Lavender Tang with unknown injuries/disease

Gridlock · May 5, 2023

Hello,

My new Lavender Tang is dying, and I'm trying to figure out what happened. Fish is a juvenile, made it through QT and was eating well, or so I thought.

30-day quarantine, treatment with PraziPro. After 30-day QT, has been in main display for about a week. All was fine last night, but found near death today.

There are white marks that seem like a disease, or possibly abrasions. She likely won't live long, but I would like to learn and attempt to do better.

----

Notes - Current Livestock:
Main DT is in living-area and I watch each evening. I have not seen any aggression, but I admit it doesn't mean aggression isn't happening.

In Tank for 1+ year:
- 2 Clownfish
- 1 Diamond Goby (white/orange diamonds)
- Yellow Blenny (gentle and plays well with others)
- Yellow Watchman Goby with Pistol Shrimp - They keep to themselves
- 4 Emerald Crabs
- 2 Red Shrimp

New additions:
- 12 Blue/Green Chromis
- 1 Sailfin Tang (purchased with Lavender and were QT'd together) - Have been friendly so far, but perhaps had a fight during the night?? Unknown.

----

Tank Info
Aquarium type: Reef
Aquarium water volume - 100 Gallon DT with 20 Gallon Sump (120 Gallon Total)
Filtration type - Filter Pads, Skimmer, Refugium with Chaeto
Lighting - 2 LED bars (Current USA), 4 T5 bulbs (retro kit)
How long has the aquarium been established? - 1.5 years
Digital image of the aquarium under white light

Tank Params:
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0.5
Alk - 8.1

Do these marks mean anything to you? Perhaps bite marks, or a fungus? It does not appear to be Ich or Velvet, but I'm not expert.

Thanks for any advice.

fishguy242 · May 5, 2023

#fishmedic

Jay Hemdal · May 5, 2023

Gridlock said:
Hello,

My new Lavender Tang is dying, and I'm trying to figure out what happened. Fish is a juvenile, made it through QT and was eating well, or so I thought.

30-day quarantine, treatment with PraziPro. After 30-day QT, has been in main display for about a week. All was fine last night, but found near death today.

There are white marks that seem like a disease, or possibly abrasions. She likely won't live long, but I would like to learn and attempt to do better.

----

Notes - Current Livestock:
Main DT is in living-area and I watch each evening. I have not seen any aggression, but I admit it doesn't mean aggression isn't happening.

In Tank for 1+ year:
- 2 Clownfish
- 1 Diamond Goby (white/orange diamonds)
- Yellow Blenny (gentle and plays well with others)
- Yellow Watchman Goby with Pistol Shrimp - They keep to themselves
- 4 Emerald Crabs
- 2 Red Shrimp

New additions:
- 12 Blue/Green Chromis
- 1 Sailfin Tang (purchased with Lavender and were QT'd together) - Have been friendly so far, but perhaps had a fight during the night?? Unknown.

----

Tank Info
Aquarium type: Reef
Aquarium water volume - 100 Gallon DT with 20 Gallon Sump (120 Gallon Total)
Filtration type - Filter Pads, Skimmer, Refugium with Chaeto
Lighting - 2 LED bars (Current USA), 4 T5 bulbs (retro kit)
How long has the aquarium been established? - 1.5 years
Digital image of the aquarium under white light

Tank Params:
pH - 8.0
Ammonia - 0
Nitrate - 0.5
Alk - 8.1

Do these marks mean anything to you? Perhaps bite marks, or a fungus? It does not appear to be Ich or Velvet, but I'm not expert.

Thanks for any advice.

The blanched areas aren't too numerous, so if they are parasites, they aren't really enough of them to be the root cause of the issue (yet). External fungal issues are almost unheard of with marine fish. The spots could be abrasions, possibly from aggression (the sailfin?).

Did you run any anti-protozoal like copper during the QT?
Is the fish breathing fast?
Had the fish been feeding well up until now?

Jay

vetteguy53081 · May 5, 2023

I’m glad Jay can see as it’s difficult to tell with fish out of water

Gridlock · May 5, 2023

Jay Hemdal said:
The blanched areas aren't too numerous, so if they are parasites, they aren't really enough of them to be the root cause of the issue (yet). External fungal issues are almost unheard of with marine fish. The spots could be abrasions, possibly from aggression (the sailfin?).

Did you run any anti-protozoal like copper during the QT?
Is the fish breathing fast?
Had the fish been feeding well up until now?

Jay

Hello, and Thank You for the response:

Answers:
- Copper/Anti-Protozoan during QT? - No, I did not run Copper during QT. Perhaps I should have, but that ship has sailed.

- Is the fish breathing fast? - Yes, fish is breathing rapidly. Approximately 4-5 breaths per-second. (judging by gill movement). Fish is on its side in an isolation chamber, and near death (assuming).

- Has fish been feeding well until now? - Yes, fish was feeding nicely. Was active in tank and grazed normally. The DT has some minor hair-algae on rocks to pick at. I also replenish a strip of Nori each morning to ensure plenty of food, plus nightly frozen shrimp/spirulina cubes, which I've seen this fish eat. Seemed to be doing quite well until this morning.

I have read that Sailfin Tangs can be quite aggressive towards other Tangs, and I knew that was a risk. The 2 Tangs (Sailfin and Lavender) were in the same QT tank together for 30 days. They seemed to get along well in QT. In DT over last week, they followed each other around and seemed to be non-aggressive and buddy-buddy. However, that may have been a false sign, and I fear this Lavender Tang was attacked during the night. No way to know, of course, because I did not witness it.

Thank you again for the reply. Feeling sad, but want to improve and learn for the future.
Thank you.
~Nate

RedoubtReef · May 5, 2023

bummer. One of my favorite tangs.

Gridlock · May 5, 2023

Update:

Lavender Tang just passed.

Too late for this one, but I am still interested in any thoughts on the cause. I'm no expert, but I suspect aggression; fish was probably attacked during the night.

Thank you all for your responses.

Sincerely,

~ Nate

Jay Hemdal · May 5, 2023

Gridlock said:
Hello, and Thank You for the response:

Answers:
- Copper/Anti-Protozoan during QT? - No, I did not run Copper during QT. Perhaps I should have, but that ship has sailed.

- Is the fish breathing fast? - Yes, fish is breathing rapidly. Approximately 4-5 breaths per-second. (judging by gill movement). Fish is on its side in an isolation chamber, and near death (assuming).

- Has fish been feeding well until now? - Yes, fish was feeding nicely. Was active in tank and grazed normally. The DT has some minor hair-algae on rocks to pick at. I also replenish a strip of Nori each morning to ensure plenty of food, plus nightly frozen shrimp/spirulina cubes, which I've seen this fish eat. Seemed to be doing quite well until this morning.

I have read that Sailfin Tangs can be quite aggressive towards other Tangs, and I knew that was a risk. The 2 Tangs (Sailfin and Lavender) were in the same QT tank together for 30 days. They seemed to get along well in QT. In DT over last week, they followed each other around and seemed to be non-aggressive and buddy-buddy. However, that may have been a false sign, and I fear this Lavender Tang was attacked during the night. No way to know, of course, because I did not witness it.

Thank you again for the reply. Feeling sad, but want to improve and learn for the future.
Thank you.
~Nate

Sorry that this fish is likely lost, but now you need to go into damage control mode - in case it does have a gill parasite that might transmit to other fish - watch them carefully for signs of rapid brteathing over the next week or so.

Jay