Weird dots on blue tang

[buruskeee]

beautiful video you took but fish is distant and its hard to see fish in whole as it is moving around a lot going after food

Took a new video here, although it’s tough to see the spots. It actually faded a bit, more like they’re starting to fade to black again. When I first got the fish, from being transported, it did have a lighter black stripe day 0 which started to darken to what it is now after I placed it in the DT.

Although not out of the woods, I’m starting to think maybe it’s certain at this point it’s not ich and just something weird like the mucus blocking or maybe it’s just slight discoloration of a few scales from whatever stress? I feel like ich would be more distinctive and easy to spot and make out like in a video, etc. I have to look hard today to even see the spots, which are now a blend of blue and black it seems.

Just as I typed this again, it farted a bunch of bubbles and then proceeded to chase them to the surface (stress from being gassy?). Wish I had that on camera.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Took a new video here, although it’s tough to see the spots. It actually faded a bit, more like they’re starting to fade to black again. When I first got the fish, from being transported, it did have a lighter black stripe day 0 which started to darken to what it is now after I placed it in the DT.

Although not out of the woods, I’m starting to think maybe it’s certain at this point it’s not ich and just something weird like the mucus blocking or maybe it’s just slight discoloration of a few scales from whatever stress? I feel like ich would be more distinctive and easy to spot and make out like in a video, etc. I have to look hard today to even see the spots, which are now a blend of blue and black it seems.

Just as I typed this again, it farted a bunch of bubbles and then proceeded to chase them to the surface (stress from being gassy?). Wish I had that on camera.

Can be excess mucus in intestines, or mucus in general or gas. Assure good water quality and diet

 

[buruskeee]

Can be excess mucus in intestines, or mucus in general or gas. Assure good water quality and diet

I’m hoping that is what’s related to the spots.

Diet is TDO and seaweed pellets in the morning, nori clip as snacks once or twice a day, and brine shrimp for dinner (mysis is too big right now). Water quality is ok, not my ideal parameter, but good.

Nitrate 5-10ppm (API)
Phosphate 0.38ppm (Hanna ULR)

Video didn’t attach properly. I’ve added stills here. Some you can see it and some it’s tough to see, like the lighting has a lot of impact on what’s visible.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I’m hoping that is what’s related to the spots.

Diet is TDO and seaweed pellets in the morning, nori clip as snacks once or twice a day, and brine shrimp for dinner (mysis is too big right now). Water quality is ok, not my ideal parameter, but good.

Nitrate 5-10ppm (API)
Phosphate 0.38ppm (Hanna ULR)

Video didn’t attach properly. I’ve added stills here. Some you can see it and some it’s tough to see, like the lighting has a lot of impact on what’s visible.

These seem to be mucus plugs or cones which tangs are very prone to getting. There may be ich mixed in there as well one source of these mucus cones is often ich.
Do any of the other fish show these spots?
Fish sometimes develop excess mucus that excretes from the producing skin cells which rises up as a cone or a plug. These often derive from skin irritation.
Assure good water quality and for cure often good water quality

 

[buruskeee]

I want to thank all of you fish medics that came onto this thread to help ID what’s going on. Based on all of the suggestions and descriptions, I believe it is indeed mucus plugs (read one of Jay’s other responses from an old thread about possibly having a couple more spots but not being visible due to contrast - which explains the whole black stripe thing).

I now have the ability to correctly research. I will still give caution to ich, and in a way I’m glad I got a bit of ich scare, because it finally got me off my butt to install my UV lol.

I may schedule a 25% water change this week to see if it helps with increasing water quality. Hopefully that will help with calming the inhabitants if they are irritated in any way.