ID illness

[btackerman]

I have a very large regal and for the past 2 weeks he has had these white specks on home and a hole under his right eyes. I did have stray voltage for about 10 min 3 weeks ago but I don’t see him getting better.i though it was ick or another parasite but he is the only fish with this and he is not rubbing the sand or rock. I did ask my lfs and a few others and advice I was given is until I know for shire, do not tear up my rock work and catch him( I have a 400 gallon tank) due to that may make things worse and kill him since he cannot turn around in my qt. Any ideas?

 

[Redfoxtang]

That is defiantly ich and with the smaller spots it could be a mixture of Ich and Velvet. I would definitely try and pull him out a give a 5 min FW bath and then into the QT ready with a copper treatment. How big is QT?

 

[Trembz]

The size of the spots look like ich, the amount of spots resembles more like velvet. Either way your best overall solution will be to pull him out and QT him unless you wanna treat your whole display which cost more $$$ and ultimately can screw up a few things if you keep more than a fowlr

 

[btackerman]

10 gallons

 

[Trembz]

Oh and definitely keep an eye out for your moorish idol in the next few weeks regarding spots and signs now as they aren't the hardiest of fish in any way .

 

[btackerman]

Oh and definitely keep an eye out for your moorish idol in the next few weeks regarding spots and signs now as they aren't the hardiest of fish in any way .

That is one of the few fish I do have a concern about, I have a few more tangs and angles that where not in the picture but it has been 3 weeks with a healthy apatite and no one else is showing signs. I also cannot treat the tank due to my softies and bta and when I tried to catch him he darts off.

 

[Redfoxtang]

I would see if you can find a bigger QT on Craigslist, letgo, or even Petco as they might be on sale for a $1 a gallon. But as of now I would pull the Blue tang and get him in treatment as soon as possible.

 

[btackerman]

Would a 30 gallon brute trash can work as a qt? And any tips on how to catch him?

 

[SaltyT]

If you do pull your tang out and treat him for ich/ velvet he’ll likely catch it again as soon as you put him back in your display if you don’t go fallow. Blue tangs are highly susceptible to external parasites and now your display has them

 

[btackerman]

If you do pull your tang out and treat him for ich/ velvet he’ll likely catch it again as soon as you put him back in your display if you don’t go fallow. Blue tangs are highly susceptible to external parasites and now your display has them ☹

So is it best to see if he can fight it off anot not stress my other fish to much?

 

[Redfoxtang]

I was thinking a QT a little bit bigger because as stated above if all fish are not removed from tank this is pointless. Leaving this tank fallow is a must.

 

[btackerman]

I’ll be completely honest, there is no way I could afford another system larger enough to house 20 fish and 3 are over 8” in length. Is velvet a 100% death guarantee? I have never encountered it before only ick a few times and that was it

 

[SaltyT]

You can pull the tang, treat him, then re-home him and accept that you won’t be able to have tangs anymore if you take your chances with disease management or you get the biggest QT tank you can and treat all fish and leave the tank fish less for minimum 76 days. Totally sucks, I know, I’ve been there.

 

[Trembz]

Would a 30 gallon brute trash can work as a qt? And any tips on how to catch him?

It'll work for now, if you see him stressing you can even get a large Rubbermaid bin from Walmart for like 20$ that'll hold you over for a bit. Problem with that is you don't see inside the bin from the side. Also ALL your fish with require treatment now as they've been exposed to it for 2 weeks +. Symptoms or not. Even if they develop some immunity any newcomer in the tank will more than likely break out .

I've had success catching large tangs by hanging a piece of sea weed off the glass but way up near the surface... be prepared and once the tang/fish are going hard at the piece of sea weed you quickly scoop it up with a large net (the bigger the better). If your quick they don't see it coming .
Otherwise remove all rock and then replace it.
Again though, treating all fish is strongly recommended if some how possible.

 

[Trembz]

You can pull the tang, treat him, then re-home him and accept that you won’t be able to have tangs anymore if you take your chances with disease management or you get the biggest QT tank you can and treat all fish and leave the tank fish less for minimum 76 days. Totally sucks, I know, I’ve been there.

Problem is it may not be just tangs he's limiting himself to, it may be all new comers regardless of species.. unless he wants a 400 gallon full of clowfish?

 

[Trembz]

I’ll be completely honest, there is no way I could afford another system larger enough to house 20 fish and 3 are over 8” in length. Is velvet a 100% death guarantee? I have never encountered it before only ick a few times and that was it

If it's absolutely 100% velvet you'll definitely have some casualties with 20 fish if untreated .

 

[Redfoxtang]

I’ll be completely honest, there is no way I could afford another system larger enough to house 20 fish and 3 are over 8” in length. Is velvet a 100% death guarantee? I have never encountered it before only ick a few times and that was it

Velvet is a quick killer when not treated and is almost an instant killer. Ich you can manage. If it’s velvet your clock has started. Anyway you can get some clearer pictures of the blue tang?

 

[Trembz]

If you check out a thread of mine "chloroquine phosphate in display" I recently went through something similar to what your describing. It didn't end well tbh. Symptoms we earily similar with a new fish in a large system.

 

[SaltyT]

Problem is it may not be just tangs he's limiting himself to, it may be all new comers regardless of species.. unless he wants a 400 gallon full of clowfish?

Totally agree, especially if it’s velvet.

 

[btackerman]

Velvet is a quick killer when not treated and is almost an instant killer. Ich you can manage. If it’s velvet your clock has started. Anyway you can get some clearer pictures of the blue tang?

I tried to get some better pictures and here is what I got