Is my yellow tang okay?

AmandaRaeJean · Sep 24, 2016

hey guys, just noticed my yellow tang has some red rash on him. It doesn't appear to slow him down, and he is still eating strong and swimming good. he is too difficult to catch to put him in quarantine tank.

he is currently in my 265 saltwater tank with 3 clowns, trigger, dogface puffer, sand blenny, algae blenny, foxface, and a variety of snails and stars. the tank is established and the water parameters are: nitrate 0, nitrite 0, ammonia 0, and ph is between 7.8-8.0 .... salinity is 1.024 which is usually where I try to keep it at.

not sure what happened but I don't want it to get worse or lose him. I feed him green seaweed on a clip, and the frozen mysis shrimp cubes.

Here is a picture of what he is looking like right now.

Sistawolf · Sep 24, 2016

@Humblefish @melypr1985 can help you out

melypr1985 · Sep 24, 2016

looks like an infection. You can feed antibiotics like kanaplex coupled with focus by seachem but it will be slow. You may have to take him out for QT and meds delivered in the water column. But you can try feeding it to him first. once a day for a minimum of 10 days and could be much longer.

AmandaRaeJean · Sep 24, 2016

Thank you. I will try that and see how he does.

Humblefish · Sep 24, 2016

Just to be sure about something, he hasn't recently been transferred from one tank to another? Or your DT had a recent swing in salinity?

Sometimes YT will suffer red streaks due to acclimation stress. There is more info on the subject and even a photo of a YT with this phenomenon here: http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/disease.html

Elementalj · Sep 25, 2016

Humblefish said:
Just to be sure about something, he hasn't recently been transferred from one tank to another? Or your DT had a recent swing in salinity?

Sometimes YT will suffer red streaks due to acclimation stress. There is more info on the subject and even a photo of a YT with this phenomenon here: http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/disease.html

I was gonna say he looks like a fresh "relocation".

Is he a healthy eater?

DeniseAndy · Sep 25, 2016

Any of those others bullying him? Could be stress related infection. My yellow tang is now the bully in my tank, but took year plus.

I hope he does okay for you.

Humblefish · Sep 25, 2016

DeniseAndy said:
My yellow tang is now the bully in my tank

This is why I hate YTs. Never known a nice one.

Elementalj · Sep 25, 2016

Humblefish said:
This is why I hate YTs. Never known a nice one.

OMG, the pushin' and a shovin' never seem to stop. [emoji13]

AmandaRaeJean · Sep 25, 2016

Humblefish said:
Just to be sure about something, he hasn't recently been transferred from one tank to another? Or your DT had a recent swing in salinity?

Sometimes YT will suffer red streaks due to acclimation stress. There is more info on the subject and even a photo of a YT with this phenomenon here: http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/disease.html

I wouldn't say he was recently transferred. I mean he was moved from my 75 gallon to the 265 about a month a

Humblefish said:
Just to be sure about something, he hasn't recently been transferred from one tank to another? Or your DT had a recent swing in salinity?

Sometimes YT will suffer red streaks due to acclimation stress. There is more info on the subject and even a photo of a YT with this phenomenon here: http://chucksaddiction.thefishestate.net/disease.html

I would say he has been in the new tank about a month or so. He is a very healthy eater. The link that you posted Humble did not seem to work or load properly. The only culprit I can think of that would be bullying him would be foxface. They seem to be on top of each other all the time given the fact they have the ENTIRE tank to swim free. They choose to be on top of each other fighting sometimes. No recent swings in salinity either. It does seem to be going away a little bit. I have heard that Melafix is a good all natural bacterial infection helper if caught early. Thoughts?

Humblefish · Sep 26, 2016

@AmandaRaeJean OK it sounds like you're dealing with a bacterial infection then. You have 4 options (in order of preference):

QT the fish and treat with this combination of meds: Kanaplex, Furan-2, Metroplex. At the very least you'll want to use Kanaplex or Furan-2 antibiotics.
Food soak Kanaplex as outlined by @melypr1985 above. However, this approach typically works better on internal infections than external ones.
Dose Melafix in either a QT or the DT. IME; Melafix sometimes works to reverse minor infections, but I haven't had much luck using it for moderate to serious ones.
Do nothing and hope the fish's natural immune system will remedy the problem without any outside assistance.

Elementalj · Sep 26, 2016

What he said [emoji115][emoji1611]

AmandaRaeJean · Sep 28, 2016

I have been using the Melafix as directed on bottle, and he is doing better. The red is going away. Hopefully once all dosages are done, he will be good to go! Thanks for the help guys.