Yellow tang and water quality

[Debbie64]

I got a small yellow tang, about 2", a week and a half ago. She's been in my 10 gal QT since then. About 3 days ago, I noticed very slight red streaks at her head. I thought it was probably a bacterial infection, came here, read the sticky, etc. Just this morning, I noticed as she zipped into her pvc a slightly dark patch right above the midline mark, looks very bruise-like. (See edit below!)

I've been doing my best to improve water quality. pH is around 8 in the am. I dose a smidge of 2 part in the morning. I do a 20% water change every morning. Feed mysid, spirulina, nori on a clip. I soak all that in garlic, selcon, vitachem and a bit of beta glucan, too. Also, stress guard every morning. The bio wheel is seemingly having a hard time keeping up with the bioload because the ammonia alert I'm using shows a very slight tinge of green around the edges, especially in the morning before a water change. (Pale yellow=safe, light green=alert, etc.)

I have Maracyn II, but I wanted to try dealing with it with water changes first. Plus, the Maracyn seems to really drop the pH - has anyone ever noticed that?

She's eating and swimming well, very skittish, though, so it's hard to get a good look, let alone take a picture. There is no sign of ich after this week and a half. After I find out what you guys might know of the darkened patch, if it's still something that could be helped with water quality, I'm considering going ahead and putting her in the main tank where the water quality is perfect, room to roam, etc.

I do not want to lose this fish in QT if water quality is her only problem.

Help!

Edited to say that I just went back to feed her, the lights were on and no bruise-like mark. ::SHRUG:: Happy about that. Still concerned about water quality, etc and still thinking about moving her to the display.

 

[Debbie64]

BTW and FWIW - - I don't take it lightly, the quarantine thing. I'd prefer to keep her in there for at least 3 weeks. I'm still shooting for that as of now. I did a 20% water change this morning before her light came on and did another 20% after her breakfast. She's nice and pudgy (she was a bit thin when I first got her), she eats plenty, has started swimming a little more casually instead of darting.

As long as the infection gets better and not worse, I'm all for doing as many water changes as I need to in order to keep her in QT for the requisite period of time - especially if she's eating and swimming like a healthy fish.

That first post was because the dark blotch freaked me out. Is that an anger or stress meter on yellow tangs the way dark stripes are on a powder blue?

 

[reg828]

Debbie, be careful when using maracyn, maracyn will get the water dirty and drop the ph. always water change when you see drop in ph. i lost yellow tang because of maracyn, drop and ph and not much water changes. also, fish will tell you if they are really stress. just monitor the fish. if theres any problem. water change right away...