Blue Spot Jawfish Disease

[glang]

I have some information for the folks that are having the disease showing up in blue spots. I have 2 of them and one recently became lethargic and stopped eating. It began showing signs of whitening on most of its body. Labored breathing as well. I promptly moved it to a hospital tank and started thinking about a course of action. First, I did a 15 minute freshwater dip. It didn't show much sign of stress, so that was promising. Next, I lowered the sp. gravity down to about 1.015 to reduce stress on the fish a bit. This may or may not really matter, but it is what i did. Next, I began treating with erythromycin and 1 dose of Maroxy for possible fungus. I continued this treatment for 2 days(maroxy for only the 1 day). The fish continued to not eat and just remain lethargic. It continued having labored breathing the entire time. On the third day, I assumed the erythromycin wasn't working, so I began with marycin two. After 8 hours in maracyn 2, the fish has built a small burrow with some crushed coral I placed in the tank. He seems alert and has began eating readily. This is certainly a good sign, but it is still up in the air. I am debating what to do next. He still seems to have labored breathing, so I am wondering if a second freshwater dip or maybe a formalin dip would be appropriate. My rationale is that maybe the doses of antibiotics (for gram positive and gram negative) has began working on the possible secondary bacterial infections, but maybe a primary problem is parasitic. I am up for suggestions if anyone has any information on the subject. I will share my experiences as time goes on. I am determined to find out what is going on here. If the fish does end up dying, I plan to do a full autopsy and work up. I do bio research with mice, so all the tools are at my disposal. Any suggestions on what to look for would also be helpful if anyone has any info. I am particularly interested in what everyone thinks should be done next.
Thanks in advance for any advice/guidance. :?:

 

[squeezix]

I had the same problem with the same fish. He's been in my freezer for 18 months now. Quarantine worked, but he got sick again after being re-introduced to the tank.
I think the problem may have something to do with Benthic organisms living in my DSB. In the wild, these animals have a lot more room to move and breathe, in captivity, they may have too much social interation with bristleworms and such. Too much stress on the immune system at once.

 

[abozoki]

"He's been in my freezer for 18 months now."

?? Do you mean that literally (and if so, may I broach the delicate question of why...) or is that slang for something like a Q tank?

 

[Anonymous]

The Blue Spot Jawfish on the market currently don't have some wild disease as sugggested, it's a little easier to figure out then that. They're being treated horribly in shipping/holding prior to you getting them. They're spending to much time sitting in bags, boilng in they're own ammonia and wearing there fins out on the bag. Some may live, but with such poor treatment, it's no suprise that so many are succumbing to such problems. BTW, where they come from, theres 2' bristleworms, so I don't think they're having problems breathing from worms hanging around in they're hole

 

[squeezix]

He really is in the freezer.

It's been a year and a half since this happened, so I've gained a little more insight. Firstly, at the time, many other hobbyists were having the same problem, we consulted with several marine biologists who did not have answers for us, and could not attribute the illness to Brooklynella or Cryptocaryon.
My fish was healthy for quite some time and no other fish in the tank have ever been sick before or since. He was fine in quarantine, but once back in the tank, he slowly got worse again.
My theory is that sometime after the main collection site in Mexico was closed to collection, someone stumbled on a legal collection full of the same fish, but fish that carried either an unknown illness or lacked immunity to something common in our tanks due to them never being exposed. Remember that most of us keep animals native to the Eastern Pacific, Red Sea. These fish are from the Western Pacific, primarily Mexico.
Go do a search on RC for this subject and you'll find a lot of posts in a short period of time. The main reason I believe it to be an unknown cause is the experience of the hobbyists who lost fish, we all had some clue about fishkeeping. For every hobbyist on that board who was succesful with BS Jaws, there were 2 who had lost them in the same manner.

Keep that fish in quarantine as long as you can if it's not a problem. Just take your time in re-introducing him. At least that way, when you put him back in, if he does get sick, you'll know it's something in your tank. If you could keep it in quarantine for a few months without recurrence, then you'll have a better look into the problem.

I also wonder if my DSB chemistry was the cause, maybe he burrowed too deep and got irritated by the Hydrogen Sulfide and kept getting infections. To this day I still can't figure it out.

 

[Anonymous]

Eastern Pacific is where they're from, Sea of Cortez to be exact. They're not exported from any other location, Costa Rica (the only other Eastern Pacific exporting country) doesn't have em.


No "collection area" has been closed, permits went under review again. Well, the Clarion Islands were closed, but that has nothing to due with Blue Spot Jawfish (not collected from there).

As one of the legal sources (collection station in Baja) of Blue Spot Jawfish, I can tell you what I said is the truth. We've got 20+ years experience with them. The other legal supplier's (exporter) in Baja don't handle their Blue Spots with the same care. It took some unique ideas for ours to improve. No one stumbled on a "legal collection full of the same fish", they were smuggled into the USA as shark bycatch. They were mass handled, left in bags to long, they didn't take precations to protect the fishes tail, they were heated to a bad temp, they sat boiling in their own ammonia (which eats away their gills, etc.) and just treated poorly. They flooded the market for a while. Now the smuggled ones have seemed to stop, but the current legal ones aren't being treated properly. They've got to be one of the hardest fish to ship and acclimate.

 

[Anonymous]

As someone who lost a BSJ last spring, I find all of this highly interesting.

 

[Anonymous]

Marked for archiving

 

[squeezix]

Well, I've been known to be wrong before....I'm sure it happened once or twice in the 80's.

Anyway, if you've got a lead on healthy ones, I'd sure love to try again.