Help with powder blue

[Daniel400G]

Hello

Need help

asap

I have a powder blue tang I purchased march 7
5 inches, he is with a harliquin tusk 4 inch and a white tail 3 inch.
They're all in a 55 gallon

I kept all them for 1 week feeding and everything was going well in qt

Qt has half a cycled brightwell brick that was in my dt for 6 months, a HOB filter, 2 wave makers, one pointing at surface and an air stone.

Started copper power march 15 and got up to 2ppm march 18.

Everything still fine

Also dosed nitrofurazone march 23.

Yesterday I noticed him swimming rather fast.

Just now I noticed black blotches on him.

I took out 90 percent of the water put in a bag of carbon and filling with clean salt water.

The other fish are ot showing any issues.

What is it?

What should I do?

Please help.

Thank you,

I started

 

[K7BMG]

I have heard tangs do not fair well in copper.
I don't know the problem but I do know you cant do drastic knee jerk changes.
Especially when in a treated QT tank.
You may have put all the fish fish in jeopardy, by this action.

Worst case you should have removed the tang instead, and left the QT parameters alone.
At this point you are going to have to start the entire process over as if it were day one.

I am sure soon someone who knows Tangs will pop in and direct you.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Reduce the copper as he is reacting to it.
A little copper is better than no copper at all. Also run lower salinity in lieu of high copper at 1.023
Keep up nutrition with nori, LRS herbivore diet and mysis shripmp with garlic and selcon vitamin added

 

[Daniel400G]

They get a mix of mysis, veggie pellets all soaked in selcon
3 to 4 times a day.

Should any meds be added?
I have
Prazipro.
Focus
Metro,
GC
Kanaplx

What is the black blotches?

I dont have another large tank to move a fish that size.
I also took another brightwell brick from my DT just incase it was an issue with nitrogen cycle

Not sure what to do??

 

[K7BMG]

Each brick you put into the copper will ruin it.
It will absorb the copper and will not be able to be put into you main display.

Just an fyi.

At this point I wouldn't do any more untill you get some advice from the experts.
@ReefSquad

 

[Daniel400G]

Yes you are correct.

I'm panic mode.

My thoughts are maybe it's the copper power and nitrofurazone meds causing this.

That's why I took out 90 percent of the water.
Put in a carbon back in for 20 min.
Then filled the qt back up with new saltwater.

To take out the meds from the water.

Then I put in the brick for biological filtration.
If maybe that was the issue.

Such a beautiful fish, powder blue hybird.

I hope he makes it.

 

[Daniel400G]

I also forgot to mention what I have been feeding.

Pe Mysis pellets, algae pellets.
Focus, GC, selcon, garlic, daily.
Kana every 2 to 3 days.

Too many meds?

 

[Big G]

Have you noticed any aggression in the tank? The HT may be causing stress to the tang. They can be real mean.

 

[YAD]

i'd say its a stress response and nothing else, just leave it in the qt and feed it well, don't do any changes but try to take out the copper using cuprisorb ,i had this issue with lot of my tangs and learnt lesson the hard way

 

[Brad ward]

They get a mix of mysis, veggie pellets all soaked in selcon
3 to 4 times a day.

Should any meds be added?
I have
Prazipro.
Focus
Metro,
GC
Kanaplx

What is the black blotches?

I dont have another large tank to move a fish that size.
I also took another brightwell brick from my DT just incase it was an issue with nitrogen cycle

Not sure what to do??

I think a 55 is too small for a powder blue
Most fish diseases are from stress

 

[NexisG]

I think a 55 is too small for a powder blue
Most fish diseases are from stress

since it’s only a qt tank it doesn’t need to be full sized. A 55 gallon is actually a pretty big quarantine tank. i do agree on the stress being a factor.

 

[Brad ward]

since it’s only a qt tank it doesn’t need to be full sized. A 55 gallon is actually a pretty big quarantine tank. i do agree on the stress being a factor.

The op didn’t say the quarantine tank was 55 they said “they are all in a 55”
So that’s what I based my response on
They never said what the display tank was

 

[Daniel400G]

Yes,
All of 3 fish are in the 55.
HT doesn't seem to be very aggressive since they have been together.
Right now all the meds are out,
I took out 90percent of the water yesterday, put in a bag of carbon, then filled it again.

The black spots look a tiny bit better.

I have stopped the medicated food.
Right now I'm feeding mysis, veggie pellets soaking in selcon.

What would everyone guest moving forward?

Separate with an egg crate?

Meds?

 

[K7BMG]

Did any of the fish show signs of an ailment?
Were you medicating as a preventative measure or attempting to cure something?

