Help to diagnose potentially sick Yellow Tang

[Hawkeye312]

I need help diagnosing what my Yellow Tang possibly has. He is a Biota captive bred Yellow Tang that I kept in a non medicated QT for 30 days before adding him to my display at the end of February 2022. The large white circles along his lateral line (apologies if not the correct way to describe location) have been there for a few months now for which I assumed was possible HLLE, and just last night I noticed the small white dots which unfortunately I think might be ich. He is eating and acting completely normal as far as I can tell. Other fish in the tank include 2 clowns, Coral Beauty, and a Royal Gramma. The Coral Beauty (added July 2022) and Royal Gramma (added Sept 2022) were also purchased directly from Biota and were held in QT for 30 days of observation before putting them into the tank. Unfortunately the clowns were my first fish and were not quarantined in any way.

Tank has been running since January 2022. Appreciate everyone's help in advance.

 

[vetteguy53081]

I need help diagnosing what my Yellow Tang possibly has. He is a Biota captive bred Yellow Tang that I kept in a non medicated QT for 30 days before adding him to my display at the end of February 2022. The large white circles along his lateral line (apologies if not the correct way to describe location) have been there for a few months now for which I assumed was possible HLLE, and just last night I noticed the small white dots which unfortunately I think might be ich. He is eating and acting completely normal as far as I can tell. Other fish in the tank include 2 clowns, Coral Beauty, and a Royal Gramma. The Coral Beauty (added July 2022) and Royal Gramma (added Sept 2022) were also purchased directly from Biota and were held in QT for 30 days of observation before putting them into the tank. Unfortunately the clowns were my first fish and were not quarantined in any way.

Tank has been running since January 2022. Appreciate everyone's help in advance.

I think these may be mucus spores from marine ich. You will want to Place fish in separate quarantine tank.
Best treatment would be coppersafe or general cure with coppersafe my choice at therapuetic level 2.25-2.5 monitored with a reliable copper test kit such as Hanna brand, not Api
Also monitor ammonia level with a reliable test kit during treatment and would not be a bad idea to add an air stone for added oxygen during treatment
You will also need to leave display tank FishLess (Fallow) for at least 6-8 weeks to assure the cysts and trophants have completed their life cycle without a host and have died off

 

[Hawkeye312]

I think these may be mucus spores from marine ich. You will want to Place fish in separate quarantine tank.
Best treatment would be coppersafe or general cure with coppersafe my choice at therapuetic level 2.25-2.5 monitored with a reliable copper test kit such as Hanna brand, not Api
Also monitor ammonia level with a reliable test kit during treatment and would not be a bad idea to add an air stone for added oxygen during treatment
You will also need to leave display tank FishLess (Fallow) for at least 6-8 weeks to assure the cysts and trophants have completed their life cycle without a host and have died off

Can I treat all 5 fish at once? Would a 20 gallon hospital tank and then a 30 gallon observation tank be large enough? Coral Beauty is only 1.5-2" and the tang is probably 3.5".

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I need help diagnosing what my Yellow Tang possibly has. He is a Biota captive bred Yellow Tang that I kept in a non medicated QT for 30 days before adding him to my display at the end of February 2022. The large white circles along his lateral line (apologies if not the correct way to describe location) have been there for a few months now for which I assumed was possible HLLE, and just last night I noticed the small white dots which unfortunately I think might be ich. He is eating and acting completely normal as far as I can tell. Other fish in the tank include 2 clowns, Coral Beauty, and a Royal Gramma. The Coral Beauty (added July 2022) and Royal Gramma (added Sept 2022) were also purchased directly from Biota and were held in QT for 30 days of observation before putting them into the tank. Unfortunately the clowns were my first fish and were not quarantined in any way.

Tank has been running since January 2022. Appreciate everyone's help in advance.

All but one of the white spots are symetrical and line up with the lateral line and facial pores. I don't see any evidence of ich (but cannot rule that out). Here is something I wrote up about epithelial thinning in these tangs:

Captive-Bred Yellow Tangs - showing HLLE? - CORAL Magazine

I've seen photographs of wild Black Tangs, taken with flash photography, where they show what looks like classic HLLE lesions, but which is simply due to the camera flash.

www.reef2rainforest.com

Jay

 

[Hawkeye312]

Thank you both for the quick responses. So sounds like best course of action right now is to keep a close eye on things and if anything changes (i.e. tang's condition worsens or starts showing other symptoms or one of the other fish show ich symptoms) go ahead and treat all of them with copper and and run tank fallow.

 

[Hawkeye312]

All but one of the white spots are symetrical and line up with the lateral line and facial pores. I don't see any evidence of ich (but cannot rule that out). Here is something I wrote up about epithelial thinning in these tangs:

Captive-Bred Yellow Tangs - showing HLLE? - CORAL Magazine

I've seen photographs of wild Black Tangs, taken with flash photography, where they show what looks like classic HLLE lesions, but which is simply due to the camera flash.

www.reef2rainforest.com

Jay

I was able to get a few more pictures tonight and wanted to make sure you still don’t see any evidence of ich.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Now I can see the smaller white spots in these photos. They seem to be too large to be ich, so could be mucus plugs. The way to tell for sure is to watch their location - if they are in the same spots for two or three days, then they are not ich. If they change location and change numbers day to day, then it is more likely to be ich.

Jay