I have a yellow tang in QT for about 7 weeks. The fish has shown no signs of problems until yesterday when I noticed he suddenly looked terrible. This could only have come on in the last day or two tops and the fish was doing quite well in total isolation for some time. Photo is attached. Could this be an extreme case of marine velvet, bacterial infection, or stress induced? I have searched through multiple forums and not been able to locate anything quite like this.
Sick Yellow Tang
- Thread starter FileMan44
- Start date
Newsmyrna80
Active member
What are your water parameters? Ammonia, etc. His eyes look cloudy in the pic. Are they? How is his eating? He looks on the emaciated side.
ReeferJohn408
New member
I've seen this disease before but still not quite sure the major cause. Perhaps it has something to do with the environmental or biological deficiencies inside the system ( Ammonia, Nitrite, Low Ph ) , just speculating here. I had some Tang diseases before but not bad such as this poor fish.
Keep an eye on things, try to test and retest your water parameters. Goodluck.
Keep an eye on things, try to test and retest your water parameters. Goodluck.
Here is the full story on this Tang. He was purchased early March and put into a 20 gallon quarantine tank. For the 5-6 weeks that followed the fish did quite well and was eating normally. Just when I was going to move him into the main system the other fish developed Ich, likely from the stress of a recent relocation of that aquarium. Those fish were all pulled from my main system and for about 2 weeks now have been in quarantine and undergoing hypo while the main system runs fish-free until the parasite runs its course. The result is this tang has been in this much smaller tank for longer than I expected with another 4-5 weeks to go before the main system is clear of the infection. Furthermore, since that tang had been doing so well and my other fish started having problems my focus shifted off that tang. I continued feeding the fish but rather than watch it closely I was just tossing the food in like normal since it always ate so well. Now, it seems that lapse in focus has nearly cost me the fish. I did immediately test the parameters and found the following.
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.50
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.4
Yes, it seems the water quality has suffered. I did an immediate water change and plan to continue with daily change to correct this imbalance. However, I fear the damage is done and there may be no recovering this tang. The eye is cloudy on the one side. The other is not. The way I initially found the fish was actually sticking to the input my wet/dry filter (I am amazed he wasn't dead then). The side you see is actually the side which was sticking to the strainer. Is it possible that filter sucked the life out of the fish? The suction isn't terribly strong and there was plenty more surface area for the water to flow through. The fish does look thin and it is hardly able to stabilize itself at this point. I believe that by the time I get home today the fish could very well be dead.
Other than correcting the water quality is there anything else to suggest? It seems this is not a parasite or bacterial infection considering the situation. Would you agree?
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrite: 0.50
Nitrate: 10
pH: 8.4
Yes, it seems the water quality has suffered. I did an immediate water change and plan to continue with daily change to correct this imbalance. However, I fear the damage is done and there may be no recovering this tang. The eye is cloudy on the one side. The other is not. The way I initially found the fish was actually sticking to the input my wet/dry filter (I am amazed he wasn't dead then). The side you see is actually the side which was sticking to the strainer. Is it possible that filter sucked the life out of the fish? The suction isn't terribly strong and there was plenty more surface area for the water to flow through. The fish does look thin and it is hardly able to stabilize itself at this point. I believe that by the time I get home today the fish could very well be dead.
Other than correcting the water quality is there anything else to suggest? It seems this is not a parasite or bacterial infection considering the situation. Would you agree?
Mr. Limpid
New member
Do you have Amque + or Prime this will knock down the ammonia fast. Then you'll need to treat the bactria infection with marine Maracyn Plus.
Newsmyrna80
Active member
Don't know for sure but it appears the tang has/had ammonia toxicity, this accounts for the redness around the gill area. Definitely keep up the water changes and use Prime or something like it. Also use vitamins and fatten him up. Are you availing him to Nori? You could use Maracyn as it is well tolerated by most fish although I'm not 100% sure he has a bacterial infection.
Quick update on the Tang. I came home today to find it dead. It seems that this was in fact caused by water quality. It is likely that with those elevated nitrites the fish went though a period of even higher Ammonia levels as it went through a cycle without me knowing. I likely caught the ammonia levels on the down-swing.
Newsmyrna80
Active member
Fish can handle nitrites much higher than .10. Seems it was the ammonia.
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