Help identifying fish disease

aggrofish

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I know this is going to be difficult without pictures but bear with me…

short version: Kole tang was flashing. Had large white spots, blotches that look nothing like ich. They would go away a couple hours after lights went on. Was eating normal until it wasn’t eating at all, breathing heavy, and lethargic. At the same time one of my two clowns appeared to have smaller white spots and was at the top of the tank. I put both in QT and treated with copper power at 2.5 and prazipro. Spots are gone and tang is eating again. clown has been eating the whole time. Thought on what it could be? From Google images closest I can get is brook or possibly velvet. Whatever it is it appears treatable with whatever is in prazipro or copper.

longer version: About. a month ago I added a six line wrasse to my reefer 350 that had 2 clowns, a goby, and a yellow eye Kole tang. Initially my kole tang followed the wrasse around constantly. Not fighting, just following. Fast forward a few weeks and the kole tang starts flashing and has white spots. not tiny white spots like ich or flukes. These were larger white blotches. They would go away a few hours after the lights came on. So whatever they were they did not like light and reappeared at night. I tried to catch the tang unsuccessfully for a few days until it looked really bad and I moved a bunch of rock. This was last monday (10 days). I also noticed the larger of my two clowns was near the top of the tank with white spots like it needed air. I put both in a QT with Prazipro and Copper power since I didnt know what it had and figured without treatment the tang would be dead in a day.

Tang wedged itself behind a rock for a day In QT. It was in bad shape. I didn’t attempt to FW dip as I figured that would kill it. the next day I noticed it looked like part of its tailfin was torn. Im not sure if it was from the rock or previous DT aggression. I believe that at some point the Six Line wrasse became the boss of the tank. The tang didn’t eat for a few days, but the clown did. It started eating the other day, but only food that would float by the rock it was behind. Today is the first day it's aggresively eating when I put vitamin and garlic soaked food in. there are no more spots and appears to be out of the woods.

However I did notice that the smaller clown in the DT was getting bullied by the wrasse. The wrasse wasnt biting but it would swim up to the clown and either push it with its mouth or just lean on it. I tried catching the wrasse to sump it to no avail. This am, the clown was dead and half eaten by the clean up crew. no spots was eating every day. This has me scratching my head. The spots on the tang dont resemble anything I can find online, but most closely resembles brook. Whatever it was is treatable either by praziwhatever it is or copper Which rules out brook right? Next likely candidates seems to be velvet. I’m confident it isn’t ich or flukes.

Could this all have been brought on by a piece of crap 6 line causing stress? I'm pretty confident that the 6 line killed the clown or at least stressed it out enough to die. All thats in the tank now, outside of coral is a watchman goby, the wrasse and a cleaner shirmp. I'm not sure what to do go fallow?

Any idea on what parasite is white / gray blotches and not dots?

sorry for the length but I’d appreciate my input.
 

Jay Hemdal

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I know this is going to be difficult without pictures but bear with me…

short version: Kole tang was flashing. Had large white spots, blotches that look nothing like ich. They would go away a couple hours after lights went on. Was eating normal until it wasn’t eating at all, breathing heavy, and lethargic. At the same time one of my two clowns appeared to have smaller white spots and was at the top of the tank. I put both in QT and treated with copper power at 2.5 and prazipro. Spots are gone and tang is eating again. clown has been eating the whole time. Thought on what it could be? From Google images closest I can get is brook or possibly velvet. Whatever it is it appears treatable with whatever is in prazipro or copper.

longer version: About. a month ago I added a six line wrasse to my reefer 350 that had 2 clowns, a goby, and a yellow eye Kole tang. Initially my kole tang followed the wrasse around constantly. Not fighting, just following. Fast forward a few weeks and the kole tang starts flashing and has white spots. not tiny white spots like ich or flukes. These were larger white blotches. They would go away a few hours after the lights came on. So whatever they were they did not like light and reappeared at night. I tried to catch the tang unsuccessfully for a few days until it looked really bad and I moved a bunch of rock. This was last monday (10 days). I also noticed the larger of my two clowns was near the top of the tank with white spots like it needed air. I put both in a QT with Prazipro and Copper power since I didnt know what it had and figured without treatment the tang would be dead in a day.

Tang wedged itself behind a rock for a day In QT. It was in bad shape. I didn’t attempt to FW dip as I figured that would kill it. the next day I noticed it looked like part of its tailfin was torn. Im not sure if it was from the rock or previous DT aggression. I believe that at some point the Six Line wrasse became the boss of the tank. The tang didn’t eat for a few days, but the clown did. It started eating the other day, but only food that would float by the rock it was behind. Today is the first day it's aggresively eating when I put vitamin and garlic soaked food in. there are no more spots and appears to be out of the woods.

However I did notice that the smaller clown in the DT was getting bullied by the wrasse. The wrasse wasnt biting but it would swim up to the clown and either push it with its mouth or just lean on it. I tried catching the wrasse to sump it to no avail. This am, the clown was dead and half eaten by the clean up crew. no spots was eating every day. This has me scratching my head. The spots on the tang dont resemble anything I can find online, but most closely resembles brook. Whatever it was is treatable either by praziwhatever it is or copper Which rules out brook right? Next likely candidates seems to be velvet. I’m confident it isn’t ich or flukes.

Could this all have been brought on by a piece of crap 6 line causing stress? I'm pretty confident that the 6 line killed the clown or at least stressed it out enough to die. All thats in the tank now, outside of coral is a watchman goby, the wrasse and a cleaner shirmp. I'm not sure what to do go fallow?

Any idea on what parasite is white / gray blotches and not dots?

sorry for the length but I’d appreciate my input.
Brooklynella probably wouldn't have responded to copper, you normally have to use formalin. Velvet causes rapid breathing, but it is often soon followed by death. Those wrasses can be jerks, but to cause that many issues seems unlikely to me. Flukes don't cause rapid breathing until the infection is very far advanced. In the end, it may have been velvet....

Jay
 

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