Yellow tang id help

[Bigrock]

Anybody have any idea what I might be dealing with on this yellow tang. It is 3 small bumps on his fins and they seem to be same color as body. Came in to qt 2 weeks ago and they are getting larger it seems. Already been through 2 rounds of prazipro. Was going to start copper tomorrow but would like to fix this first. He has 2 other yt and 3 convict tangs in qt with him. No other fish show signs. Any quesses and treatment options?

 

[Humblefish]

Do the growths look like cauliflower? Look here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/lymphocystis.257461/

 

[Bigrock]

Yes I think that might be it. I’ll continue to watch them and see if they continue to grow. Thanks humble for all your help here in forum, you’re the reason I started to qt in the first place.

 

[Big G]

How's the tang doing today?

 

[Christoph]

Bigrock, i would also suspect Lymphocystis here. - Good water quality and excellent feeding are your friends here.

Regarding feeding, your tangs look extremely skinny. Make sure they put on significant weight before exposing them to copper (unless you are seeing signs of amyloodinium/velvet disease).

Best,
Christoph

 

[Bigrock]

I will check on him when I get home tonight.
Thanks Christoph, I have been feeding them like crazy and all seem to eating everything but they are all still skinny like you mentioned. I thought the spots were a sign of ick but now that we suspect they aren’t I can wait on the copper until they fatten up.

 

[Christoph]

Make sure they are having some nori to pick on all day long. In addition try to feed high quality frozen food (from what ive heard Larrys Food is an excellent choice - unfortunately its not available here in the EU) at least two times daily, if that is manageable with your work schedule.

Good luck,
C

 

[Big G]

I will check on him when I get home tonight.
Thanks Christoph, I have been feeding them like crazy and all seem to eating everything but they are all still skinny like you mentioned. I thought the spots were a sign of ick but now that we suspect they aren’t I can wait on the copper until they fatten up.

Big fan of black or white worms. Full of protein and good fats.

 

[Bigrock]

Spots are still there but no more are appearing so I think I can assume it is the lymphocytes.

Ya I have the Nori available all day and have been feeding mysis and brine but i need to get some food like rods or lrs to use. I have only ever used frozen black worms but never tried live black or white worms. Where do you source yours, a bait store?

 

[melypr1985]

Those are a type of infection. I had almost a dozen yellow tangs with this and cured it over time with vitamins and good clean water. I cleared it up quicker with antibiotics. The ones that were not treated with antibiotics didn't all survive.

 

[Bigrock]

Thank you Meredith. Do you believe the infection spread from one yellow to the rest? I have 5 other tangs in qt all are really small but hope they don’t get infection as well.

 

[melypr1985]

Thank you Meredith. Do you believe the infection spread from one yellow to the rest? I have 5 other tangs in qt all are really small but hope they don’t get infection as well.

I would have to assume so. They all had it when they came in. I've had others here and there that came in with it as well. I've also seen it here a few times. It's not super common. I've only seen it in yellow tangs if that helps and it would really depend on the immune systems of the rest of the fish on whether a bacteria will spread to them as well.

 

[Bigrock]

So the spots are definitely lymphocytes as they have grown out and look like cauliflower now. But now all tangs in qt showed up with white specs overnight. I didn’t notice flashing or scratching before the spots showed up. Is there a way I can differentiate if this is ich or velvet? I have been raising coppersafe since yesterday. This pic is tonight and all fish are breathing heavy now.

 

[Big G]

Emergency Treatment for Marine Velvet Disease

The short version:

Suggest you consider this for each tang, one at a time. And then return them to your QT with the copper. Humblefish has noted a greater survival rate if immediately after the FW dip, you give the fish a bath in Acriflavine products (see the underlined and bolded below)

• 5 minute freshwater dip
• Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

• After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
• While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
• Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

Here's Humblefish's complete thread on treating velvet: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/#post-2499399

 

[Bigrock]

Thank you, I did read humbles threads on velvet and ich. I was curious if any more experienced eyes than mine could differentiate from the pic on which it is. I am assuming from your post that you believe it to be velvet?

 

[Big G]

Pic is a bit blurry. Try viewing the fish at an angle. Velvet kind of shimmers like a dusty coating. The dots are small and numerous. Versus ich where the dots are larger and fewer and more space between. Yellow Tangs are a bit difficult to see the classic “yellow/gold” shimmer of velvet so you have to look closely and at the angle oftentimes to see all the little dots.
Velvet is rampant in the industry theses days. Caution is warranted because it kills so quickly. Breathing heavily is one of the symptoms as well.

 

[Humblefish]

Is there a way I can differentiate if this is ich or velvet?

Look here: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-difference-between-ich-velvet.315957/

But based on your photo, it does look more like velvet than ich to me.

 

[Bigrock]

Thanks big g.

That thread helped humble. I do believe it’s velvet as well now.

 

[Big G]

Best of luck with your fish. I know at times like this things get jumbled together. Best advise is to do the FW dip (it will help their breathing) followed by the Acriflavine bath and then get them up to therapeutic levels of copper ASAP or CP as noted by Humblefish. Some of the fish he saved by adding this step (acriflavine) looked a lot worse than yours. Hang in there.