yellow tang, flukes?

[BigJim]

I've recently purchased (2 1/2 weeks ago) a yellow tang and firefish goby. After a week in QT I noticed what appeared to be ich on both fish. I treated the tank with coppersafe and the ich has since been gone. The tang has developed some discoloration on the top of its head and had some brown stringy substance attached to its sides in 3 places. Two days ago I treated with maracyn 2 but noticed no change. Today I caught the tang with my hand to try to pull of one of the brown strings. It was kinda slimy and didn't come off right away. Once it did, I noticed a clear oval disc attached to the end of the string which was attached to the tang. I gave the tang several FW dips and saw the clear discs turning white and was able to easily remove them. 9 of them came off over a few dips. I didn't see anymore on the tang after the last dip. I've done nothing with the goby. Are these flukes? How should I continue treatment? The tang has been eating but the goby has been hiding for the past 3-4 days. Thanks for reading the long post.

 

[leebca]

It would probably have been better to do a diagnosis, before you embarked upon a treatment regime.

Your description fits a fluke or worm theory, but photos of it would have helped. The cause or causes of the discoloration is not clear. There are treatments available for fluke and worm afflictions that are performed in a QT or dips. With a clearer diagnosis, the chosen treatment has a greater chance of success.

Congratulations on using a QT. It's a good thing in this hobby. But in the future, you may want to consider just putting one fish through QT at a time. That way, a sick fish won't get another fish sick and need to be treated unnecessarily. Just MHO.

If you want to try a self-diagnosis, you might want to go to this site and find a link to a self-diagnosis program:
http://saltaquarium.about.com/od/diagnosticresources/

Good luck!