NEW Purple Tang

[Adam Chetnik]

Hi there

Purchased a Purple Tang from my LFS yesterday.

He seems healthy, (eating/pooping/full of energy) and the LFS said he is healthy. Its been in QT for a few weeks with them.

He has some marks on one side of him. The other side seems fine and clean.

Any ideas what it is? It's like a bit of dirt. (Infection, disease, tang war wounds?)

See below, the white patches on his body and lower fin.

This side seems fine.

This image makes me think of Velvet disease, but it might just be the light on his body.

I also have a yellow tang, which is a little smaller and had a bit of a slap from the Purple's fin when he was added, see 2 small marks on him. Will these heal on their own or should I add something to help?

 

[deedubz]

@Humblefish @Big G
Given that blotchy area on the bottom fin, could this be early brooklynella? Or do you think velvet/ich with bacterial infection?

Is the fish in your dt? If so, how many fish are also in there?

If this were me, I'd start setting up a qt. You're likely going to need to dose metroplex in the water if this is brook but copper or cp if it's velvet/ich. Also, I'd want to pickup some kanaplex, furan-2, metroplex to have on hand. Bacterial infections are very common with parasites. That yellow tang will likely need antibiotics anyway. Your best bet will be to do a freshwater dip, followed by an acriflavine bath (Ruby Reef Rally or acriflavine-ms) on way to qt for the purple tang. Yellow tang should also get an acriflavine bath for a jump start before antibiotics

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/acriflavine.282887/

 

[Adam Chetnik]

Yes this is my DT, I don't have a QT.

2 x Clowns
3 x Chromis
1 x 6 Line Wrasse
1 x Royal Gramma
1 x Mandarin

+ Inverts: Cleaner Shrimp & Snails

 

[Humblefish]

The dots on the PT are either ich or velvet starting up, possibly both.

The larger white marks are probably secondary bacterial infections from the parasites: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacterial-infections.191511/

 

[deedubz]

Yes this is my DT, I don't have a QT.

2 x Clowns
3 x Chromis
1 x 6 Line Wrasse
1 x Royal Gramma
1 x Mandarin

+ Inverts: Cleaner Shrimp & Snails

To setup a qt, with that stock list, I'd recommend a minimum of a 40g. Buy an hob filter such as an aquaclear. It'll come witwith a sponge and biomax...Soak those in biospira/dr tims/etc for a few hours(this will seed qt). Do NOT use the carbon. I'd recommend a powerhead and maybe a couple airstones to keep things aerated. Heater, thermometer, and a seachem ammonia alert badge.

Unfortunately, there is no way to "manage" velvet. Even ich management is hit or miss, but mostly miss. I tried/failed myself.

I know the prospect of this really sucks, trust me..I just had to do this myself, but you will need to move with a sense of urgency. Velvet alone will wipe out a tank. Bacterial infections can bring a fish down very quickly. With both, you're in an unenviable situation. Best of luck and feel free to ask any/all questions you may have

 

[Yati]

With it in your DT only thing you can really do is increase feedings for it to combat the disease.. they're generally tough fish so hopefully your guy rebounds! Good luck!

 

[Big G]

Time is not your friend. Here's Humblefish's "Emergency Treatment for Velvet"
Note the highlighted areas - they make a huge difference in survival rates for some fish.

Emergency Treatment for Marine Velvet Disease

I recently acquired 3 fish - Longnose Butterfly, Kole Tang, Naso Tang - with velvet. None showed visible physical symptoms right away, but they all came from a tank where velvet was known to be present so I just patiently waited. Before & after pictures will follow immediately after this write-up.

