5 y/o sailfin tang help

[UCF Alum]

See attached photos. Sailfish tang is flashing and hiding a lot. He’s eating minimally. I’ve been soaking food in garlic and selcon. Naso tang looks pale and looks “fuzzy” on certain areas of his body. He’s definitely not the gray-ish color he used to be, looks more pale. The odd thing about the Sailfin tang is that his spots will look real bad one minute and then turn into almost a hint of blue the next. The darker his color gets if he comes out from hiding, the more apparent his spots are. I do not think this is Ick. Can you ID?

 

[blaxsun]

Looks like velvet, but I could be wrong. Any other eagle eyes out there?
* Flashing, loss of appetite, pale coloring, more dots than you can count

 

[nereefpat]

Velvet is likely. Could be ich and velvet.

All fish need to be placed in a hospital tank with Copper, ASAP, unfortunately.

 

[Gtinnel]

I'm not expert on fish disease but I know who is @Jay Hemdal

I've always heard if it looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt it's likely ich and if it looks like it's been sprinkled in powdered sugar it's velvet. I'd say it very possibly could be velvet, but again I'm about as far from an expert as you can get.

 

[UCF Alum]

I was thinking velvet too. Appears his mouth gets stuck in the open position also. Pretty sure it’s indicative of some sort of bacterial infection.
Fish will be impossible to catch in a 200 with live rock and coral for QT. I’m going to pick up Polyp Lap Medic in the morning as I can’t use copper in the DT for obvious reasons. Appreciate everyone chiming in.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I was thinking velvet too. Appears his mouth gets stuck in the open position also. Pretty sure it’s indicative of some sort of bacterial infection.
Fish will be impossible to catch in a 200 with live rock and coral for QT. I’m going to pick up Polyp Lap Medic in the morning as I can’t use copper in the DT for obvious reasons. Appreciate everyone chiming in.

Can you post a short video taken under white light? I’d like to see its respiration rate.
The thread title says the fish is 5 y/o, when do you last add a fish or invertebrate to the tank?
Jay

 

[UCF Alum]

@Jay Hemdal
Thanks and see attached. At the 1 minute mark you can really see the spots. He starts rubbing at about 25 seconds.
Added 60 trochus snails 2 weeks ago and a pair of clowns about the same time. Sadly, I didn’t QT the clowns, however they have not indicated any symptoms. I know they don’t always need to in order to spread disease though. This might’ve been a grave mistake on my part and after 30 years in this hobby, I’m thinking I may lose one of my favorite fish.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

@Jay Hemdal
Thanks and see attached. At the 1 minute mark you can really see the spots. He starts rubbing at about 25 seconds.
Added 60 trochus snails 2 weeks ago and a pair of clowns about the same time. Sadly, I didn’t QT the clowns, however they have not indicated any symptoms. I know they don’t always need to in order to spread disease though. This might’ve been a grave mistake on my part and after 30 years in this hobby, I’m thinking I may lose one of my favorite fish.

Ugh, that looks like a moderate case of marine ich. The breathing is too slow to be velvet and the spots don’t match with flukes (although the scratching sure is a sign of them). Not being able to isolate all of the fish and treat with copper is going to make it tough. Polyp Lab Medic is probably your best option then.
Jay

 

[JGT]

Interesting. I, like others thought it looked more like velvet than ich. Seems the respiratory rate is a key factor. Fast=velvet, normal=ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Interesting. I, like others thought it looked more like velvet than ich. Seems the respiratory rate is a key factor. Fast=velvet, normal=ich.

Velvet often has only rapid breathing as the man symptom, with fine spots showing later on. But also, when ich reaches end stage the respiration rate goes way up. Fish dying of either disease therefore look pretty similar at the end.

Jay

 

[vetteguy53081]

Im agreeing on ich. Although a fish covered in this manner suggests velvet, the size of the trophants do not have that dust like appearance. In this case, marine Ich A/K/A Cryptocaryon irritans is best described as salt or sugar-like sprinkles on the fishs' body or fins. Sometimes the parasite can harbor inside the gills where you cant see them. Behavioral symptoms such as flashing, scratching, twitching and heavy breathing are good indicators of ich.
Other symptoms of Ich can start with fish holding their fins close to their body. Progressive symptoms include fish hanging at the surface, as though it's hard to breathe and scratching themselves on rocks. Eventually, the parasites grow large enough to be easily visible, and fish appear to be salted. The white spots may first appear on fins or gills but can eventually cover the entire body as shown in your pics.

 

[UCF Alum]

Thanks everyone for the feedback.

 

[blaxsun]

When you dose Medic, there's a 3x option that may be beneficial. I used that dosage when last treating velvet in my tank (although I understand the consensus is ich). Don't forget to remove any carbon and turn your UV off for 1 hour after dosing.

 

[JGT]

When you dose Medic, there's a 3x option that may be beneficial. I used that dosage when last treating velvet in my tank (although I understand the consensus is ich). Don't forget to remove any carbon and turn your UV off for 1 hour after dosing.

Did it work?

 

[blaxsun]

Did it work?

Yes. It didn't help "patient zero" (which was simply too far gone), but it did save a sailfin tang, two dwarf angelfish and a clownfish that were all seriously ill. It also prevented it from getting worse in 3-4 other fish and spreading through the rest of the tank. So I lost 6 fish (5 prior to treatment) but saved another 12. I was also running an oversize UV sterilizer in conjunction with the treatment (and still do to this day).