Rea17
New member
Hey everyone. I got this gorgeous powder blue tang about 8 months ago from a fellow reefer. She was about 6 inches in length and very healthy. Her owner told me that while she was younger she had a pretty serious ich problem that was treated with copper. This is pretty normal for tangs, and I figured the copper would have killed anything on her. I made the rookie mistake of not qting her... terrible, I know. A mistake that will never happen again! This fish fell ill after a night in my tank - I turned on the lights in the morning to find her covered in white spots. It was definitely not marine ich, the spots were bigger and elongated, sticking out a few millimeters. I was unable to determine exactly what the parasite was, I thought maybe some form of brookynella? I fed her as much as she would eat (nori, mysis, etc) and hoped that proper diet would help. It didn't. The following morning she had massive fin deterioration and was breathing heavily. I caught her and put her in a 75 gallon qt tank, dosed cupramine and hoped for the best. The fish pulled through... amazingly. After a treatment period with copper and prazi she was on the mend. I kept her in that qt tank until her fins were regenerated (mostly). Although none of my other fish were showing signs of stress or sickness, I removed them from the display and put them in separate qt tanks with treatment for 8 weeks. I hoped that the tank being empty for that period of time would eliminate any parasite that might be lurking in the rocks/sand. The 8 week timer was up a couple of weeks ago, I waited an extra week just to be safe, then I began adding fish. I phased them in 2 at a time, least aggressive -> most, over the span of two weeks. They went in with no sign of parasites, success! Sadly, this morning I woke up to find some (5 or so) of those same elongated spot parasites on the powder blue. She has been in the tank for a week. The powder blue does not receive any aggression from my other tangs, nor is she aggressive to them. I don't see stress as a factor here. I'm posting some pictures, and I apologize for poor quality, I just have my camera phone. If anyone has a suggestion or has any idea what this is, let me know.
Note: the main visible spot is behind her right gill cover. There are some on her dorsal fin and left side that aren't showing up well in pictures. The dorsal spots are sort of visible on the head on pic of her. She lives in an established 240 gallon tank with 6 other tangs. They all get along great. Daily feedings of nori soaked in selcon, and mysis/brine a few times a week. Water parameters are perfect. All fish were drip acclimated back to the tank for 2-3 hours.
Note: the main visible spot is behind her right gill cover. There are some on her dorsal fin and left side that aren't showing up well in pictures. The dorsal spots are sort of visible on the head on pic of her. She lives in an established 240 gallon tank with 6 other tangs. They all get along great. Daily feedings of nori soaked in selcon, and mysis/brine a few times a week. Water parameters are perfect. All fish were drip acclimated back to the tank for 2-3 hours.