In short, the Butterflyfish didn’t make it; however the two tangs did. The only difference in their treatment was I used formalin (with Methylene Blue) on the butterfly in a bath solution, whereas the tangs got acriflavine (with NO Methylene Blue). It’s also worth noting that the butterfly & Kole Tang showed symptoms the worst, whereas the Naso only had moderate visible symptoms. Tangs are also generally considered hardier than butterflyfish, so there’s that factor to consider as well. Anyway, here is the treatment I used on them:

The short version:

• 5 minute freshwater dip
• Immediately afterwards, perform a chemical bath (in saltwater matching SG/temp the fish came from). You have two options:

1. Acriflavine (preferred) - Do the bath for 75-90 minutes, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain acriflavine: Acriflavine-MS and Ruby Reef Rally. DO NOT mix acriflavine with any other chemicals.
2. Formalin - Do the bath for 30-60 minutes max, but remove the fish immediately at the first sign of distress. Aerate heavily both before & during the bath, and temperature control the water. The following products contain formalin: Formalin-MS, Quick Cure, Aquarium Solutions Ich-X, Kordon Rid-Ich Plus. Use protection (rubber gloves, face mask, eye protection, etc.) whenever handling formalin as it is a known carcinogen! However, you can add Methylene Blue to the formalin bath (1 capful per 2-3 gallons of bath water.)

• After the bath, place the fish in a QT pre-dosed at 80mg/gal using Chloroquine phosphate. In theory, copper (exs. Cupramine, Coppersafe, Copper Power) should work just as well as CP. However, due to how fast velvet can reproduce you don’t have the luxury of slowly ramping up the copper level as is normally advised. Therefore, the fish needs to be placed in a QT with copper already at minimum therapeutic levels. This is the advantage CP has over copper in this particular situation.
• While in QT, use a wide spectrum antibiotic (exs. Seachem Kanaplex, Furan-2) for the first week to ward off any possible bacterial infections. Secondary bacterial infections are very common in fish with preexisting parasitic infestations such as velvet.
• Keep the fish in CP or copper (at therapeutic levels) for one month. However, you can transfer the fish into a non-medicated holding tank for observation after just two weeks (explained below). DO NOT lower the CP or copper level before transferring.

 

[melypr1985]

The dots on the PT are either ich or velvet starting up, possibly both.

The larger white marks are probably secondary bacterial infections from the parasites: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/bacterial-infections.191511/

I agree 100% here. I definitely see ich starting up on him.

 

[Adam Chetnik]

So an update.

I went back to my LFS on Tuesday (48 hours after bringing the fish home) asking about the brown patches and white dots.

The guy who looks after marine fish was there and knew straight away what had happened.

He said, my purple tang had been put in a tank with a butterfly (Heniochus) fish and they did not get on. He showed me the butterfly fish, which has come off worse than my PT. It had most of its fins damaged and had very similar brown patches on its body. The guy had to separate them, which is why they were in separate tanks when I purchased the PT. The butterfly fish was in such bad condition, it was marked up as not for sale when they take care of him.

Interestingly, the LFS also have another PT and butterfly fish as part of the same delivery, which were also put in a tank together and also had issues. Again the PT & Butterfly fish had the same brown patches on each fish.

The LFS chap also said, when they received some new fish (including both PTs - especially tangs), they do have lots of white spots on them. He says this is 'stress white spots' and nothing to be alarmed by. Over a few weeks from when they first arrived, to now, almost all of the spots had disappeared, which happens each time. Only the new fish have these 'stress white spots'.

It's also important to note, my LFS stores the fish in one large connected tank. The fish are in sperate holding tanks, however, all of the water system is connected, making the water volume of a large tank.

If the LFS has velvet or white spot or any other disease, I would assume this tank and all of the fish would be in poor health? which they don't appear to be.

The chap at my LFS was very helpful and knowledgeable, he has owned and run fish stores before, and has his own 500 litres tank at home. He even offered to take the PT back and treat him if he does get any worse or shows any bad signs.

Its 4 days now since adding the PT to my tank and he seems in good health.

The brown patches on his body seem to be disappearing and the only white/grey semi-transparent spots on him are on his side fin.

See updated photo below under blues: - Will try and get some better photos tomorrow under whites