Regal tang diagnosis.

[AlexT25]

Hi everyone,
I’m just here to ask for any assistance with my regal tang, I’ve had him for around 4 and a half months and he eats very well. He crams himself in between a small crevice in the rock work and it looks almost as if he is now beginning to outgrow it. About a week ago he had these same marks on his body as he does now just not as many, after a brief search I put it down to him scraping himself on the rocks getting in and out of his crevice, and because of this he could of possibly of developed a fungal or bacterial infection.

So I medicated using the recommended dose of eSha Oodinex over the 3 day period and all signs of his marks had gone away, but today they have come back and much worse than before medicating. He is still eating well and very active and no other fish show any signs of disease.

So any help and advice will be greatly appreciated and as a side note I will be going on holiday for 4 days on the 16th of august, so if it is Ich, velvet or flukes then it has come at one of the worse times possible, nevertheless what has to be done has to be done.

Thanks, Alex.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That looks like Cryptocaryon, marine ich. The Odinex is unlikely to help, despite their marketing - it is just acriflavine and a couple of dyes, at a low dose to make it reef safe. There is no ich treatment that can work in days, the life cycle doesn’t allow that to happen.
Your choices aren’t good though - moving the fish to a treatment tank and dosing with copper or low salinity. There is also the tank transfer method, but I don’t use that myself (instructions for it are online here),
Jay

 

[AlexT25]

That looks like Cryptocaryon, marine ich. The Odinex is unlikely to help, despite their marketing - it is just acriflavine and a couple of dyes, at a low dose to make it reef safe. There is no ich treatment that can work in days, the life cycle doesn’t allow that to happen.
Your choices aren’t good though - moving the fish to a treatment tank and dosing with copper or low salinity. There is also the tank transfer method, but I don’t use that myself (instructions for it are online here),
Jay

Thanks for your help Jay,

It looks as if you are right, my yellow tang has now developed a few white spots on its fins.

I’m not an advocate for the tank transfer method, but a 76 fallow period looks like the best choice, however is there any other effective treatments available.
Which is the safer method for fish, copper or hypo salinity? And which are the most recommended copper treatments, cupramine or copper power etc?

My stocking is as follows:
2 orange ocellaris clownfish
1 black ocellaris clownfish
1 foxface rabbitfish
1 vagabond butterflyfish
2 orange spot gobies
1 regal tang
1 sailfin tang
1 yellow tang
1 chromis
1 cleaner wrasse
1 sixline
1 mandarin dragonet
And a selection of hermit crabs

So I was just wondering which is the safest treatment option especially for the mandarin as he’s in the process of being trained to accept frozen foods.

Thanks once again for your help.

Alex.

 

[AlexT25]

Thanks for your help Jay,

It looks as if you are right, my yellow tang has now developed a few white spots on its fins.

I’m not an advocate for the tank transfer method, but a 76 fallow period looks like the best choice, however is there any other effective treatments available.
Which is the safer method for fish, copper or hypo salinity? And which are the most recommended copper treatments, cupramine or copper power etc?

My stocking is as follows:
2 orange ocellaris clownfish
1 black ocellaris clownfish
1 foxface rabbitfish
1 vagabond butterflyfish
2 orange spot gobies
1 regal tang
1 sailfin tang
1 yellow tang
1 chromis
1 cleaner wrasse
1 sixline
1 mandarin dragonet
And a selection of hermit crabs

So I was just wondering which is the safest treatment option especially for the mandarin as he’s in the process of being trained to accept frozen foods.

Thanks once again for your help.

Alex.

And I forgot to mention for corals I have a small frag of pulsing Xenia and a small frag of Gsp.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for your help Jay,

It looks as if you are right, my yellow tang has now developed a few white spots on its fins.

I’m not an advocate for the tank transfer method, but a 76 fallow period looks like the best choice, however is there any other effective treatments available.
Which is the safer method for fish, copper or hypo salinity? And which are the most recommended copper treatments, cupramine or copper power etc?

My stocking is as follows:
2 orange ocellaris clownfish
1 black ocellaris clownfish
1 foxface rabbitfish
1 vagabond butterflyfish
2 orange spot gobies
1 regal tang
1 sailfin tang
1 yellow tang
1 chromis
1 cleaner wrasse
1 sixline
1 mandarin dragonet
And a selection of hermit crabs

So I was just wondering which is the safest treatment option especially for the mandarin as he’s in the process of being trained to accept frozen foods.

