Help diagnose my Emperor Angel (pics within)

[DamnPepShrimp]

I have three fish that were in my 110g FO tank and they started getting sick. An emperor angel, six bar angel, and a gold rim tang. My tang and six bar obviously have ich, I've seen it many times before, cured with hypo QT, the whole 6-8 weeks, leave the display fishless yada yada yada, I know that whole drill. But my emperor has something different then ich. Big white bloches on him that aren't like ich, not as define and way to big. They are discolorations on him, I thought it might have been flukes. So I did a 2-3 min freshwater dip on all fish, the emperor the longest and didn't notice anything falling off him or in the bottom of the bucket? So what could it be? I am doing hypo now, the SG is around 1.019, but before I do hypo, I am wondering if there is something else I should treat the emperor with? Maybe it's a bacterial infection? I've been told to treat with nitrofurazone? Here are some pics, please help, thank you.

 

[danorth]

pm billsreef or lisaD

 

[FishyMel]

That is a simple case of slime coat wearing off. I

 

[FishyMel]

My emperor will sometimes get a blotch or two when it is getting attacked by ich.

But this summer my emp got it about that badly and I was sure he was going to die. Luckily he was able to pull through by following this procedure:

1. I am not a fan of pulling fish for qt as I find it more stressful on the fish than helpful and at this time all the other fish were sick, so I kept the fish in the main display
2. Had a 20 percent water change daily to keep nitrates low and parameters good
3. Constant supply of caulerpa was provided for snacking; I find this to be an excellent cure to any sick fish
4. Soaked all food in garlic and vitamins
5. Put a frozen gallon of water in the sump and traded it out every 12 hours to maintain water at a cool 72 degrees
6. Also I replaced my UV sterilizer bulb

In about a week in a half with this procedure all fish were healed.
Hope this helps.

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

So it's the ick that is stressing him out, thus losing his slime coat and causing the white spots? I have him in QT now, and he seems to be getting better. I am working on slowly lowering the SG, him and the sixbar are doing ok, the goldrim is gone.

Hopefully they heal up, only time will tell. Great, another 6-8 weeks of hypo and a fishless display.

 

[mattsilvester]

Damnpepshrimp - your emporer is suffering from stress, in general, I would suspect....... I have seen that ype of thing before, and generally low stress / stable conditions / good grub sorts it out.....

I did hint at this type of situation a while back ( http://www.reefcentral.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=1277800 )
Generally speaking, mixing and matching angels is a difficult balance to master........ and sooner or later this start to fall apart! They might "appear" ok, but under the surface they are far from it.

You are in a loose - loose situation right now. Your fish need to be in natural settings as soon as possible in order to reduce the stress..... but they also need to be treated for ich.... which you are doing......

Once you have them "cured", if you put them all back together again I think you'll find that one by, they will "mysteriously die, for no obvious reason"......

Again, I wish you good luck, but am not optimistic.

 

[FishyMel]

Well to keep you optimistic mine did heal! I still believe it to be slime coat issues.

 

[mattsilvester]

Having re-read my post I think I need to clarify what I meant

I am very optimistic that the emporer will recover from this "condition" - a bit of TLC is all thats needed, however I am not optimistic for the animals future if you intend to re-house it with the big passer angel et al...... unless that sitaution has changed?

Good grub, clean water, low stress and the emporer will rally around pretty quickly

Good luck,

Matt

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

The passer actually went to my brother, he is in with his aggressive purple tang. The emperor and passer will never meet. I have been feeding him well since the start, I guess he just got stressed from the move. But he is healing up nicely in QT. I decided to copper the two angels. Unfortunately I can not keep them though, once they are done with QT, they are going to a nice 210g of a fellow reefer. I have to sell my 360g, which is why I am getting rid of the angels once they are cured. Maybe someday I will be able to set up a big tank and have angels, until then, I'll just grow out my reef. Sad times...

 

[mattsilvester]

Sorry to hear you have to sell off your big tank........
Glas to hear the Passer has gone to a new home & emporer will not be sharing with him anymore
Best of luck with everything - I think the emporer will do fine once back in a proper tank....... but while you are treating, make sure you complete the treatment and don't be tempted into thinking "he must be cured"......... done that recently myself..... what an idiot!

 

[DamnPepShrimp]

Yeah, well actually the emperor is going to a new home, so once he is cured with ich, he's gone unfortunately. Every new fish I get, I am going to QT for 8 weeks before adding to the display. I am waiting to add all my corals and inverts first, then keep the display fishless for 8 weeks so I know ich will not be in the display.