Black tang disease

Tandy · Dec 10, 2020

Please help!
I bought this black tang about a month ago. He had a couple of ick spots when I got him, he’s been in the quarantine’s tank since then, I treated him with copper, ick is gone, but after he got flukes, i did a fresh water dip, flukes gone. Now he developed another symptom which the white spots with tails all over his body. I have no idea what it is and how to treat. Anyone have deal with this disease please help

Drendo · Dec 10, 2020

Oh boy, I would put him in copper asap if he is not already in.

I lost a Black Tang like this. Felt really bad about it. I hope he pulls through.

Where did you get him?

Tandy · Dec 10, 2020

He’s in the quarantine tank with copper. He’s keeping developed one disease after another. I never seen anything like this on a fish. I got him from LFS. Sorry to hear about your black tang. Hopefully, someone comes across and show me how to save my fish

Bepis · Dec 10, 2020

Tandy said:
He’s in the quarantine tank with copper. He’s keeping developed one disease after another. I never seen anything like this on a fish. I got him from LFS. Sorry to hear about your black tang. Hopefully, someone comes across and show me how to save my fish

if anyone can help you it’s our resident fish disease expert
@Jay Hemdal

Jay Hemdal · Dec 10, 2020

We've seen this on a number of tangs. Those are mucus plugs/cones. They presumable develop from some sort of skin irritation. If you do a skin scrape on them, all you see is mucus. They do show up on dark colored fish more often, probably because the contrast makes them easier to see. This fish has a lot of them though.

I do not know what causes this. In some cases, they just go away, in other cases, the people reported the fish died - but in those cases, we can't always tell if there was a second problem with the fish.

So, the clinical diagnosis would be "idiopathic mucus plugs".

One thing, a single freshwater dip will NOT cure a fish of flukes. For egg laying species of flukes, you need multiple doses of praziquantel. When did you do the FW dip on this fish? It may be that the flukes have built back up, and now they are causing a focused allergic reaction.

Jay

Tandy · Dec 10, 2020

They’re are exactly what you described, mucus plugs/cone. I tried to fresh water dip 2 days ago and scrape it also, it didn’t come off but all I see is mucus.
i just picked up a general care for the treatment today, would you say prazi works better jay?

Jay Hemdal · Dec 10, 2020

Tandy said:
They’re are exactly what you described, mucus plugs/cone. I tried to fresh water dip 2 days ago and scrape it also, it didn’t come off but all I see is mucus.
i just picked up a general care for the treatment today, would you say prazi works better jay?

I think General Cure, being Prazi and Metronidazole together would be the way to go here. Still, try running a search for "mucus" or "mucus plug" and see if any of the threads have a better solution....

Jay