sick racoon buterfly

[Lucky Luke]

Hi All,
I urgently need help! I bought a Racoon butterfly (Chaetodon lunula) 6 days ago. He's eating fine is very lifely and seems to be very well. Recently he started to scratch himself energetically (not very often though) and seems to have a couple of redish spots(1/4 of an inch) with his scales standing out a bit in these areas. He also starts to hide and maybe he is breathing a bit harder. I'm thinking bacterial infection from a book I read, I don't see any obvious white spots and I'm not sure whether scratching and bacteria makes sense. I have treated today with a treatment for bacteria from Rally (Acriflavine, formalin, aminoacridine
Thanks for every suggestion.
Lukas

[NASO]

Reddened areas could be a sign of bacterial infection.
Monitor the medication carefully as BF do not take well to therauputic treatments.
good luck.

One side note: your tank is much to small for a raccoon BF.
They are very active fish and needs lots of swimming room.

[billsreef]

Sounds a lot like uronema which is a ciliated protozoan that commonly infects butterflys, especially newly imported ones. This unfortunately does not tend to respond well to medication. Usually formalin dips are the best choice. Rally is still kind of new and untested, but might work. Be sure and let us know how you make out either way.

[Biosystems]

Lukas:

Like Billsreef said it sounds alot like uronema-since it has progressed to rapid breathing as well. The scraping may have caused a secondary bacterial infection; however, bacterial infections do not readily progress to respiratory distress. Uronemosis can only be treated in the early stages and is treated by a freshwater bath (YOU MUST EQUALIZE TEMP AND pH TO THAT OF YOUR AQUARIA TO DO THIS) followed by a prolonged immersion in a formalin containing seawater. Nitrofurazone can also be used in treatment. The problem with this disease is several fold-firstly, it is a deep tissue parasite-that can progress to internal organs-it loves to infect muscle tissue-this often results in the ulceration that you describe. Secondly, it is a free-living ciliated protozoan-and as such does not require a host to remain in your tank.

Is the area surrounding the lesions bleached or showing a loss of pigmentation? Is there lethargy?

Tim

[Lucky Luke]

Thanks for the suggestions everybody.
The racoon has still the symptoms, scratching is really rare I just have seen it 2 times in 3 days watching him 1-2 hours total. The breathing may be normal, I don't have enough experience especially with this fish to judge. He is very lifely and eats like a pig. After the first suggestions I got from several people (also from a webpage)which pointed more towards internal bacterial infection I started treating with kanamycin (spectrogram)3 days ago. Any treatment that requires a second tank is unfortunately not an option, I started just 8 months ago and my wife was already shocked about the "monstrous size" of my 40 gallon tank. The lessions, redish and scales standing up are still there but no bleaching. The behaviour of the fish seems to be mostly normal.
The tank is 40 gallons but 47 inch long and just 5 other small (damsel, clown, goby) fish, I hope that's not by far to small for the racoon.
Luke

[billsreef]

That blend of antibiotic can be pretty effective on some infections, good luck.

Racoons get fairly large, if he survives (my fingers are crossed for you and the racoon) he will outgrow the 40 in a year or two. Start buttering your wife up now :D