Vendor just sent me this "gem tang". What is going on here?

[IrezumiHurts]

Wife had to acclimate while i was at work, she was in a fullblown panic thinking they just sent a fish with velvet. Fortunately we had a copper power tank running 2.0ppm because we quarantine everything. She sent me these pictures and i have no idea what im looking at here, it doesnt look like velvet, almost like the fish has vitiligo or something and no pigment in these areas. Pattern is approximately similar on both sides of the fish, so some symmetry, which leads me to wonder if its actually a genetic marking vs a disease. Store is closed so i cant ask them directly until tomorrow.

Fish was shipped in dirty 1.016 water though so im not going to wait to get an answer from them if i need to be acting quickly on something. Not sure why anyone would ship salinity that low unless they are trying to keep disease down, that's really low. I mean the fish is huge (4-5in, sold as 2in) and looks nothing like the picture (normal gem tang) or any gem ive ever seen, so mad about all that, but thats something i can take up with the seller. For now just trying to diagnose if this is a disease.

 

[MnFish1]

Seems like this should be solved in the vendor forum. Not the public forum. The quickest thing you should be acting on is asking for a refund?

 

[zoomonster]

Unfortunately, that's the reality these days with low salinity. I get fish from several reputable sources and the salinity is always very low at around 1.015-1.016. The only real concern is it takes probably a day to get them acclimated to normal reef salinity.

Sorry but can't comment on the fish and those markings as not seen that.

 

[Anemone_Fanatic]

Might be HLLE. Doesn't exactly look like it, but that's the most probable thing. It could also be a genetic anomaly. I'd QT the heck out of this fish just in case.

 

[exnisstech]

That is strange markings. Maybe @Jay Hemdal or @vetteguy53081 can take look.
As to salinity, I have a local fish store that keeps salinity @ the same low sg. I no longer buy fish there. But you need to no how or if you need to treat this fish so let's get some eyes on it

 

[MnFish1]

Wife had to acclimate while i was at work, she was in a fullblown panic thinking they just sent a fish with velvet. Fortunately we had a copper power tank running 2.0ppm because we quarantine everything. She sent me these pictures and i have no idea what im looking at here, it doesnt look like velvet, almost like the fish has vitiligo or something and no pigment in these areas. Pattern is approximately similar on both sides of the fish, so some symmetry, which leads me to wonder if its actually a genetic marking vs a disease. Store is closed so i cant ask them directly until tomorrow.

Fish was shipped in dirty 1.016 water though so im not going to wait to get an answer from them if i need to be acting quickly on something. Not sure why anyone would ship salinity that low unless they are trying to keep disease down, that's really low. I mean the fish is huge (4-5in, sold as 2in) and looks nothing like the picture (normal gem tang) or any gem ive ever seen, so mad about all that, but thats something i can take up with the seller. For now just trying to diagnose if this is a disease.

Um - you did not get the tang you ordered. Those markings look artificial - or odd. Just dispute with your credit card

 

[MnFish1]

This to me is not a salinity issue.

 

[MnFish1]

Might be HLLE. Doesn't exactly look like it, but that's the most probable thing. It could also be a genetic anomaly. I'd QT the heck out of this fish just in case.

It is not HLLE

 

[zoomonster]

Seems like this should be solved in the vendor forum. Not the public forum. The quickest thing you should be acting on is asking for a refund?

Maybe so but pretty sure he's looking for an opinion on what's wrong with the fish. Inquiring minds would like to know. 35 years of reefs and not seen anything like that.

 

[IrezumiHurts]

Seems like this should be solved in the vendor forum. Not the public forum. The quickest thing you should be acting on is asking for a refund?

Um - you did not get the tang you ordered. Those markings look artificial - or odd. Just dispute with your credit card

This is a weird take my man.

As i stated i dont give a rats whatever about the vendor thing or my money - yet.

I am trying to determine if this fish has a life threatening disease and i need to take steps to save its life.

 

[CCK_8814]

This is normal after shipping stress in gem tangs. Here’s a couple pictures of ones right after receiving to show it’s typical stress marks. After 24 hours they’ll be gone.

