Help me please

[alexmalam]

I have a yellow tank in quarantine alone, I bought two in early 2016 and they never had an issue, a couple of months ago I noticed that one of them started losing weight so I moved it to my quarantine tank, the fish kept losing weight and had no interest in food until I started dosing paraguard, it’s eating a bit but not much, I’m in my second bottle of paraguard, I have been dosing as recommended for the past 3 weeks.

Can you please help me ?
Look at the gills of the fish, they are always “too open” and something is visible outside.
Should I try a freshwater dip ? I’m afraid it will stress the fish too much

 

[vetteguy53081]

Paraguard is literally useless and ineffective
Need more symptoms as refusal to eat may signify internal issues
How is breathing (normal or rapid)
And any unusual skin issues?

 

[dedragon]

you could try a quick freshwater bath to rule out flukes

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I have a yellow tank in quarantine alone, I bought two in early 2016 and they never had an issue, a couple of months ago I noticed that one of them started losing weight so I moved it to my quarantine tank, the fish kept losing weight and had no interest in food until I started dosing paraguard, it’s eating a bit but not much, I’m in my second bottle of paraguard, I have been dosing as recommended for the past 3 weeks.

Can you please help me ?
Look at the gills of the fish, they are always “too open” and something is visible outside.
Should I try a freshwater dip ? I’m afraid it will stress the fish too much

Since you've had these fish for almost 6 years, and since the other one doesn't show symptoms, I'd say this is not a parasitic disease. Unless you've added new fish to the tank recently, that pretty much confirms that. Paraguard will not help.

What I see in the picture is a receded gill opercula, allowing the gill tissue to show. Are both sides of the fish like that? This impairs the fish's ability to breath. Did this develop slowly, over months time? Does the other tang show any similar symptoms at all?

There are two causes for this: developmental/genetic - something in the fish's past causes the gill deformity later in life. There is no cure for this. The second cause is environmental/dietary: this is more likely the case here. A nutritional deficiency, or a problem in the tank has caused the gill cover to recede. That can sometimes be corrected if you identify the cause - but that can be difficult to do.

Jay

 

[alexmalam]

Since you've had these fish for almost 6 years, and since the other one doesn't show symptoms, I'd say this is not a parasitic disease. Unless you've added new fish to the tank recently, that pretty much confirms that. Paraguard will not help.

What I see in the picture is a receded gill opercula, allowing the gill tissue to show. Are both sides of the fish like that? This impairs the fish's ability to breath. Did this develop slowly, over months time? Does the other tang show any similar symptoms at all?

There are two causes for this: developmental/genetic - something in the fish's past causes the gill deformity later in life. There is no cure for this. The second cause is environmental/dietary: this is more likely the case here. A nutritional deficiency, or a problem in the tank has caused the gill cover to recede. That can sometimes be corrected if you identify the cause - but that can be difficult to do.

Jay

As I have 8 more tangs in the display and the last fish went in more than 3 years ago it’s not something that effects the whole tank or something that got in lately.

Both sides are like this but the gills are swollen from this side, this fish got bullied by the other yellow tank for a month before I got it in quarantine.

This developed over months and no other fish has this

Since I started paraguard the fish is breathing closer to normal but it doesn’t eat right

I try to use a variety of frozen foods plus some green vegetables and a lot of vitamins to keep them healthy

Is there a chance this is gill flukes ?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

As I have 8 more tangs in the display and the last fish went in more than 3 years ago it’s not something that effects the whole tank or something that got in lately.

Both sides are like this but the gills are swollen from this side, this fish got bullied by the other yellow tank for a month before I got it in quarantine.

This developed over months and no other fish has this

Since I started paraguard the fish is breathing closer to normal but it doesn’t eat right

I try to use a variety of frozen foods plus some green vegetables and a lot of vitamins to keep them healthy

Is there a chance this is gill flukes ?

I would say, no - this isn't gill flukes. Something is eroding the operculum and flukes don't do that.

jay