Help!! Powder Blue tang!!

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

Help!! My powder brown tang that I have only had for 3 days is laying down and now on his back but still breathing. What do I do? Is it to late for him?

NeuroticAquatics · Mar 20, 2017

What are your parameters? How do other fish look?

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

Everyone else left in the tank look great! However, we did just remove a queen angel that looked like it had ich....

Rory's Reef · Mar 20, 2017

Pictures help if you can get them

#reefsquad may be able to help, but they'll need more information

Do you QT your fish? If the angel really did have ICH then everyone in your tank has it.

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

No....we did not QT for very long. Can you suggest way to treat? I have copper and the ich treatment. Do I just treat the whole tank?

GHsaltie · Mar 20, 2017

I second the need for pictures. Have you noticed any odd behavior such as scratching, head twitching, swimming into the flow of a powerhead, hiding excessively? Same questions apply to the angel as well. You say the angel had ich, how quickly did it come on? Is it being treated or did he pass? Did it look like large grains of salt or more like fine sugar?

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

No to all of the above questions concerning behavior for the tang. As for the angel she was fine I noticed a few fine sugar dots. Only because they stood out when the light hit her just right. I just noticed the spots today on her. I think she had 3-4 spots.

domination2580 · Mar 20, 2017

Any odd behavior? Was your angel covered in spots or more of some here and there? What was your qt procedure?

GHsaltie · Mar 20, 2017

It is highly recommended that copper treatment be done in a QT, as it is not reef safe and rock/substrate can absorb the copper then release it at a later time making it difficult to keep in within therapeutic levels. You will also need the corresponding test kit for the copper. What brand do you have?

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

GHsaltie said:
It is highly recommended that copper treatment be done in a QT, as it is not reef safe and rock/substrate can absorb the copper then release it at a later time making it difficult to keep in within therapeutic levels. You will also need the corresponding test kit for the copper. What brand do you have?

Okay. We started the copper in the QT Tank. The brand is cupramine. I do have the test kit as well

GHsaltie · Mar 20, 2017

KTaylor said:
As for the angel she was fine I noticed a few fine sugar dots. Only because they stood out when the light hit her just right.

Did you notice any pale or discolored patches? How is the angel now? Maybe someone else will have better inclination but I am very suspicious of velvet in this situation.

Can you get some pictures of the angel for us please?

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

domination2580 said:
Any odd behavior? Was your angel covered in spots or more of some here and there? What was your qt procedure?

Just a few here and there. To be honest we have never QT it's more of an long acclimate period.

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

GHsaltie said:
Did you notice any pale or discolored patches? How is the angel now? Maybe someone else will have better inclination but I am very suspicious of velvet in this situation.

No pale or discoloration for the angel. She is acting fine, eating, swimming.. I just noticed spots.

NeuroticAquatics · Mar 20, 2017

What are your parameters?

GHsaltie · Mar 20, 2017

Going off the assumption that you have ich or velvet it would be best if you could move the tang to QT. He might also benefit from a freshwater dip, here's a link to help you with that. https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/ That will help give him some temporary relief. The therapeutic range for cupramine is 0.35-0.5 and you will want to ramp it up slowly. You can use either seachem or salifert's test kit for cupramine, I'm assuming that's what you have? Also here are links for ich, velvet, and some pic IDs that might help you some.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/ich-cryptocaryon-irritans.191226/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/velvet-amyloodinium-ocellatum.217570/
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/fish-disease-index-pictorial-guide.285708/

@Humblefish @melypr1985 @Brew12

GHsaltie · Mar 20, 2017

Also keep in mind that if you have either ich or velvet, all your fish have been exposed and will need to be put in QT for copper treatment and the display left fallow for 76 days in order to completely get rid of the parasite.

Hopefully one of the big wigs will pop in soon to help you out.

KTaylor · Mar 20, 2017

I'm waiting for my husband to get home to be able to check parameters. Tang is gone.... I will be ding my best to figure out what happened so it doesn't happen again. I have also learned my lesson to QT. Thank you for your responses.

tj w · Mar 20, 2017

I'm sorry about your PBT. Welcome, by the way. We're glad you're here!

Brew12 · Mar 20, 2017

KTaylor said:
I'm waiting for my husband to get home to be able to check parameters. Tang is gone.... I will be ding my best to figure out what happened so it doesn't happen again. I have also learned my lesson to QT. Thank you for your responses.

I'm sorry you lost your fish. Those are truly a beautiful species.

You are going to need to keep a very close eye on the rest of your fish. Without knowing why the Tang passed it is safe to say that the rest of the fish in your system have been exposed to the same pathogen. You need to be ready to treat everything in the tank when you notice warning signs. I doubt this was Ich, it typically doesn't kill this quickly. That would be more symptomatic of Marine Velvet which could have been the powdery spots you observed.

These parasites tend to work on open swimming fish like Tangs and Angels before they impact fish with thicker slime coats like clowns or blennies.

Humblefish · Mar 20, 2017

It sounds like your tank has either ich or velvet. Either way, I highly advise QT'ing all your fish, treating them with copper and going fallow in the DT for 76 days.

If you like, I can move this thread into the fish disease forum for more attention.