What is on my purple tang?

[Marquarium]

I had a gold rim surgeon die a couple weeks ago from what I believe to be velvet. They were covered in flakes everywhere and showed signs of difficulty breathing. They were gone the next day.


I just noticed on my purple tang these spots today. However, the spots look different than what was on my other fish that passed. Also, the purple tang is acting completely normal where as the gold rim was hiding and showed struggles.

Is the purple tang also developing velvet or is this something else?


Other notes: only changes since last fish passed on was the addition of a uv light and usual water changes

 

[vetteguy53081]

I had a gold rim surgeon die a couple weeks ago from what I believe to be velvet. They were covered in flakes everywhere and showed signs of difficulty breathing. They were gone the next day.


I just noticed on my purple tang these spots today. However, the spots look different than what was on my other fish that passed. Also, the purple tang is acting completely normal where as the gold rim was hiding and showed struggles.

Is the purple tang also developing velvet or is this something else?


Other notes: only changes since last fish passed on was the addition of a uv light and usual water changes

Looks like mucus cones from either copper exposure or skin reaction. 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 will diminish it but treating with coppersafe and copper power may help at therapeutic level 2.25-2.5 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

While this could be mucus plugs, the possibility that a previous fish died from a protozoan infection needs to be taken into consideration - this could very well be mucus plugs mixed in with ich trophonts.

Do any other fish in the tank show spots?

The only truly effective treatments will require all fish to be treated with either coppersafe or hyposalinity - and no invertebrates will tolerate those treatments.

Jay

 

[Marquarium]

Yes unfortunately I just found a clown covered. Looks similar to the other fish that were covered before.

Hard to get good pictures I’ll keep trying to update with better

This treatment isn’t coral safe either correct? So ideally I should get these fish to another tank

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Yes unfortunately I just found a clown covered. Looks similar to the other fish that were covered before.

Hard to get good pictures I’ll keep trying to update with better

This treatment isn’t coral safe either correct? So ideally I should get these fish to another tank

Yes, some fish disease is still going on, most likely ich - you'll need to move all of the fish to another tank and treat with copper or hyposalinity. In some cases, it might be easier to move the invertebrates to another tank - depends on how many fish you have.

Jay

 

[Marquarium]

Thank you for your help, Jay. Because of whatever is going around there are unfortunately not a a lot of fish left.

I also recently took down all my tanks except this one. Should I still get a fresh batch of saltwater going asap and move them to a tank that isn't cycled and still do the treatment? Or if the tank isn't cycled am I just doing more harm to them?

 

[Skfoley4]

Yes unfortunately I just found a clown covered. Looks similar to the other fish that were covered before.

Hard to get good pictures I’ll keep trying to update with better

This treatment isn’t coral safe either correct? So ideally I should get these fish to another tank

 

[Skfoley4]

I recently had this happen and had to get the fish out. And entreat him separately so that I would not kill the corals. I now have a quarantine tank but at that time I just put a Heater and airstone and the medicine in a five gallon bucket and it worked fine

 

[Marquarium]

I recently had this happen and had to get the fish out. And entreat him separately so that I would not kill the corals. I now have a quarantine tank but at that time I just put a Heater and airstone and the medicine in a five gallon bucket and it worked fine

Great call I can do that a lot quicker than get a 40+ gal tank ready of course!



Also good news today as the lights are coming on. I was getting ready to prep a batch of RODI and move a tank in from the garage, but I checked on the fish first.
Purple tang looks like 99% better from yesterday. Whatever was on him wasn't the same thing that killed my other fish (hopefully). Shoutout my cleaner shrimp that look like theyre helping out too!

Going to continue to monitor closely

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you for your help, Jay. Because of whatever is going around there are unfortunately not a a lot of fish left.

I also recently took down all my tanks except this one. Should I still get a fresh batch of saltwater going asap and move them to a tank that isn't cycled and still do the treatment? Or if the tank isn't cycled am I just doing more harm to them?

Moving fish to an uncycled tank almost always does more harm than good - you end up chasing high ammonia issues, or, if you don't chekc the ammonia, it can kill the fish outright.

Jay

 

[slingfox]

I recently had this happen and had to get the fish out. And entreat him separately so that I would not kill the corals. I now have a quarantine tank but at that time I just put a Heater and airstone and the medicine in a five gallon bucket and it worked fine

Similarly, I recently set up a quarantine tank for new fish. I did so by taking some Seachem Matrix from the sump of my display tank and put it into a small 10 gallon tank from Petco with a HOB filter and Ammonia Alert badge. I have been doing 50% - 85% water changes out of paranoia every 2 days. Setup has been going for 1.5 weeks so far without issue.