Yellow Tang with Lymphocystis virus?

[bwomble]

About a week ago I noticed what looked like fungus across the tail of my yellow tang. It was just a bit in front of the tail fin. The fish had also assumed a kind of head up/tail down position when swimming and swimming seemed to be labored to some extent. I treated with Pimafix and the white cottony stuff seemed to go away (perhaps by coincidence) leaving behind a reddish pink wound that was somewhat linear. I thought the fish would quickly recover and I treated it with combination of Pimafix and Melafix to prevent any other infection. However, the fish's condition did not improve.

Two days ago I noticed whitish spots on the fins so I suspected that parasites had attacked the fish because of its weakened condition (Cryptocaryon irritans perhaps.) However, none of my other fish exhibit any problem and the white spots have gotten bigger rather than increasing in number and there are more of the red/pink spots. I found a photo of a Heniochus butterfly on wetwebmedia which is identified as having Lymphocyctis (or Lymphocystis; spelling vary) virus. The second and third pictures on this wetwebmedia page look very similar to the fins on my tang.

http://wetwebmedia.com/viraldislymph.htm

However, many other photos of Lymphocyctis infected fish do not bear much resemblance to my fish. I'm hoping to find help in confirming my diagnosis and also the prognosis for the fish.

I apologize for the length of this question and thank you in advance for any help you can provide.

 

[natan]

From what ive seen the pic is typical Lymphocyctis. It should go away by itself in about a month. Ugly but harmless, and u need to do nothing.

 

[cerianthus]

your pics wouls help.

 

[bwomble]

Thanks for the replies. I have no picture capabilities until Thursday. I'll see what I can do then but I haven't had much photo taking success to date. I'd love to see this stuff go away in a month. Assuming the critter lives that long. One thing is certain, he does his best swimming when I feed him and I figure as long as he's eating he has a chance.

 

[cerianthus]

If fish is harrassed by tankmates, use large plastic container with bunch of holes for circulation to isolate YT from others. You may use large F/W breeder Trap that floats w/o its contents.

 

[bwomble]

Thanks for the reply. No one is harassing him and he seems to have turned the corner and is looking better today than yesterday after getting worse daily for the last week or two. It would be very difficult to trap him and get him out of the tank so I'm just keeping a very close eye on him and the rest of the inhabitants. So far so good. I'm hoping to see him continue improving.

 

[cerianthus]

What a good news!! Hope recovers on its own. Have a Happy and SAFE Holidays!!! Cerianthus