Powder blue tang mouth infection

tolaso · Feb 27, 2021

Please help to look what infection is this ? And what treatment (reef safe) thanks in advance !!

Jay Hemdal · Feb 27, 2021

Hello, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Was this tang recently moved from one tank to another? This looks like it has snagged its teeth on a net, or has run into some rockwork while being chased.

Is the fish still feeding? This does not look infected yet, so if the fish is eating, then you may not have to treat it. If it is not eating, then it will probably need to be treated with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic. This cannot be done in a display tank, it needs to happen in a treatment tank. Some people try dipping the fish in antibiotics for an hour, in a bucket, twice a day. The trouble with that is you then need to catch the fish up in a net four times a day, and that just adds to the problem.

Jay

tolaso · Feb 27, 2021

Jay Hemdal said:
Hello, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Was this tang recently moved from one tank to another? This looks like it has snagged its teeth on a net, or has run into some rockwork while being chased.

Is the fish still feeding? This does not look infected yet, so if the fish is eating, then you may not have to treat it. If it is not eating, then it will probably need to be treated with a broad spectrum, gram negative antibiotic. This cannot be done in a display tank, it needs to happen in a treatment tank. Some people try dipping the fish in antibiotics for an hour, in a bucket, twice a day. The trouble with that is you then need to catch the fish up in a net four times a day, and that just adds to the problem.

Jay

Jay, Thanks for your quick reply.

This fish is new to this tank and indeed it crushed the bottom quite a bit before this wound. It came straight to the food as I feed but it cannot reach the bottom for it. Wait for it to heal? or how to diagnose if it's further infected? THanks again