Thanks once again for your help.

Alex.

Of course, neither treatment will work with the corals or hermit crabs present. If your tank has live rock in it, and if you want to house invertebrates in that tank in the future, I would go with hyposalinity, as copper treatments will bind with your live rock. What you would do is remove all of the invertebrates (and house them in another tank for 76 days) and then drop the specific gravity of the tank down to 1.009 over 3 days. Hold it at that point for 30 days beyond the day you last saw spots on the fish, then slowly raise the specific gravity back up - taking at least five days to do so.

Jay

 

[AlexT25]

Of course, neither treatment will work with the corals or hermit crabs present. If your tank has live rock in it, and if you want to house invertebrates in that tank in the future, I would go with hyposalinity, as copper treatments will bind with your live rock. What you would do is remove all of the invertebrates (and house them in another tank for 76 days) and then drop the specific gravity of the tank down to 1.009 over 3 days. Hold it at that point for 30 days beyond the day you last saw spots on the fish, then slowly raise the specific gravity back up - taking at least five days to do so.

Jay

Thanks for your help,

Hypo salinity looks like the best option for me and that’d fit my holiday schedule as well.

What’s your thoughts on the polyp lab medic as this was recommended by my lfs and can it be used while undergoing hypo salinity?

Would the coral frags be impacted by the hypo salinity? I have also just converted a tropical tank to a marine tank and it is currently on its second day of cycling, however there is a bag of pre-cycled media I have in there, so my question is would the newly setup tank be able to house the crabs as the ammonia spike should be more minimal if I’m correct?

if not, it is possible for me to buy a small tank to house the crabs during this, so what your thoughts and recommendations.

Thanks massively for your help,

Alex.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thanks for your help,

Hypo salinity looks like the best option for me and that’d fit my holiday schedule as well.

What’s your thoughts on the polyp lab medic as this was recommended by my lfs and can it be used while undergoing hypo salinity?

Would the coral frags be impacted by the hypo salinity? I have also just converted a tropical tank to a marine tank and it is currently on its second day of cycling, however there is a bag of pre-cycled media I have in there, so my question is would the newly setup tank be able to house the crabs as the ammonia spike should be more minimal if I’m correct?

if not, it is possible for me to buy a small tank to house the crabs during this, so what your thoughts and recommendations.

Thanks massively for your help,

Alex.

Ah - glad you asked! No - only fish can go through hyposalinity NO invertebrates of any type should. Even some algae will die off during this sort of treatment.

I wouldn't use Polyp Lab Medic in conjunction with hypo, I've never done that and it just introduces another variable.

Jay

 

[AlexT25]

Hi jay,

A day later the regal tang has more pronounced spots of white, however no other fish show any signs of ich and the yellow tang is completely clear, either I was mistaken by saying it had spots of ich, as in a case of over looking for ich as the signs were incredibly faint, or the ich on the yellow tang has subsided.

Back to the regal tang, he is flashing more than the day previous and his spots are not only more pronounced but the size of the spots are more irregular and kind of have a more fuzzy/fluffy look to them. So I’m just checking it’s 100% not fungal or bacterial.

Thanks again for your help Jay,

Alex.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi jay,

A day later the regal tang has more pronounced spots of white, however no other fish show any signs of ich and the yellow tang is completely clear, either I was mistaken by saying it had spots of ich, as in a case of over looking for ich as the signs were incredibly faint, or the ich on the yellow tang has subsided.

Back to the regal tang, he is flashing more than the day previous and his spots are not only more pronounced but the size of the spots are more irregular and kind of have a more fuzzy/fluffy look to them. So I’m just checking it’s 100% not fungal or bacterial.

Thanks again for your help Jay,

Alex.

This is why visual clues are frequently not sufficient to ID a disease organism. This still could be ich, it could be flukes, or it could be bacteria as a secondary infection to either of those issues. If it is ich, your other fish will eventually start to show it, although it is tough to see on yellow tangs. With ich, the spots will come and go over a few days time, showing up in different locations. If you fish have the same spots in the same locations for longer than 36 hours, it is more likely flukes. If the spots are unchanged after 72 hours it is definitely not ich. I looked at 2 pictures, and it seemed to me that the spots are changing, but you would be the best judge of that.
Your alternative course of action would be to treat with prazipro for flukes. That can be done in your display. Treat once a week for 2 treatments, remove the cup from any skimmer and increase the aeration.
Jay