If preventative I would do nothing at this point get things as stable as possible and observe them for a week or two.

If curing something then I still would let things stabilize for a few days.
You have put all of them through a lot of stress.

Closely monitor the fish for signs of what ever it is your attempting to cure.
Then go slow and up the medicine game.

But your Tang cant be part of copper treatments.
So if copper is the plan then you have to byte the bullet and set up a separate QT for the Tang.

 

[Daniel400G]

I am in the process of a DT 400 gallon plus 300 gallon sump. build.
Upgrade from my redsea 650.

So I'm purchasing new fish for my new tank and want everything to go through qt.
Fiah for min month
Corals min 76 days.

I dont want to put my current fish in with fish that could infect them.
Current fish,

5 inch Gem tang,
3.5 inch Achilles tang
4 inch Zebra tang
3.5 Koi tang
5 inch Leonardi wrasse
3 barbonious
7 ventrellis anthia.
2 pairs of storms clown fish

New fish
In qt tank 1
4 inch achilles hybrid, in his own qt

In qt tank 2
4 inch Powder blue hybrid, the one having issues.
2 inch White tail
HT

In qt tank 3
2inch Purple tang
2 inch gem tang

Also looking for a male crosshatch.


I really would like to know what those black blotches are????

 

[Daniel400G]

So to answer the question, no signs of any issues with any of the new fish.
Just want to make sure.....

 

[Birddog61]

First and foremost,,, copper plus rock from your display equals dead bacteria,, it takes time to build copper resistant bacteria cultures. Dont be a bit supprised if amonia is a contributing factor it may be prudent to note that almost all lfs keep there tangs in fish systems that run copper you should also note daily water changes of approximately 50% are recommended if you do not keep an established qt system. As amonia at lowish levels is considerably more detrimental than a well executed water change

 

[YAD]

I am in the process of a DT 400 gallon plus 300 gallon sump. build.
Upgrade from my redsea 650.

So I'm purchasing new fish for my new tank and want everything to go through qt.
Fiah for min month
Corals min 76 days.

I dont want to put my current fish in with fish that could infect them.
Current fish,

5 inch Gem tang,
3.5 inch Achilles tang
4 inch Zebra tang
3.5 Koi tang
5 inch Leonardi wrasse
3 barbonious
7 ventrellis anthia.
2 pairs of storms clown fish

New fish
In qt tank 1
4 inch achilles hybrid, in his own qt

In qt tank 2
4 inch Powder blue hybrid, the one having issues.
2 inch White tail
HT

In qt tank 3
2inch Purple tang
2 inch gem tang

Also looking for a male crosshatch.


I really would like to know what those black blotches are????

that's a lovely collection of fishes, if u didn't have troubles with an achilles tang ,i'm wondering why is it having issues,is it eating, if its eating i'd say just leave it alone cause my yellow tang has that kinda blotches at night before i off the lights, they are mostly stress or sleep marks or kinda injuries

 

[Daniel400G]

I was under the impression that take live rock or bio brick from an established tank

First and foremost,,, copper plus rock from your display equals dead bacteria,, it takes time to build copper resistant bacteria cultures. Dont be a bit supprised if amonia is a contributing factor it may be prudent to note that almost all lfs keep there tangs in fish systems that run copper you should also note daily water changes of approximately 50% are recommended if you do not keep an established qt system. As amonia at lowish levels is considerably more detrimental than a well executed water change

I was under the impression if you take a bio brick from an established tank that the qt would already be cycled.

Is this not true?

 

[K7BMG]

I was under the impression that take live rock or bio brick from an established tank


I was under the impression if you take a bio brick from an established tank that the qt would already be cycled.

Is this not true?

Yes that's true, but like everything to a point.
If you add one 2 inch square block to a 55 gallon tank and load it with 10 fish then no the bacteria colony is probably not large enough to handle the load.
Hence the term and occurrence of a Mini cycle.

There is a balance. I don't know exactly what that balance is, or how to calculate it out.
I am sure over the years that people may have have come to some conclusive method or idea.

Its also true that you almost cant have an overdose of bacteria.
(Let me qualify that, in a 55 gallon tank you add 50 16oz bottles of bacteria then yea I am sure you would have some serious issues.)

But you surly can have a deficit of bacteria in the beginning.
That's why it is always recommended to add things slowly over several weeks.
To allow the bacteria to proliferate up to the levels required.

Even in a well established tank that has been thriving for two years, you cant just add 10 new fish and not expect a mini cycle or major change to the water column until the tank reaches its balance.