God always has the final word


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## fury165 (Aug 21, 2010)

Sorry to hear Cheryl, you did your best and many of us agree that you went way above and beyond in attempts to get Boxie healthy again. 😔


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## TBemba (Jan 11, 2010)

A sad day 

I never met Kissy, but I felt like I knew Kissy and will be missed


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## cica (Feb 10, 2013)

Sorry Cheryl, poor Kissy suffered so much and you with him. I really hoped he would get better.
Sad day. RIP Kissy.


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