Blue hippo tang discolored

[frankape]

New to the hobby... Have this blue tang and a yellow tang in 20g QT for four weeks now and the blue has had this discoloration the entire time. Cycled tank and no ammonia or nitrites/nitrates. Ph is 7.6 and 36.6 salinity. Treated with copper for three days early and then recently With melafix for 9 days now. Water changes (25%) every 4-5 days. Could this just be stress after all this or do I need to treat differently?? I have a 125g dt waiting for them with two clowns, a fire fish and a spotted goby so don’t want to risk my other fish and many corals by putting them in if any risk of them being sick.

 

[Subsea]

It is likely stress. Too many fish die during medicated quarantine. If you must quarantine then you should give them hiding places and a bigger tank

 

[Hugh Mann]

Firstly, welcome to Reef2reef! You've come to the right place.

That is definitely not a good sign. I unfortunately don't know enough to tell you the precise cause, but stress is likely part of it. Hippos are high stress fish that don't do well in small tanks, even as juvis. It's not ich or velvet, so that is good at least.

Do you have hides for the fish in the QT? Pvc pipes and other fittings.

You used copper for only 3 days? If so, I mean the best, but that's ineffective. Copper must be maintained for a minimum of 14 days, many go longer.

Hippos are particularly susceptible to several conditions I'd advise you to look into, including Head and Lateral Line Erosion and ich.

At the risk of being labelled the "Tang Police", I'll say if you're new to the hobby, a Hippo Tang isn't the greatest starter fish because they are fairly high maintenance, prone to certain diseases. At 8 months in I got one and it's been been a pain from the start.

 

[Subsea]

I have differing opinion on effectiveness of quarantine, compared to focusing on fish immune system, which is weakened by stress.

@frankape
consider some ornamental macros in your display for tangs to graze on. Also, feed your fish live gut cavity bacteria using live bivalves from seafood market. You have same tank size as me. I set it up as a macro lagoon theme

 

[Jay Hemdal]

New to the hobby... Have this blue tang and a yellow tang in 20g QT for four weeks now and the blue has had this discoloration the entire time. Cycled tank and no ammonia or nitrites/nitrates. Ph is 7.6 and 36.6 salinity. Treated with copper for three days early and then recently With melafix for 9 days now. Water changes (25%) every 4-5 days. Could this just be stress after all this or do I need to treat differently?? I have a 125g dt waiting for them with two clowns, a fire fish and a spotted goby so don’t want to risk my other fish and many corals by putting them in if any risk of them being sick.

As mentioned, 3 days of copper isn't therapeutic. Skip the Melafix, it is more of a tonic than a treatment, and I keep hearing vague comments about it irritating fish. I would start a 14 day copper treatment, and then follow that up with a round of General Cure. That said, as also mentioned, these fish are not going to be happy in a small bare QT, and the four weeks they've been in there already doesn't really count since there was no real preventative treatment.

Any chance of getting a sharper picture?

Jay

 

[smokin'reefer]

36.6 salinity seems high. Most fish come from my lfs at around 28 (1.020)
The way I understand it is that fish can go from high salinity to low without much issue. But going from low salinity to high causes stress.
I have been trying to educate myself on this and doing a hyposalinity quarantine has me intrigued. By keeping the salinity below 1.010 will have the same result as copper as far as eradicating ich. But without the adverse effects of copper.
Maybe someone else with more experience can chime in on your high(to me) salinity level thru qt.
Good luck

 

[frankape]

Firstly, welcome to Reef2reef! You've come to the right place.

That is definitely not a good sign. I unfortunately don't know enough to tell you the precise cause, but stress is likely part of it. Hippos are high stress fish that don't do well in small tanks, even as juvis. It's not ich or velvet, so that is good at least.

Do you have hides for the fish in the QT? Pvc pipes and other fittings.

You used copper for only 3 days? If so, I mean the best, but that's ineffective. Copper must be maintained for a minimum of 14 days, many go longer.

Hippos are particularly susceptible to several conditions I'd advise you to look into, including Head and Lateral Line Erosion and ich.

At the risk of being labelled the "Tang Police", I'll say if you're new to the hobby, a Hippo Tang isn't the greatest starter fish because they are fairly high maintenance, prone to certain diseases. At 8 months in I got one and it's been been a pain from the start.

Thanks, to be honest I let my husband (who hasn’t done research) pick a fish last time and he chose both tangs... I debated it with him based on my readings of their difficulties but gave in. I will do more reading on those diseases as you recommend. Also, I do have pvc that he likes it swim through and hide in.

 

[frankape]

As mentioned, 3 days of copper isn't therapeutic. Skip the Melafix, it is more of a tonic than a treatment, and I keep hearing vague comments about it irritating fish. I would start a 14 day copper treatment, and then follow that up with a round of General Cure. That said, as also mentioned, these fish are not going to be happy in a small bare QT, and the four weeks they've been in there already doesn't really count since there was no real preventative treatment.

Any chance of getting a sharper picture?

Jay

I will try to get a better picture. Oddly enough maybe, it was recommended to me to stop copper and use melafix. So many different opinions can make this so hard for us newbies.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Also focus on diet . With tangs and surgeonfish, diet plays a role in stamina, disease resistance and immunity system. Some foods that are beneficial are:
Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract
LRS herbivore diet
Spirulina brine shrimp
Formula 2 flake and frozen
Mysis shrimp
Small plankton

add garlic extract and seldom vitamins to the foods

 

[Jib]

36.6 salinity

Out of curiosity, Why so high with the salinity?

 

[smokin'reefer]

So many different opinions can make this so hard for us newbies.

+1 to this.

 

[Hugh Mann]

So many different opinions can make this so hard for us newbies.

Well, you're not wrong about that. It's going to happen pretty much any time you ask a question. A sort of guideline would be to check how long a person has been here, number of messages, reaction and the sheer number of badges some folks have. Jay Hemdal is definitely the guy when it comes to issues such as these, knows fish diseases pretty well.

I'd also take a gander at the fish diseases and treatment section. Lots of great information over there, tips tricks and suggestions for short, successful quarantines.

 

[najer]

Fresh macro algae, ideally not cheato, it wants greens, nori as a close second.