Purple Tang

[Buddy55]

I think I have a question that may not be covered in one of the stickies or maybe I missed it. I got a 2-inch purple tang from Live Aquaria on a sale. As soon as it came out of the bag it was already covered in white spots. It was going into a cycled quarantine with one other fish (flasher wrasse) and so I began copper treatment the next day. Coppersafe, using the API test kit to keep it within therapeutic level. 28 days go by and I have begun removing copper through water changes. The tang still has spot's, not white but almost looks like skin damage from the ich. I have never experienced ich. Can it take a long time for the skin to heal after being covered in ick? The pictures are not revealing. Hard to see these spots. Glass has some algea in viewing area. Thanks

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[Jdub968]

I can't see any any spots in your pics ! Coppersafe directions say .15-.2 ppm but they are wrong did you run levels at 1.5-2 ppm or as the directions suggested? Generally once the ick falls off the white spots will go away fairly quick

 

[lagatbezan]

I can't see any spots either. Jdub969 is right about the dosage. you want to use 2ml/g which should hopefully put you in the vicinity of 1.75-2.0 which is where you want to be.
keep it constant for 14 days and then you can transfer the fish to a brand new clean qt tank and observe. Nothing from the first tank should be transferred to the new tank except the fish.
Also in your pick I see rocks and sand. Keep in mind that they will absorb some of the copper and change the copper levels in the tank which is not good. Bare bottom qt with just PVC pipes for the fish to hide is the best. you can put a small dish with some sand in it for the wrasse if you need to.

 

[Buddy55]

I followed the corrected dosage as posted on forum. 1.5 was my goal. The photos won't pick it up but they are there. Perhaps it's another type of parasite. I have not used prazi yet. It's like slimecoat damage. I wish I had dslr type camera to pick up the spots. He is very active, he does not like me looking at him. He rams the Glass when I stare to long. I hope this does not foreshadow his temper going into the tank. He does not bother the small wrasse that's with him though. Well if the skin should have healed then either copper was not successful or it's another type of issue. I'm in no rush to add him to DT. The wrasse has been in quarantine for 2 months. I felt the flasher is to small to add. Tang may be the same way.

 

[Jdub968]

Is he scratching flashing or breathing heavy? If cu levels were maintained at 1.5-2.0 ppm and tested daily that's proper protocol however as mentioned above rock and sand don't mix well with cu and if your levels dropped below thereputic that might be the cause

 

[Buddy55]

The sand is about a cup and a half from a dish I had awhile back for a wrasse that I spilled. I siphon a little out each cleaning. The rock is about the size of a base ball and thats all. I didn't test daily but a couple times a week. Gills are closed and moving only slightly faster as compared to fish in DT. Of course like I said he attacks the glass when I'm staring. You can her the click each time. Crazy. No flashing and no problems eating anything I put in there. I used to doing TTM but then I became less paranoid and had excellent luck with several fish buy just using my cycled QT tank and observation. Also I had some kind of baby snails (nuisance) which were all wiped out by the copper in the first rst 7 days which I took as a good sign. I started prazi today. Maybe it's some kind of skin fluke. Prazi fills a roll that copper can't call correct? Some parasite can survive copper?

 

[Buddy55]

I tried pics again, also link to YouTube vid coming in a sec.

 

[Buddy55]

https://youtu.be/mWRty62bi_I

10 second and around 37 second are most revealing. The blotches are not as dark as the pictures suggest but the 10 second mark on lower portion of body the light hits it just right. You see a couple lighter color blotches. There is about 20 of those on each side of many different sizes.