Yellow Tang is sick. Any suggestions?

[LavalReefer]

Hi there! I would need some help with my yellow tang. I noticed that my yellow tang had a couple white spots 3-4 days ago and didn't think much of it. It was clearly ich because I could count them. I didn't think much of it because last year the same happened and it went away. I didn't want to panic either and do anything stupid.

Now, I am not so sure what to do. This morning I found my Kole eye tang dead and the yellow tang had many many more spots (velvet?). The YT has 1 year in this 100g system and the Kole had 6 months. They seemed to get along just fine and both had their own hiding spots. I am worried that they may have started being aggressive towards eachother which created stress and a parasite outbreak.

The last fish I added were 2 firefish 2 months ago and they were quarantined almost 4 months in hyposalinity. I know copper would be ideal but we don't have access to that medication in Canada...

What should I do? The tang is still chasing food and eating as normal. He does exhibit "scratching" behavior. I am scared to attempt to catch him and cause more stress but I could set up a hospital tank if needed and lower the salinity slowly/ do TTM. Is there any hope?

 

[Big G]

Sorry but your YT has velvet.

Doing freshwater dips will give you time to plan. Can treat with once a day and it will remove a tremendous number of the parasites from the fish, especially from the gills so it can breathe.

Here's a thread that discusses using Hydrogen Peroxide and TTM to treat "all" parasites.

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

10/9/2022: Jay Hemdal and the current Fish Medic staff are suggesting that people find other treatments rather than TTM. It has some substantial drawbacks: “Tank chasing” method (Tank Transfer Method - TTM) A mostly theoretical method for treating Cryptocaryon infections takes advantage of...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Qasimja]

did you add any corals or inverts into your tank in the last 30 days? and yea that looks like velvet to me as well it took out my entire tank back in november

 

[LavalReefer]

Sorry but your YT has velvet.

Doing freshwater dips will give you time to plan. Can treat with once a day and it will remove a tremendous number of the parasites from the fish, especially from the gills so it can breathe.

Here's a thread that discusses using Hydrogen Peroxide and TTM to treat "all" parasites.

Hybrid TTM to treat all parasites!

10/9/2022: Jay Hemdal and the current Fish Medic staff are suggesting that people find other treatments rather than TTM. It has some substantial drawbacks: “Tank chasing” method (Tank Transfer Method - TTM) A mostly theoretical method for treating Cryptocaryon infections takes advantage of...

www.reef2reef.com

Hi and thank you for replying. I was sure it was ich because it started with only 10-15 dots couple of days ago.

Do you think I could do a H2O2 bath instead of the freshwater dip? I have hear of freshwater dips for flukes but not ich or velvet.

I am preparing myself for TTM then.

 

[LavalReefer]

did you any corals or inverts into your tank in the last 30 days? and yea that looks like velvet to me a well it took out my entire tank back in november

aww that's not fun! I added the 2 firefish 2 months ago and nothing until now on any of the fish..

 

[LavalReefer]

Ok so I did a 30 min h2o2 bath before transferring him to the QT. I lowered a little bit the salinity to help with breathing and will continue tomorrow morning. Hopefully it helps!

I'll do a tank transfer in 36 hrs as advised by humblefish for cases of velvet...

That's him in the bath. To maintain the temperature I made the glass container stand on PVC tubes in the QT water.

 

[Big G]

Nice work.
All the fish will need to be treated and the tank needs to go fallow 6 weeks for velvet.

 

[LavalReefer]

Little update for this morning. He is doing good and swimming around. Salinity is down to 1.020 now. Preparing a bucket for first TTM transfer tomorrow after 36 hrs. Fingers crossed!!

I'll continue to update just for the record

 

[Bryan68]

I'm glad your tang is doing better and I'm not trying to hijack your thread. But how do fish get velvet when you haven't added anything for two months?

 

[LavalReefer]

I'm glad your tang is doing better and I'm not trying to hijack your thread. But how do fish get velvet when you haven't added anything for two months?

Hi it's a really good question I am scratching my head too!! I re-checked the date I added corals and fish (an acan, a torch, 2 firefish and a shrimp from the same seller) and it all happened April 6th. Nothing else after that because with the current pendemic the fish stores don't have much anyways. Firefish are doing amazing! No signs whatsoever on the two tangs.

The only thing I changed after that was lowering my lights to complete blue for a day to try the look, but the tangs looked stressed and I resumed the normal lighting after a few hours. I think I may have seen a spot or two after that (last week I believe it was). Could a change of light have triggered the parasite? No clue, but that's the only thing I've changed... then suddenly I wake up to the Kole tang on the sand bed and the yellow tang looking like in the pictures

Additional update: I saw to white dust stuff at the bottom of the quarantine tank. I am wondering if it could be the parasites that fell off after the h2o2 bath!

