Is my tang dying?!

[J-Dog]

I purchased a Purple Tang on Thanksgiving weekend and have had issues since. When I got it home, I noticed its eye was starting to cloud and it had a hard time seeing food. I quickly treated my QT with Prazipro and its eye cleared up in a couple of days......so everything was normal until now. A few days ago, I noticed some ich spots popping up, so I decided to use Cupramine and treat. I used the recommended dosage of 16 drops the first day, to slowly increase the copper and not shock the fish. The next day, I noticed that the fish had a horrible white looking rash over its enitre body. I've never seen anything like it and now I am afraid that it is going to die unless I do something. Can anyone help ID what this is?

 

[J-Dog]

Can anyone help?

 

[MBG75]

If your using cupramine, you need a Seachem copper test kit. It's the only one that measures cupramine properly.
Get it to .5 and hold it there for 2 weeks.

 

[JMSKI333]

^ what he said.

It may be obvious, but make sure your salinity is consistant. It's real easy for it to get out of wack on a QT.

Is it eating? I would soak the food in garlic. Garlic is said to increase the health and immunity of pretty much everything.

 

[Reefing Madness]

If the fish in QT, stopping dosing. Just bring the SG down to Hypo levels (1.009) over the course of a few days. If he reacted to the chems, don't use em again.

 

[NC2WA]

I am going to state some obvious things so I mean no disrespect..

you have check ammonia and salinity levels are in the range..that is, 0 for ammonia and salinity is around 1.023-1.1026?

you used 16 drops (or 1ml) for EVERY 10.5 gallons right??? you do this on day one, wait 48 hrs and repeat..you then hold for a min of two weeks..this is what the instructions say.

a side effect of copper is appetite loss, so do no be alarmed if this happen...

at his point, I would stick with copper and not perform hypo..from the pic it looks like a bad case of ich...

IF you want to perform hypo, you need to make sure the copper is completely out of the tank as mixing copper and hypo (ie, 1.008) is a deadly combination, but at this point hypo is NOT what I would recommend.

 

[J-Dog]

All parameters are in check and I did a water change before adding the copper. No appetite loss either, so I am stumped. I've seen ich before and this outbreak looks nothing like it. This looks like a horrible rash, so that's why I wanted to ask everyones opinion.

 

[Eienna]

Tangs can be sensitive to copper. Remove as much of it as possible and try Kordon Rid-Ich + instead (don't bother with Ich Attack - just Rid-Ich +.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Just get rid of the Chems all together, we are just talking about ICH. The Parasite can't survive in 1.009 SG, they pop, and it doesn't harm the fish in any way shape or form.
Get a canister filter from a friend and fill it with carbon, then run it on the QT tank to get those meds outta there.

 

[MBG75]

If its velvet, hypo doesn't work. The fish is eating. Leave it in the cupramine for 2 weeks starting once its up to .5 level.

 

[Reefing Madness]

If thats Velvet, then its already to late.

 

[NC2WA]

J-Dog,

does the whiteness appear to have a sheen to it? if so, this is marine velvet and copper is the ONLY treatment that will cure it...also if you seeing this as ReefMaddness says, it is too late..MV is also highly contagious so any other fish in the tank need to be treated with copper asap. MV moves quickly.

I've been in this hobby 20yrs, and I've have MV once (when I first started) and MV decimated all the fish in my tank in 3 days.

as far as all the Kick Ich or Ich <whatever> in a bottle, IMO it is garbage...there are only 2 treatments for ich (copper and hypo), for MV there is only one (copper) and in your case for tangs since they are more susceptible to ich, I would use copper and I would definitely be investing in a separate QT tank.

When I say copper I specifically mean Cupraimine NOT chelated copper...Cupramine can be use for my most (delicate) fish as long as you follow the instructions on the bottle.

Since we do not know the diagnosis for sure, stick with copper is my advice...get a copper test kit (seache or salifert) and test the concentration..

 

[J-Dog]

J-Dog,

does the whiteness appear to have a sheen to it? if so, this is marine velvet and copper is the ONLY treatment that will cure it...also if you seeing this as ReefMaddness says, it is too late..MV is also highly contagious so any other fish in the tank need to be treated with copper asap. MV moves quickly.

I've been in this hobby 20yrs, and I've have MV once (when I first started) and MV decimated all the fish in my tank in 3 days.

as far as all the Kick Ich or Ich <whatever> in a bottle, IMO it is garbage...there are only 2 treatments for ich (copper and hypo), for MV there is only one (copper) and in your case for tangs since they are more susceptible to ich, I would use copper and I would definitely be investing in a separate QT tank.

When I say copper I specifically mean Cupraimine NOT chelated copper...Cupramine can be use for my most (delicate) fish as long as you follow the instructions on the bottle.

Since we do not know the diagnosis for sure, stick with copper is my advice...get a copper test kit (seache or salifert) and test the concentration..

There are other fish in the QT, but none seem to be affected with the same ailment. The tang is the only fish showing this rash, so hopefully it goes away with the copper treatment. If it is ich, I don't see why the Cupramine would make it look that much worse overnight.

I'll be at work until tomorrow morning, so hopefully I don't come home to a dead tang!

 

[NC2WA]

it should be ok as long as you are within the recommended level of copper.

get a test get and check and let us know the level.