help me ID this disease on my atlantic tang

[jt09]

got this guy about 2 weeks ago. when he was in the lfs, he was a really light blue - ever since he has been in my tank, he's dark blue. i figured he was stressed and he'd get over it...but he's still dark blue. he eats like a champ and he's swimming all over the place, not listing or laboring or breathing hard. all good, but for the dark coloring and these spots, which i thought were ich, but i honestly have no clue...which is why i'm here!

i do have a cleaner shrimp, but he's very small/young and the two haven't seemed to find one another at all yet. i've had larger cleaners and other fish w/ issues in the past and the two were drawn together like magnets.

any idea what this is? how i can help him out?

 

[ShilohPSU]

I'm not an expert in the disease department, but it looks like a body fungus to me. I've had a gold-banded maroon clown for 3 1/2 years now. She had a similar white body fungus growing around her mouth/head about a year ago. I normally don't use antibiotics, but since it was my favorite fish, I used maracyn (obtained at my LFS) to treat the infection... Within a couple of days, the fish was completely back to normal and is currently doing fine. The sweet thing about maracyn is that it is reef safe. My corals, anemone, and inverts were all fine after the treatment. The only problem is that antibiotics kill off many if not all types of bacteria, including the benficial stuff in bio-balls/biological filtration. So after I used the maracyn, my skimmer went crazy for over a month to the point where I shut it off. It looks like your tang has a lot of fungus on it, so if there's any chance of saving it, you should act quickly. It would have been good to treat the fish as soon as you noticed the first sign of the white stuff. It might be too late now and not worth the skimming problems. Like I said, I'm no expert.. Any other opinions?

 

[Aquarist007]

+ 1 on this post

 

[jt09]

thanks shiloh - off to the lfs right now!

 

[jt09]

i got a 24 pack of maracyn and have been dosing 5 packets (46g + 10 or 12 gallon sump) per day. how long should i dose? i'll go get more maracyn tomorrow if i need to. spots look more muted now, but not noticeably smaller.

 

[Aquarist007]

i got a 24 pack of maracyn and have been dosing 5 packets (46g + 10 or 12 gallon sump) per day. how long should i dose? i'll go get more maracyn tomorrow if i need to. spots look more muted now, but not noticeably smaller.

Great article for you to refer to

http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=374&theme=Printer

"To treat with the Maracyn combo, you first want to do a large water change to get ammonia/nitrite/nitrates as low as possible before starting treatment. Try to treat for the full 5 days with no water change. Do test water daily for ammonia/nitrite/nitrate. If you see results of ammonia greater than 0.25, nitrite greater than 1.0, or nitrate approaching 20, you will have to do a partial water change. In this case, simply redose the meds to the level they were at before the water change. For example, if you have done 3 days of treatment, with 1 tab each day to the water, you have added 3 tabs to a 10 gal. tank. If you do a 5 gal. water change, you would add 3 days x .5 tabs (5 gal. instead of 10), or 1 ½ tabs to the replacement water. Then continue with your regular dosing schedule. After the 5 day treatment, do 2 large water changes, 50% each, 12 hours apart. This will remove most of the meds from the water, and give the fish a much-needed break from the meds. If the infection is gone, there is no need to retreat. Continue to watch the fish for a week in the qt tank to make sure there is no reoccurrence. If it is not gone, follow the recommendations in the first paragraph regarding resistant strains of bacteria"

 

[jt09]

awesome....looks like a couple days of water changes coming for me. just what i was looking forward to!

thanks for the help!

 

[jt09]

my skimmer went crazy for over a month to the point where I shut it off.

:eek2::eek2::eek2: it's going NUTS! had to dial it back today as i found it overflowing this morning and had already filled back up again by lunch!

fish looks great, other than the spots. treated for 5 days, did 40g water change and i'll start treatment again on sunday for another 5 days, then do another 40g change.

 

[RBU1]

Please keep us posted on how the fish is doing. Thanks

 

[Psionicdragon]

no idea what the infection is, but i believe that is a vlamingi tang. it can grow up to 2 feet fyi

Personally, I would just Fresh water dip with formalin 3 if it is any external fungus or bacteria infection.

 

[jt09]

poor guy fought the good fight, but fell yesterday. thanks for all the help here - much appreciated.

going to talk w/ the lfs about picking out a new tang and monitoring him for a week or two at their store before i bring him home. little bent that i spent $100 on a fish that died - plenty of that blame falls on my shoulders. i'd like a nice tang to graze my algae and i've got great water, so if he shows up healthy, he should stay healthy.