My other fish are getting into baths today and separate quarantine tanks. It's gonna be a long wait!

 

[Bryan68]

Hi it's a really good question I am scratching my head too!! I re-checked the date I added corals and fish (an acan, a torch, 2 firefish and a shrimp from the same seller) and it all happened April 6th. Nothing else after that because with the current pendemic the fish stores don't have much anyways. Firefish are doing amazing! No signs whatsoever on the two tangs.

The only thing I changed after that was lowering my lights to complete blue for a day to try the look, but the tangs looked stressed and I resumed the normal lighting after a few hours. I think I may have seen a spot or two after that (last week I believe it was). Could a change of light have triggered the parasite? No clue, but that's the only thing I've changed... then suddenly I wake up to the Kole tang on the sand bed and the yellow tang looking like in the pictures

Additional update: I saw to white dust stuff at the bottom of the quarantine tank. I am wondering if it could be the parasites that fell off after the h2o2 bath!

My other fish are getting into baths today and separate quarantine tanks. It's gonna be a long wait!

Wow, sorry for all your troubles, sure hope the rest of your fish pull thru. Maybe someone else will chime in and help with the mystery.

 

[LavalReefer]

Wow, sorry for all your troubles, sure hope the rest of your fish pull thru. Maybe someone else will chime in and help with the mystery.

Thank you They all look ok, so I think (well I hope) it will be fine. The only thing is all the trouble that comes with it (lot's of water changes, salt mixing, washing, etc). I feel like the parasite was maybe dormant and something stressed the fish (lights? 2 tangs growing bigger?) that made them more susceptible to get it... anyways I'll keep posting updates! I don't wish that to anybody.

 

[LavalReefer]

Here's an update! I transferred the tang to a bucket at 35.5 hours with a different heater, air stone, air tube and plastic decoration to hide under. Still doing great, can't really see if there's any spots on him. He is swimming around and ate mysis shrimps (didn't touch the Nori yesterday but I think he was too stressed out by the change of environment).

I quickly washed everything in vinegar and it is drying outside in the sun for the day and night.

I am gathering the material to do this with the other tank mates (I need bigger containers for the 6 of them). So far they look weirdly normal

I also started a separate holding container to keep them there 3 months during the fallow period. Should manage a quick cycle in 2 weeks with good bacteria.
Sorry for the blurry picture, lots of bubbles in the way!

 

[LavalReefer]

Hi! Little update for those who'd like to read the whole story

Everyone is doing well. I have double TTM going on (yellow tang in one and clowns, damsel, firefish and clown goby in the other). So far so good!

I am prepping their temporary holding "tank" which is actually an extra large Ikea storage box haha! It's large enough for everyone so it will do.

Yellow tang is about to do the 4th transfer and the others their 3rd.

End of fallow period: August 11

 

[Bryan68]

Great, glad things are going your way!

 

[Big G]

Hi! Little update for those who'd like to read the whole story

Everyone is doing well. I have double TTM going on (yellow tang in one and clowns, damsel, firefish and clown goby in the other). So far so good!

I am prepping their temporary holding "tank" which is actually an extra large Ikea storage box haha! It's large enough for everyone so it will do.

Yellow tang is about to do the 4th transfer and the others their 3rd.

End of fallow period: August 11

Awesome news. Well done!

 

[LavalReefer]

Last update!

Everyone is well. I lost a firefish because of the clowns, so I ended up quarantining the clowns separately (so aggressive!!!). My temporary holding tank was cycled after 3 weeks and I transferred everyone slowly over 3 weeks to control nitrates once they finished their transfers. They will stay there until August. Only place I could find to put them was the laundry room haha! It will do though

The TTM is really demanding and I am glad we were stuck at home due to COVID19 so I could focus on that, preparing rodi water and mixing salt, heating the water and washing all the buckets. It's a lot of work!!!

 

[Big G]

Keep up the good work!

 

[Hugh Mann]

Good on you, I am glad to hear it's going well. Velvet is one [expletive] parasite.
Just pulling the copper out of my own tank for it.

PS: It took 3 months to get here, but I was able to order a bottle of coppersafe from Amazon.

 

[LavalReefer]

Good on you, I am glad to hear it's going well. Velvet is one [expletive] parasite.
Just pulling the copper out of my own tank for it.

PS: It took 3 months to get here, but I was able to order a bottle of coppersafe from Amazon.

Oh wow! I will check it out on Amazon then. Hopefully I will never have to use it for emergencies but it's good to have on hand for new fish to quarantine. It's surely less expensive and draining to run copper than doing the TTM. Thanks for the advice!!