Severum With Peeling Slime?

[karin]

Hi all.

Six weeks ago I had two red spot severum's sent from a breeder in NYC. After they settled in I notice one of them as some grey areas that look like peeling slime coat. My best description is when you get a sun burn and it starts peeling and then you wear a shirt and sweat, you dead skin will look like what is happening on the sev. None of it actually falls off as far as I can tell. Now if I consolidated it all it would be maybe 5 % of his body at most, but it is spread on his body, well behind his head. Fins are not involved. It has not appeared to increase in six weeks. The water stats are ideal. I do a 20% water change every 5 days. He is growing (probably about an inch over six weeks to 3-4 inches) and he eats voraciously, is active, begs for food and etc. I did a full 14 day course of malachite green/formalin (Quick Cure) because the only thing I could come up with was costia or ichthyobodo. No change. No flashing. And, because I don't have a quarantine tank, he is in with others and no other fish has shown signs of this or any other illness. Poops are dark and appear normal and regular. This is the best I can do with photos.

Any ideas? I did post to the emergency section a while back with no response.

 

[england]

Hmm cant see much in picture, but from discription it sounds like its had a scrape, either a fight or damaged on gravel or rocks, Try preforming some ood quaility water changes every other day, about 30%
Is it eating and swimming ok?

 

[karin]

Yeah it is totally acting normal. It isn't a scrape. It is like grey areas of the slime coat, the scales don't seem to be missing. And it hasn't changed in six weeks. On another forum it was suggested that when the breeder shipped, the fish may have been burned by ammonia or that too much slime coat was added. When the fish arrived they were in a very small amount of water in very small bags and I remember that there was a whitish slime in the bag. Does anyone have any experience with this? I thought it was an interesting and plausible theory.

 

[hamfist]

So is there actually any excessive slime coming off these areas, or is it merely discoloured ? If no slime then I would say that it is just how the fish is. COuld possibly be scarring from some injury, chemical or otherwise. Could be just patches of pigment-free skin.
I would also have treated with formalin/malachite green if I suspected an external parasite problem. If I still had concerns, I would try treating with flubendazole (may be difficult to obtain in the USA) or quinine.

If it was an infective cause though, I would not expect such a good growth rate for the fish.

Bit of a puzzler eh ?