Blue tang dying

[Fastpitch]

I have had so little luck with blue tangs. I first thought my blue tang was suffering from HLLE. But now it is clear that he has something far more aggressive. No nitrates/phosphates, 1.023 salt, 8 pH, high quality food with selcon/zoe, no carbon, no voltage. Symptoms: hiding, loss of appetite, hang out by the infow, unlevel swimming and above all faded color. Treated the tank with Prazi on thursday, but it has not helped. Probably to late to save him but I need to know what is killing him.

I dont think it is ich or marine since he is not showing any spots. Any ideas?

 

[alysak6075]

What else is in the tank? Anyone picking on it? Is it rubbing up on rocks at all? High quality food as in what kind? Flake, pellet, seaweed, some other type of nori?

Do you actually see it eating?

whats the temp too?

 

[Dj City]

Swimming into the flow of the return is usually an indication of flukes and or ick.

Pics might help.
Pics of the tang and of your whole tank.

Good luck.

 

[Fastpitch]

What else is in the tank? Anyone picking on it? Is it rubbing up on rocks at all? High quality food as in what kind? Flake, pellet, seaweed, some other type of nori?

Do you actually see it eating?

whats the temp too?

I feed it all....Hikari Pellets, seawead flakes, Rods food, mysis. No one picking on it, no injuries, no flashing. No eating anymore. Its doomed. But want to learn from it and it is depressing because I cant figure it out.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Pictures will help us help you!

 

[Fastpitch]

Swimming into the flow of the return is usually an indication of flukes and or ick.

Pics might help.
Pics of the tang and of your whole tank.

Good luck.

Definately not ich. No spots. That is why I treated with prazi. Maybe the prazi did not work. No clue

 

[Fastpitch]

Pictures will help us help you!

Let me see if I can take some....

 

[Big G]

The symptoms you describe could be velvet. It can and usually does first attack within the gills unseen. View the fish at an angle with a flashlight. Look for a dusting on the skin.

 

[John Genmel]

what does flashing mean? how would you catch tang to quarantine? kinda going thru the same thing

 

[NowGlazeIT]

I agree with big G. It’s hard to find a comment from him where we don’t all agree hahah. Swimming into flow/Powerhead are key signs of velvet.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

what does flashing mean? how would you catch tang to quarantine? kinda going thru the same thing

Removing the rock they use to hide behind will help. If you don’t have a clear box to catch them in, then use a net. guided with your hand when you left them out.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

what does flashing mean?

Flashing is when a fish uses surfaces to scratch themselves with.

 

[Fastpitch]

 

[Fastpitch]

The best I could get is above. Note that the spotting in the pi

cture are just bubbles trigger by the Prazi and Skimmer. His head is faded but also the body and the black stripes are faded as well. Usually his rear fin is pointing upwards.

 

[Marco S]

You should shut the skimmer off when using Prazi and that picture is way to blurry to see much of anything besides the fact that it is a Blue Tang. It is never too late to save a sick fish until it is actually dead. Try getting a clearer picture and hopefully someone can diagnose and make recommendations.

I will say that I have 5 Tangs currently that made it through QT and have been in my DT for over a year happy and healthy, but I have bought 9 total. 4 of them died in QT. 1 died of Velvet, 2 died of HLLE accompanied by a bacterial disease and one died of a combination of ICH and Flukes. All of them had Flukes though, (including the ones that survived). You may want to try a freshwater dip to see if any Flukes fall off.

Also, I have had Flukes that survived Prazi twice so I threw my bottle out and used General Cure. Not saying anything bad about Prazi, but the bottle I had may have been compromised by weather conditions during shipping. I have heard that it is supposed to have a pinkish tint, but mine did not so I assume it was bad. Either way, General Cure worked good for me.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

The skimmer is good to oxygenate the water just don’t allow it to skim or it will strip the Medicine from the water. He does look to have marine velvet. @Big G

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Ich, Velvet, Brook, Uronema - Microscopic ID

BIG THANKS to Dr. Charlie Gregory for providing these slides/videos. His website can be found here: https://www.aquaveterinarian.com Marine Ich (Cryptocaryon irritans) Marine Velvet Disease (Amyloodinium ocellatum) Brooklynella hostilis Uronema marinum Also see: Taking a skin...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[xxkenny90xx]

Blue tangs and powder blues are so disease prone and stress prone (especially small ones) that I won't just go and buy one anymore. I ask the lfs to hold it for as long as possible so I can make sure it's healthy and eating and after 2 weeks to a month I'll take it home. That's just my recommendation for you for the future.

 

[NowGlazeIT]

Blue tangs and powder blues are so disease prone and stress prone (especially small ones) that I won't just go and buy one anymore. I ask the lfs to hold it for as long as possible so I can make sure it's healthy and eating and after 2 weeks to a month I'll take it home. That's just my recommendation for you for the future.

I believe my housing conditions are better then a lot of my LfS. I work on building back the immune system the fish has struggled to uphold during all the stress of handling. Just my .02

 

[Marco S]

Blue tangs and powder blues are so disease prone and stress prone (especially small ones) that I won't just go and buy one anymore. I ask the lfs to hold it for as long as possible so I can make sure it's healthy and eating and after 2 weeks to a month I'll take it home. That's just my recommendation for you for the future.

I agree 100% if you do not QT your fish.

Every single Tang I have bought had some disease. They all had Flukes, 3 had Velvet, most had ICH and two had HLLE and Bacterial disease. If I had not QT'd them they would have all died and killed my whole tank by now.