Dark Blotches on Tomini Tang

sman200788 · Sep 2, 2020

Hey gang.
This Tomini Tang is a rather recent addition, inside the last 3 weeks. He arrived after going through my LFS's QT process and they had him in the display for about a week. He was eating great and showed no abnormal signs. Upon addition he settled right in and has been here for almost 3 weeks. He eats like a pig and is constantly wandering the tank picking at the rocks. He is a tiny bit aggressive, but nothing I didnt expect. Overall, settling in wonderfully.

4 days ago he had a couple of marks on his left side, they almost looked like bite marks. Not terrible, but the skin was lighter colored and the marks were reasonably round. I monitored for any overly aggressive behavior be we didnt see anything. Fast forward, he has looked like this as of yesterday AM. Not sure whats up, I have not seen any issue like this before.

Ideas?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 2, 2020

Could the radiant wrasse have nipped it, and then that developed into a generalized bacterial infection? If it doesn’t stabilize, you would need to move it to a QT and treat with antibiotics.
Jay

sman200788 · Sep 2, 2020

I would guess it would be more likely my melanarus, he can be quite boisterous and is almost 6in long. Kind of the king of the tank...

The big blotchy area is likely bacterial? That was kind of my thought...

sman200788 · Sep 2, 2020

I have been reading about Ruby Reef Rally Pro...

I think I may order some to have on hand. Do you think that would be a good option if we dont see improvement in the next 24-48hours?

sman200788 · Sep 4, 2020

I started Ruby Reef Rally Pro last night. Only ill effects I see at this point are my GSP island seems irritated and is fully closed up. All the other softies, LPS, and my 1 birds nest seem fine. So all in all not bad....assuming it works.

I finally found a local dealer that had Focus and Kanaplex in stock, so I may start that tonight depending on how things look. Is it safe to do the Rally Pro with Focus/Kanaplex?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 4, 2020

Well, I have some fundamental issues with using Ruby Reef Rally Pro in a reef tank. My understanding is that it is acriflavine and formalin. Unlike most other "reef safe" meds, those two compounds actually do have some real data behind their efficacy. Trouble is, I worry that the dose is designed too low (to keep the corals safe) for it to have much effect against severe disease.

Then, Focus/Kanaplex in the food is an OK idea (don't dose the tank water) however, the dosing is pretty much just a guess, and that also worries me: many aquarists try to soak their fish food in medication and then feed that to their fish. The trouble is that this can never really work. Oral fish medications are always dosed on an “as fed basis”, usually milligrams of medication per kilogram of fish biomass. In the case of soaking food in medication; the amount of medication per gram of food is unknown, as is the weight of the fish, and so is the amount of food being fed. With that many uncontrolled variables, a proper dose simply cannot be formulated.

Jay

sman200788 · Sep 4, 2020

Ill try and post some updated photos tonight when I get home from work.

Should I be trying to net him at this point and prepare him for a dip or move to QT? If everyone else continues to look OK at this point is there any need to worry about whatever it is spreading?

Jay Hemdal · Sep 4, 2020

sman200788 said:
Ill try and post some updated photos tonight when I get home from work.

Should I be trying to net him at this point and prepare him for a dip or move to QT? If everyone else continues to look OK at this point is there any need to worry about whatever it is spreading?

Well, this is very unlikely to spread to another fish. If the lesion isn't getting larger on this fish, you might just want to wait. If you dip it, consider that a diagnostic tool to see if it has flukes (which it could) but know that that won't help this particular issue.

Jay