My Gem Tang is turning white! Please help!

[svenv123]

My Gem Tang has started turning white or having white patches on him. He is hanging out by the powerhead now all of the time. I really don’t want to lose him! I’ve had him for about three weeks. I thought my tank was finished cycling, but there has been an ammonia spike to 0.4. I just did a 10% water change for the first time. Can anybody help me with what is wrong or what I should do

 

[vetteguy53081]

My Gem Tang has started turning white or having white patches on him. He is hanging out by the powerhead now all of the time. I really don’t want to lose him! I’ve had him for about three weeks. I thought my tank was finished cycling, but there has been an ammonia spike to 0.4. I just did a 10% water change for the first time. Can anybody help me with what is wrong or what I should do

Often referred to as thumb print can be nutritional or bacterial but hard to depict under low lighting. Is fish eating and breathing normal?
How are you testing water?
What foods are you feeding this tang?

 

[Tamberav]

The white could be fading/stress related.

Hanging out by the powerhead could be velvet or gill disease

Can we get a video of the fish and see it's breathing rate?

 

[MnFish1]

Your ammonia at that level (unless you're using a free ammonia test) should not cause that symptom. Did you quarantine the fish? If not - and the fish is breathing heavy - I would start copper - and given then. skin lesion - prazipro at the same time - in a hospital tank. Its usually not best to combine antibiotics - but if the fish is worsening quickly - you will only have a very short time to fix the problem - which could be either flukes or velvet - along with a possible bacterial infection

Now - its also possible that its stress related, being in a new tank, etc - but - the key is if the breathing is rapid, it needs to be treated (and likely along with the rest of your fish as well). Note - if you did a full quarantine - this is less likely to be the problem

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

My Gem Tang has started turning white or having white patches on him. He is hanging out by the powerhead now all of the time. I really don’t want to lose him! I’ve had him for about three weeks. I thought my tank was finished cycling, but there has been an ammonia spike to 0.4. I just did a 10% water change for the first time. Can anybody help me with what is wrong or what I should do

Gem tangs show a weird pale coloration in big spots on their body when stresssed.

Posting a video on YouTube and linking it here allows us to judge its respiration rate.

 

[svenv123]

Your ammonia at that level (unless you're using a free ammonia test) should not cause that symptom. Did you quarantine the fish? If not - and the fish is breathing heavy - I would start copper - and given then. skin lesion - prazipro at the same time - in a hospital tank. Its usually not best to combine antibiotics - but if the fish is worsening quickly - you will only have a very short time to fix the problem - which could be either flukes or velvet - along with a possible bacterial infection

Now - its also possible that its stress related, being in a new tank, etc - but - the key is if the breathing is rapid, it needs to be treated (and likely along with the rest of your fish as well). Note - if you did a full quarantine - this is less likely to be the problem

Thank you for this..very helpful

 

[svenv123]

Gem tangs show a weird pale coloration in big spots on their body when stresssed.

Posting a video on YouTube and linking it here allows us to judge its respiration rate.

Thank you!

 

[Leon.NYC]

Also at night they have bright white patches when sleeping. Mines does it every night and during the day when he’s awake he’s back to normal. It starts at sundown and goes away shortly after the lights come on. Similar to how purple and yellow tangs colors fade during the night.