Ich... or is it?

[joey123]

Well, this is a pretty crummy day. Doing my weekly water change and water tests, and after my WC, I notice this on my kole tang:

Now, here's the story. This kole tang was introduced, along with a purple, yellow, and desjardinii last Friday. I purchased the 4 tangs from tsm aquatics online due to their repitation selling quarantined healthy fish. I STILL went and did the safety stop for 45 minutes in each dip before adding them in. All other fish were established and healthy, and I've only added two small corals since the fish went in.

I went and started inspecting at this point, and found a single small white speck on my tomini tang--that I wrote off as who knows, because it was so small, but then I turned to my purple tang, and...well, crap.

Tough to see in the pic but he has just a few spots, about 4 on his side and 3 on his tail. Can you confirm this is ich?

Also, what is up with that kole tang? There are no spots or blemishes anywhere else on him. Just that one area that honestly looks like a scar right along his side. Any help is appreciated! Thanks so much!

#reefsquad

 

[vetteguy53081]

I think you may be looking at a possible gash or scratch on the yellow eye that is healing. Try using Melafix which will heal this nicely.
On the purple- appears to be ick. You may try a freshwater bath to see if it falls off , otherwise you may be looking at quaranting with a copper based medication.

 

[joey123]

Thanks for the input. I'll look into adding some melafix.

I also am running a UV sterilizer at the protozoa rate. (As some may have noticed, I have tried pretty hard to keep this from being an issue, but here we are)

 

[Big G]

The area and pattern on the Kole have me leaning HLLE. Take a look at this link below. And especially look at the pic of the first tang. Notice how the marks follow the lateral line.

HLLE (Head & Lateral Line Erosion)

Head & Lateral Line Erosion "HLLE": Symptoms - HLLE literally looks as though the skin is rotting or peeling off the fish. Affected areas usually include the face and lateral line, and may be white in color. Treatment options - This is more of a condition than an actual disease. Since no one...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Reef AquaCult]

HLLE or gash on Kole. If it’s acute then gash. If chronic then HLLE. Definitely ich on purple. Recommend full QT on the fish (copper or TTM) and fallow in the tank. Even quality vendors often run subtherapeutic copper the when you get the fish, they already have the disease and it shows when they’re removed from the copper.

I don’t know of any evidence that safety stop will prevent any of these diseases.

 

[joey123]

I hate to say it, but with this tank size breaking it all down and QT'ing this stock isnt a practical option. I'm going to have to work towards management now. Major bummer.

 

[Dfrost]

Never had any luck managing ICH. Many do and/have.
People hate it when I say this but...
Can you remove your corals, invertebrates and 50% of rock?
Treat in DT?
I have had to do it before. Cost a fortune in copper and took a month, lots of new rock and tons of new water to remove it all. End resault was no ICH and have corals and invertebrates currently in that tank for over 5 years now.
I will say, now, I would break down the tank to QT the fish. More of a PIA but far less expensive and much better chance of success. It's a long game, dont look at just this quarter.

 

[joey123]

Well, still not sure what was on the kole tang but he started acting a bit odd on sunday and was dead in the tank today. Big bummer. Everyone else still eating good and minimal visual spots on the purple. Dialed the UV back to a bit slower flow and using polyp lab medic. @Big G @Reef AquaCult , have you ever seen HLLE be deadly this fast?I don't know how this came about so quick but oh well. Kinda concerned for the rest of the inhabitants but man do they all look good....

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Well, still not sure what was on the kole tang but he started acting a bit odd on sunday and was dead in the tank today. Big bummer. Everyone else still eating good and minimal visual spots on the purple. Dialed the UV back to a bit slower flow and using polyp lab medic. @Big G @Reef AquaCult , have you ever seen HLLE be deadly this fast?I don't know how this came about so quick but oh well. Kinda concerned for the rest of the inhabitants but man do they all look good....

I’m sorry to hear about the tang. No HLLE is a chronic disorder and does not kill like this. Did redness appear on the skin at all? With rapid death I’m more concerned about Uronema. When you say he was acting odd was he hyper active or appear more nervous? If so then more convincing of uronema.

Look up images of uronema and see if the final lesions appear similar usually skin redness / ulceration. If it is Uronema it is very difficult to rid from the tank as it can survive without a host.

 

[joey123]

Look up images of uronema and see if the final lesions appear similar usually skin redness / ulceration. If it is Uronema it is very difficult to rid from the tank as it can survive without a host.

Well, the good news(if you can call it that) is that it does not look at all like uronema, but I will keep an eye on my other fish for that, for sure. He never showed any red whatsoever.

Yesterday he spent a bit of time hiding, but mostly just chilling stationary next to an acro--in a pretty high flow area, actually, and looked a tiny bit wobbly. Little to no interest in food.

 

[jsvand5]

What type of sterilizer are you using?

 

[joey123]

What type of sterilizer are you using?

Pentair 40 Watt

 

[Reef AquaCult]

Well, the good news(if you can call it that) is that it does not look at all like uronema, but I will keep an eye on my other fish for that, for sure. He never showed any red whatsoever.

Yesterday he spent a bit of time hiding, but mostly just chilling stationary next to an acro--in a pretty high flow area, actually, and looked a tiny bit wobbly. Little to no interest in food.

Could be sepsis from skin infection then. Doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be found together which ich. Above my pay grade, not sure! Good luck moving on. Sucks to lose fish like that.

 

[cbb61032002]

I think tsm had a bad batch of fish. I received some two wrasse along a similar time frame and have seen 3 spots on one of the wrasse. Unfortunately after a 5 day quarantine I put him in the display and noticed the spots a day or two later. Got him out quick. Possibly in time to not infect the display but I doubt it :-(