Powder Brown Spots (Video)

Xavier434 · Feb 9, 2021

I got a Powder Brown 4 days ago. It seemed to be doing very well until this morning. Eating fine, swimming everywhere, etc. Then this morning I noticed a bunch of dark spots all over him which were not present as of 9pm last night. I took a video this morning which you can view below. I am looking for diagnosis and treatment options.

Additional facts:

All other fish, coral, etc in the tank appears normal.
No other visible symptoms or changes in behavior with the Powder Brown (yet).
190 gal with sump. Established for over 1 year.
Salinity, ORP, PH, and Temp are all normal. I will be running all other tests and posting their details soon.

Reefer5640 · Feb 9, 2021

Following

Xavier434 · Feb 9, 2021

Update:

The Tang has not eaten at all today unlike the prior days and now I am seeing several white spots which look to me like ich. I am going to be trying to soak some food in garlic in attempt to make it more appetizing.

Also, my tank parameters are below.

Calcium = 530
Alkalinity = 9.2
Nitrate = 70.0
Phosphate = 0.21
Magnesium = 1600
Salinity = 1.025
ORP = 275
PH = 7.86
Temp = 77 degrees

My phosphates and nitrates are very high which I am currently working on as of today.

Reefer5640 · Feb 9, 2021

I was going to say a lot of fish get blotchy like that when they are stressed. I didn’t know what to blame it on when you said he seemed to be acting normal. Are any of the other fish messing with him to cause further stress? Do you have a pic of the newly developed white spots?

Xavier434 · Feb 9, 2021

The root cause of the symptoms probably is stress due to tank mates. I got a purple tang that has been a bully especially for the first 24 hours (he does this with most new fish), but after that he calmed down a good bit. The Purple tang has not caused any physical damage, but he was rushing the brown tang a lot. I just do not know what else to do. I am keeping Nori on my clips constantly, but I cannot force him to eat.

I can try to get a good pic or video of the spots tomorrow.

Jay Hemdal · Feb 10, 2021

Hi, that looks like a physiological reaction to parasites. The fish not eating means the infection is moderately advanced. Trouble is, I couldn't see clearly enough to tell if it is Cryptocaryon (ich) or trematodes (flukes).

If it is flukes, you could dose the tank with Prazipro. If it is ich, well, that is going to be an issues since there are really no reef safe ich infections that work on moderate cases.

Jay

Xavier434 · Feb 10, 2021

Unfortunately, I found the tang dead this afternoon. I do wish I knew whether or not the issue was stress induced or if the fish was sick when I purchased him.

Reefer5640 · Feb 10, 2021

Sorry to hear that. That sucks. For what it’s worth those can be hard fish to get established. In my experience the Acanthurus genus (especially the powders) are very finicky. I wasn’t able to keep one alive longer than a year until I started running an ich eradicated systems and taking quarantine pretty serious. I do know people that have powders & Achilles in an ich management system and have been able to keep them alive for longer than a couple years but I think it’s more common for them to not survive in those conditions than it is that they do. I also think getting a super healthy specimen and introducing into the tank in optimal conditions (ie: allowing to establish its territory and eating consistently without getting bullied) are both key to getting them to survive in an ich management system. Sorry again you lost your tang