Kole Tang with blotches

[GrantH]

HI All, I am new to keeping marine fish and I have a potential issue with my yello eye kole tang - it has developed pale blotches on its body - the attached photo shows the front of the fish close-up and gives an idea of what I'm asking about. It doesn't look like Ich, but I have limited experience if marine animals so would love to get your opinion!

Thanks,

Grant

 

[EllieSuz]

[welcome]

It doesn't look like Ich to me either. Marine Ich looks like grains of salt stuck to the fish. How long has the tank been set up and how long ago did your cycle finish? How long have you had this fish? How long has it had these blotches? Do you quarantine all new arrivals? We'll need a bit more information in order to help you, but you've come to the right place.

 

[GrantH]

Blotchy Kole Tang - additional info

Blotchy Kole Tang - additional info

Thanks for such a prompt response! Here is some additional info...

75 gallon tank. Fully cycled with live rock. Cycle was complete Dec 26th - zero ammonia, nitrites, nitrates less than 5. I test routinely and the highest nitrates seen were 10 ppm, just prior to a water change. Now consistently less than 5 ppm

Water changes are done weekely, about 20% of the water, with routine topups with RO/DI water - home made and tested for TDS.

Calcium and hardness also tested - both within acceptable range for "normal" sea water

2 powerheads in the tank, each at 700 gph to maintain movement

LED lights - sufficient for growing soft corals

Sump - refugium setup with live-rock rubble and macro algae, plus ASM mini-G protein skimmer.

Other inhabitants:
2 mocha ocellaris clowns
3 firefish
1 six-line wrasse
1 yellow watchman goby (constantly escaping into my overflow)
3 yellow tail damsels (was told they were less aggressive than others - bad info!)
1 emerald crab
various hermit crabs and snails for clean-up
soft coral frags - all in good health and actually growing!
Bubble-tip anemone

Food:
seaweed sheets
new spectrum pellets
frozen mysis
frozen brine shrimp

The tang accepts all food now but would not touch the seaweed for the first two weeks, which given that it is supposed to be primarily a herbivore surprised me.

As this is a new tank, and the fish were purchased over a three week period from the same store which has a single, linked filtration system, I did not QT the fish prior to addition. The tang was in the first wave I added, so I have had it for about four weeks. I believe that it did have one blotch on its side when I bought it but thought it was either an imperfection in it's skin or a scrape.

The fish is eating well - it does seem more skittish than I would have imagined and I wonder if it is stressed, even though it is the largest fish in the tank. Interestingly, as soon as I added the six-line wrasse, the tang made a bee-line for it and appeared to think the wrasse would clean it - in fact, I am tempted to get a cleaner shrimp to see what might happen.

 

[MrTuskfish]

Possibly HLLE.

 

[Mrscribbled]

Could be HLLE but just doesn't seem in the usual areas where it starts, did all fish go through fluke treatment prior to display? This would be the only other possibility.

 

[Mrscribbled]

If it had a blotch on its side at purchase, most likely flukes.

 

[GrantH]

Flukes?

Flukes?

Thanks again for the feedback! If it is indeed flukes, is there a treatment you'd recommend? I have a 30 gallon I could set up as a treatment tank if medications would adversely affect the invertibrates already living in the main dispaly, although I'm not sure how I'll catch the Tang - I thought Mbhuna cichlids were tough - they are nothing like as difficult to grab as the marine fish I have!

Grant

 

[Mrscribbled]

Prozi-pro, safe to use in reef but will kill tube worms. Will not harm biological filtration.

 

[Yogre]

If its flukes, a couple of rounds of Prazi Pro certainly wouldn't hurt.

It doesn't look like flukes to me, though, those blotches are pretty distinct. I'm thinking like MrTuskfish, HLLE.

Are you running activated carbon on the system? There has been at least some evidence that has pointed towards carbon causing HLLE in tangs.

Is the fish shaking its head, flashing, or scratching on anything? That would point towards a parasite.

 

[dMarina]

Kole tangs will get spots on them when stressed or just introduced into a tank. Mine would have spots every morning but they went away as the day went on. Are his going away after the lights are on for awhile?

 

[GrantH]

The blotches seem to be pretty constant although I am not normally home when the lights go on. I will take a look this weekend so I can compare before and after lights. Also, thanks for the recommendation on the Prozi-pro. If it doesn't harm corals or invertibrates then I will treat the whole tank. If nothing else, it should act as prophylaxis for the other fish too.

Grant