Need help with Yellow tang. advice needed.

[lagatbezan]

Hey guys,
I have a yellow tang that within the last two weeks started to act strange. Its has its mouth constantly open and gills flashing fast and slowly developing a pinched stomach. its as if its breathing really hard and fast. but is still fat in the stomach and swims around normally and eats fine. It has been with me over 3 years and all my fish go through a 8 week min full qt with a min of 2 rounds of prazipro. nothing new has been added to the tank in about a year. not sure what i'm dealing with. all other fish in the tank are doing fine. tank is a 180g with lots of flow and sro3000 skimmer.
I did a 40g water change the other day and started to run carbon just in case.
what could I be dealing with?

 

[saltyair]

wow that sounds exactly what happened to my yellow tang. From all the research i did it seems to be a blood bacteria - you will see red veins.

did you use a cyano rx or other type of anti-bacteria in the tank ever?

Mine didn't eat for almost a month (was very fat and healthy) I couldn't get him out due to hiding in the biggest pile of rocks.

He bounced back after i used melafix full dose. 3 days latter he started eating. If you have corals it will have a rebound effect - I lost 2 frags and a month after i got a brown jelly out break killing 3 lps.

I still have him and is doing well (other than some scars)

if you can qt using melafix works. if you can't qt and use it in the dt - be sure to replace the good bacteria

 

[Fragman4]

+1 on melafix...since it is a broad treatment antibiotic you might be able to get it worked out with one medication.

 

[Deinonych]

Melafix is not a broad-spectrum antibiotic. It is based on tea tree oil, and there are no peer-reviewed studies regarding its effectiveness.

Regarding the tang - it sounds like it could be internal parasites. Treatment with metronidazole in a QT would be my first choice. Do not dose metro in the DT, as it will devastate your biological filter.