Yellow Tang Bacterial infection - is there a reef safe way to treat ?

ash9965 · Nov 12, 2020

Hey all looks like my yellow tang is coming down with a bacterial infection she has red splotches on side . She is still eating and extremely elusive so there is no way to remove her with out destroying the reef and causing undue stress on her as well. Is there anyway I can treat her in the tank safely without killing the reef / anemones / corals and snails . Thanks in advance

gentlefish · Nov 12, 2020

Treatment in a display tank is never recommended. That said Metronidazole has been used.
I recommend to use a tank separation strategy. Egg crate cut to size will cut your tank in half. Another fitting piece will quarter it. You can strategically push the YT to one side and put/possible put a few rocks in a bucket and catch him for bread spectrum/gram negative antibiotics and hospital tank.

Jay Hemdal · Nov 12, 2020

While there are a variety of "reef safe" medications, they are really all just tonics, and none of them show up in any professional fish disease literature - so their use is completely unreferenced. At best they are antiseptic, not antibiotic in their action. Additionally, I simply refuse to put anything into my tanks if they won't even list the ingredients!

The only one out there that I know of that contains medications that have been studied is Ruby Reef Rally Pro. It contains formalin and acriflavine. Trouble is, from what I can tell they make it "reef safe" by lowering the drug concentration way below therapeutic levels...

Can you post a picture of the fish?

Jay

ash9965 · Nov 13, 2020

unfortunately I am at work but Here is a picture that I found on the internet . looks almost identical to what mine has but mine doesn't have quite as much red . Again she is eating fine and acting normal other than the red splotches I guarantee it would be nearly impossible to catch her with out tearing down the tank . Any advice would be greatly appreciated . Thanks

ash9965 · Nov 13, 2020

gentlefish said:
That said Metronidazole has been used.

I have some metro on hand that I use for my discus tank . How would I use it in a saltwater display tank that wouldn't hurt the reef? Thanks

vetteguy53081 · Nov 13, 2020

Yes- bacterial.
Often just a series of water changes to improve water quality will do it , along with an examination of the filtration system and necessary improvements for long term stability, is sufficient to clear this up in several days.
should the above steps not cause improvement in the tangs condition within 2 or 3 days or the redness appears to get worse than it is time to break out the antibiotics. Generally it is best to treat in a seperate Quarantine Tank (QT) as antibiotics could negatively effect filtration . The best antibiotics for Red Streak are usually Nitrofuran or Kanacyn IME. For those using Spectogram without any results I would suggest switching to Kanacyn as Nitrofuran is an ingredient in Spectrogram.

I put a 1/2 capsule of kanacyn in about a cup of tank water and got it dissolved and then soaked the fishes food in that water for about 30 minutes and then fed them. I couldn't just "spot feed" the tang, everyone ate the food.