Sick Tang with PICTURES--- HELP

[sammyinafrica]

okay....P ic is worth a thousand words. i thought that my tang was in the clear...then BOOM...I wake up to (see the picts.) He has brownish blotches on his black skin...they appear patchy. On the yellow (he is a yellow belly) and blue, there are black spots, smal in diamiter (SP). On his fins he has whitish brown spots.... Also, there are a few small white spots on his eyes

All of our water checks are spot on.

http://www.maast.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=130&pictureid=1022
Note the black spots and discoloration his black palet.

http://www.maast.org/forums/picture.php?albumid=130&pictureid=1021

please help with this..We :wub: this fish and do not want to see him:sick:

[CoryDude]

All of our water checks are spot on.


Need more info than this. Can you give specifics on parameters? Salinity, ph, dkh, nitrates, etc? Type of system? What are you feeding? Need more info to make an educated guess. Pretty sure you'll get a lot of advice after providing more data.

[ErikH]

Oh, I tried to post on this earlier but the site was undergoing maintainence. It could be both black ich and ich. Get a set of cleaners and keep your fingers crossed. Black ich is a parasite that I dealt with for a year, and to this day I keep my fingers crossed that I never see it again.

[corkyGramma]

Agree with everyone. Tangs need stable water parameters and good nutition to keep their defenses up and stay healthy. A week ago I noticed my hippo had gotten a little ich (which can develop into multiple complications); so I checked those basic needs and found that he was lacking enough spiralina algae in his diet. I corrected that and he bounced back to complete health in a couple days. That is an example of how to cross check your husbandry with the needs of the livestock in question...so we can help you to trouble shoot but again we need more information

[sammyinafrica]

okay (time to rip the newbie) turns out I am wrong..

Background - Two weeks ago we went on vacation, had a power outage, sump overflow (another lesson), stressed fish, low salinity, ect... no loss of life, but not a good situation.

I have NOT monitored it very closely (too busy and resting on my previous success with the tank)... This is another newbie lesson....

Here is the deal:

Salinity.021
PH 7.8 (to low)
nitrate 5.0
Nitrite.25
Ammonia 0

I have NOT been feeding my Blue Tang properly. Mainly red algae and not very consistent with that....I will say that I was given some bad advice, but that is my fault not anyone else’s. Also, I had such good success before that I thought my tank was invincible. I have learned many lessons….1. do not place a fish directly into your tank from the LFS no matter how good a store it is. 2. get a quarantine tank. 3. water checks weekly. 4. Keep up the water changes.(we do this each month)


My wife and I love our tank, enjoy the attention it gets at our weekly Bible study, enjoy the serenity and calm it brings…We defiantly want to keep all the fish healthy and well…

Any advice (other than..get off your butt and take care of your tank :) ) will be great...

[ErikH]

Water change water change water change


Keep those levels at null, and feed your tang a varied diet of foods. Do not overfeed. During your water changes, make sure to take a powerhead and powerwash your rocks off to suspend any detritus you may have. While it is suspended, do your water change. Keep doing them over this week, 20% daily if possible (don't use tap) and as those levels decrease, reduce your water changes to 10% weekly.

[sammyinafrica]

i performed a 20% today and will do a few more each week...The nitrate and nitrite are at the level just above 0 befpre the change, so I feel pretty good about it. Like I said, at all the other water check the levels were 0, so this is a bit new. i think the reason that these levels are great than 0 is because I had to turn off some of my equipment to try and medicate my tank....

Thanks for the help! i'll keep at the water changes

[corkyGramma]

Don't forget the GREEN algae, the red is good but they need green. You can also put some vitamin c drops in his food, but be care not too overdose because it will bring your ph down. By the way how big is your tank?

[JKLUSAF]

Any advice (other than..get off your butt and take care of your tank :) ) will be great...


you'll get alot of this from the Vets...sounds like your tank is stabalizing just keep a eye on it

[sammyinafrica]

My wife and i have taken great pride in our tank, especially since it is the ceterpiece in our marine tank dedicated living room (awesome conversation piece) We also LOVE our fish, corals, ect.... SO this is a hard lesson for me to learn, but i would guess it is one that we all learn...

All of my water levels have stablized except for Nitrate...it is High.... I am hoping that this is because i shut of the protien skimmer to medicate the tank. I turned it back on today and hope that it will drop it down. i will also do a water change soon. All the fish are showing less signs of stress and all are eating....

my tang still looks ugly, but his behavior is normal. i am hoping that the fungal meds and better diet will clear him up.

Oh a few questions:

How often do yhou perform water changes?
How do you reduce high nitrate and nitrite levels?

[corkyGramma]

You shouldn't have any nitrites unless your tank is a month or so old. If you do its because you feed too much for the water volume. You need to start doing 10-20% water changes fast! Right now, every week till you get the reading down, in the future about once a month.

[sammyinafrica]

I have turned my protein skimmer back on, been feeding much less, and have done some water changes. I think what was happening is that I had a dead spot in my tank that was trapping food and that caused some higher nitrate/nitrite numbers. this was my first 'wake up" call as a marine aquarist and I feel a bit more knowledgeable because of it. Also, I learned that I as performing some of my water tests incorrectly. All good lessons and with out loss of life.

My tank is looking much better. The fish are behaving normally again and my tang looks better. I gave him a fresh water bath and have been keeping up with the fungal treatment.

I do have another question though.

I find the “feed as much as they will consume in 2-3 minutes” a bit ambiguous. Can you give me some practical guidelines on how much in terms of ounces or those little squares of brine/mysis shrimp.

I have a 125 gallon and have

1 blenny
1 yellow head goby
1 blue tang
1 yellow tang
6 blue/green chromis
2 PJ cardinals
1 skunk psuedochromis
2 clowns