Raised scales and heavy breathing yellow tang?

[Ocelaris]

So I have 7 tangs and a blue throat trigger in quarantine and the last two days that I got the copper power up to 1.75 (read with a Hanna checker) the yellow tang has started breathing fast and has some raised scales? Salinity is 1.20 and ammonia badge is clear. He lost some fin a while back, but has been active as the other fish until recently. I have almost all medicine on hand, but a Hippo tang in the 110, so the yellow tang would have to be separated if it needed cp.

Can I dose antibiotics with copper or is it better to do separate? I have a 40 breeder if I have to separate the yellow tang.

Thanks

 

[Big G]

The loss of coloration is troubling. Has the tang had a freshwater dip to check for flukes?

 

[Ocelaris]

I've had him for 2 years, but he went through a temporary tank where he lost some fin. But he went through quarantine with prazi before. So I am leaning on some sort of bacterial infection? I just did a water change yesterday, but I could increase the frequency from once a week.

 

[Big G]

Bacterial infection is where I was leaning. The most gentle would be a 60- 90 minute bath in Ruby Reef Rally. It has both antiseptic and antibiotic qualities. In the QT, the next step up would be a dose of Kanaplex, or Furan2, or Suflaplex, or NFG. For really nasty bacterial infections we like to use the Trifecta of Kanaplex + Furan2 + Metro. This covers a very wide spectrum of bacterial infections and is actually mild for a treatment. Just lots of water changes.
As always good high quality live or frozen foods and nori with vitamins will help the fish's immune system to recover. In particular, Zoecon for tangs has many of the fish's natural vitamins from sponges, etc. that really help.

 

[Ocelaris]

Thanks, I have kanaflex, furan2 and metro, but can I dose in copper or do I have to remove the copper? Also they're getting live black worms and lots of nori,a variety of pellets and frozen. I'll add some vitamins to the next set of pellets I put in. Thanks!

 

[Big G]

You can dose antibiotics for bacterial infections while while fish are in a QT with copper. The only one NOT to use while in copper is Sulfaplex. That being said, the risk to the fish's immune system and organs increases when you mix copper with antibiotics. So it's best to not mix if possible. When treating for velvet or a bad case of Ich, you don't have a choice.
Here's a great posting by @Humblefish on this topic. Hope it helps a bit. Beautiful fish.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/the-bacterial-infection-predicament.310311/#post-3816129

 

[Ocelaris]

Thanks, I'm going to give him another day and do another water change. I've read others having skin irritations from copper, so I'm thinking it has to do with the level just getting up to 1.75, which corresponds with his skin irritations. No one else seems to be affected, so I'm going to monitor and see. He's fat and healthy other than the irritations, but he's been with me a long time, so he/she has a great amount of sentimental value.

 

[Big G]

Yes, the skin irritations can happen from copper with some fish. Usually you see some smallish lesions and often some scratching by the fish responding to the irritation.

 

[Ocelaris]

So the yellow tang continues to not eat and has heavy breathing, so I started spectrogram tonight and we'll see how he does. I'm still at 1.75 with copper power. He's still quite "full" or healthy, but I can see he's not having a good time of it. I just did a water change yesterday and I'll do another after 3 days. Cross my fingers. I turned on the extra air stone and have a decent sized tunze 6095 hitting the surface.

 

[Big G]

Kanaplex + Furan2 is my go to for unknown illnesses like this. And that is what Spectrogram is so its a good move. Best of luck.

 

[Ocelaris]

Question, I only have 2 doses worth of Specrogram, should I get more (may not be here in time), or can I switch to a furan2/kanaplex/metro for the third dose? Also should I dose Metro with the Spectrogram? Thanks in advance.

 

[Frtdrmrose7]

Did all of this start after he went into copper? I’m asking because some fish can be sensitive to copper and start having some serious issues from it.

 

[Ocelaris]

probably, but none of the other fish have had issues. He also had some fin degradation from poor conditions, so he might have been fighting off an infection. If the spectrogram doesn't help I'll move him to another tank and do cp, but he needs to be with his tang brethren to get into the chain of command...