 

[IrezumiHurts]

Maybe so but pretty sure he's looking for an opinion on what's wrong with the fish. Inquiring minds would like to know. 35 years of reefs and not seen anything like that.

Exactly. Thank you

 

[vetteguy53081]

Wife had to acclimate while i was at work, she was in a fullblown panic thinking they just sent a fish with velvet. Fortunately we had a copper power tank running 2.0ppm because we quarantine everything. She sent me these pictures and i have no idea what im looking at here, it doesnt look like velvet, almost like the fish has vitiligo or something and no pigment in these areas. Pattern is approximately similar on both sides of the fish, so some symmetry, which leads me to wonder if its actually a genetic marking vs a disease. Store is closed so i cant ask them directly until tomorrow.

Fish was shipped in dirty 1.016 water though so im not going to wait to get an answer from them if i need to be acting quickly on something. Not sure why anyone would ship salinity that low unless they are trying to keep disease down, that's really low. I mean the fish is huge (4-5in, sold as 2in) and looks nothing like the picture (normal gem tang) or any gem ive ever seen, so mad about all that, but thats something i can take up with the seller. For now just trying to diagnose if this is a disease.

Ive seen many weird variants including bar-code gem but wow. Wonder if stress markings that will fill/restore to norm?

 

[IrezumiHurts]

This is normal after shipping stress in gem tangs. Here’s a couple pictures of ones right after receiving to show it’s typical stress marks. After 24 hours they’ll be gone.

Sweet! That's what i was looking for. Never seen anything like this and wanted to make sure i didn't get a fish with some weird disease that needed urgent treatment. I feel a lot better hearing that.

 

[CCK_8814]

Sweet! That's what i was looking for. Never seen anything like this and wanted to make sure i didn't get a fish with some weird disease that needed urgent treatment. I feel a lot better hearing that.

I had the same sort of panicked thought process you did the first time I got one. Obviously because they aren’t a cheap fish. But after I’ve gotten over 2 dozen now every single one has the same markings upon arrival. It has to be something to do with the shipping stress but I’ve never seen it take more than 24 hours to return to normal, even less sometimes.

 

[IrezumiHurts]

I had the same sort of panicked thought process you did the first time I got one. Obviously because they aren’t a cheap fish. But after I’ve gotten over 2 dozen now every single one has the same markings upon arrival. It has to be something to do with the shipping stress but I’ve never seen it take more than 24 hours to return to normal, even less sometimes.

Wish i could give you an award, i texted a more experienced guy from the LFS and he said he's never seen that before but they don't get a lot of gem tangs, so i figured someone on the forums would know.

Looks like even other very experienced reefers haven't seen much of this so i don't feel so crazy haha

Thank you again. I'll edit my subject line and deal with the vendor, but leave the post here for hopefully others to learn from

 

[Jay Hemdal]

+1 - those are typical stress marks that this species shows. My concern here is how bad was the stress? Moving a fish from 1.016 to full salinity needs to be done over a few days, not through acclimation.

Jay

 

[JGT]

These def are stress markings. Had the same thing happen with my Gem. Same as when Nasos get the white circles. They disappear under good conditions.

 

[IrezumiHurts]

+1 - those are typical stress marks that this species shows. My concern here is how bad was the stress? Moving a fish from 1.016 to full salinity needs to be done over a few days, not through acclimation.

Jay

In the interest of caution, i had my wife dump RODI to salinity match the QT tank to the bag, to avoid further stress and exacerbating whatever the unknown situation further. My plan was to raise him to 1.022 which is what i run my QT over the course of the next 24 hours or so, definitely not in a rush to raise it, even moreso now knowing this is stress related

Edit: clarify to say we matched salinity from the start. Since originally a concern it could have been velvet, we got him straight into copper, did not drip. Only temperature acclimation

 

[Lebowski_]

Maybe so but pretty sure he's looking for an opinion on what's wrong with the fish. Inquiring minds would like to know. 35 years of reefs and not seen anything like that.

@MnFish1 has a way of doing this in threads. Always policing everyone, thinking they know best.

@CCK_8814 came through with the actual answer.