Sick Yellow Tang

[thinkdez]

I need help as I am new to the hobby and not sure what to do.

A few weeks ago we purchased a yellow tang from your LFS. She has been doing well and playing well with the other clown fish we have in the tank. Overnight we noticed that she has part of her pectoral fin missing and a large red spot. I am attaching a photo for visual reference. Also the front of her dorsal fin seems to be affected slightly. Is this fin rot? What can I do for her? also should I be quarantining her to her own tank? Are my snowflake clown fish affected. I don't see any visual problems with the clownfish.

I checked my tank levels today and everything seems normal:
PH: 8.2
Ammonia: 0ppm
Nitrites: 0ppm
Nitrates: 0ppm

I do seem to have a red algae growth happening. I was told this is normal in newer tanks.

I did a water change almost 1.5 weeks ago but nothing regarding the water seems to have changed based on my testing.

Thanks for your time.

Sorry about the photo quality. It's the best I could get as she keeps that fin hidden and too far for me to get a good photo of her. I will update if I can get a better photo.

 

[snorvich]

Research marine septicemia

 

[thinkdez]

Thanks looking into it now. I finally got a better picture but she seems to be doing worse as she seems to go an rest on the bed of the tank at times.

 

[thinkdez]

I think I lost her... I didn't even get a chance to find a suitable treatment but as far as I could tell it took 12 hours for her to get sick and take the worst symptoms of it. She is now lying at the bottom of the tank breathing very slowly. Going to keep an eye on my clowns but so far they seem ok. Hoping they don't start showing signs of anything.

 

[thax]

Always qt new fish. If it was in a qt you could thow antibiotics in and hope for the best. With a qt you can watch the fish way better and and start treatment earlier. As once they get that far its hard to stop.

Is it still alive? If so pull it thow it in a bucket and run to your lfs and see what they have for antibiotics and put it in the bucket and make it strong as the fish is probably done for but you never know if tou can stop it fast it may live

 

[thinkdez]

No I didn't get the chance to QT her. It was pretty rapid and we didn't have an emergency tank [investing in one now]. Even if I had an Emergency tank I am not sure antibiotics would have helped. Whatever she had developed overnight. By the morning she was already in pretty bad shape and just after lunch she was barely moving.

I didn't think about putting her in a bucket. I guess that would have been better than nothing. I also had the unfortunate circumstance that my LFS is closed on Mondays. There is another a little further away but I don't trust them as they don't have very clean tanks and most people say that the fish they get from them don't last long.

Thankfully my clowns are looking good. They knew something was up as they kept hanging around the Tang.

I am not sure how to proceed here though and I am looking for advice. How long would it take for this to transfer to my clowns if it's contagious? My water conditions seem great so I am not sure what the cause might be. Should I do an immediate water change anyways? How long until it would be safe to add new livestock?

 

[ThRoewer]

If this is marine septicemia then it's a virus infection and antibiotics won't work.
In fact there is hardly anything you can do against virus infections besides prevention and rigorous quarantine to make sure it never gets into your system. If it makes it into your display system you are seriously screwed.

Virus and bacterial infections are the things I have nightmares about - not ich like seemingly everyone else. They are more important reasons for having a QT than ich, velvet or even brook because there are no cures for virus infections. Bacterial infections may be cured with antibiotics but I wouldn't bet on it.

 

[thinkdez]

OK I am attaching some additional photos from after I removed her from the tank. I am hoping these can better identify what it is she had. I would like to know so I know how to prepare in case one or both of my clowns gets infected. Also to help determine what to do next.

Thanks for all the advice here. I wish I had a clearer picture of what happened or what I might have missed to identify what happened to her and maybe get her treated earlier.

 

[tylersarah]

Are you sure that the tang went from healthy looking to infected overnight?

Bacterial septicemia (often caused by Vibrio) is treatable with erythromycin, preferably fed with food 2-3x/day. I've successfully treated all my fish that have had bacterial septicemia this way, but I've never had a case develop as quickly or as severe as your tang.

 

[ThRoewer]

These things don't happen over night. There have surely been some symptoms that were missed.

If this was bacterial it may or may not have been treatable. If it was viral it wasn't.

A new fish should always go into a quarantine tank first and stay there for a couple of months!!!! (2 at a bare minimum) to avoid getting such nasty stuff into your main tank.

 

[snorvich]

If this is marine septicemia then it's a virus infection and antibiotics won't work.
In fact there is hardly anything you can do against virus infections besides prevention and rigorous quarantine to make sure it never gets into your system. If it makes it into your display system you are seriously screwed.

Virus and bacterial infections are the things I have nightmares about - not ich like seemingly everyone else. They are more important reasons for having a QT than ich, velvet or even brook because there are no cures for virus infections. Bacterial infections may be cured with antibiotics but I wouldn't bet on it.

Unfortunately, I know of no successful treatment protocol; it should have been noticeable before now, however, as indicated.

 

[thinkdez]

Unfortunately I did not notice any sort of symptoms on the fish until the morning of. If there were symptoms I was not aware of them.

As I mentioned before I am new to the hobby. I am hoping the users here can help me identify what to look for in the future. I would have liked to help the fish if I could have but as it was so quick I am not sure what else I could have done unless there were other signs I might have missed.

The fish was eating normally and she was fairly confident in the tank.

 

[reeferstace]

The best thing you can do for your fish is to follow a strict quarantine procedude for all livestock.