So I come home from work and..

[Taylor]

My chocolate tang of over a year is beat all to hell. Like he just battled 14 other fish. Eye is cloudy, chin is marked up, fins extremely tattered all over. But, no other fish really has damage. The coral beauty has a little mark but that injury could not be all that come from a tang fight twice it's size. Now I'm worried that my favorite and most long awaited fish I've ever had is in deep crap and not going to eat. Does this look like fighting damage? Stuck in a crevice and panic injury? Or sudden onset of disease. He/she was fine 24 hours ago.

Mature tank with stable params.

 

[redfishbluefish]

That doesn't look good. What other fish are in the tank? And what are your tank parameters?

Let's get some more eyes on this:
@Humblefish , @melypr1985 , @4FordFamily , #reefsquad

 

[Flippers4pups]

That doesn't look good. What other fish are in the tank? And what are you tank parameters?

Let's get some more eyes on this:
@Humblefish , @melypr1985 , @4FordFamily , #reefsquad

Agreed. What other fish do you have and what's been added lately?

 

[KJ]

Hi is looking bad. @Brew12 @HotRocks

 

[Flippers4pups]

@Taylor, can you QT at this moment? You will most likely need to get him in one soon.

 

[Taylor]

I added a single flame anthias 2 or maybe 3 weeks ago and some nas snails that I had in a QT bucket for like 2 months alone. Alk and pH, temp and salinity are all stable. Have been for awhile, trying to make sps sticks happy. He is the biggest fish. It's just weird because it looks like an attack. He has abrasions on his belly/chin as well

 

[HotRocks]

Do you have other tangs?

Have you recently added anything "wet" to the tank?

If it's brook it could come on as fast as you are seeing.

 

[HotRocks]

I added a single flame anthias 2 or maybe 3 weeks ago and some nas snails that I had in a QT bucket for like 2 months alone. Alk and pH, temp and salinity are all stable. Have been for awhile, trying to make sps sticks happy. He is the biggest fish. It's just weird because it looks like an attack. He has abrasions on his belly/chin as well

Was the Anthias QTd?

 

[Taylor]

Clown pair, aggressive to some fish. Purple tang, half his size. All has been great since day one and he not a scratch on him. Coral beauty, royal Gramma, lyretail anthias pair, Midas blenny, yellow Coris wrasse, female flame wrasse, small c. Flasher. Bit crowded but this is out of nowhere. I was I'm The process of removing the anthias and angel. I bought one of those fancy traps just have not assembled

 

[Taylor]

She was. I didn't treat for anything but flukes. She wouldn't eat really and I attributed it to belong alone in the glass box. In the main tank she spits out alot but is on week 5 and not starving. I second guessed my decision after adding her but everything was going smoothly

 

[Flippers4pups]

How big is your tank?

 

[4FordFamily]

It’s hard to tell but if you didn’t treat for ich they likely have it or velvet

 

[HotRocks]

Can you take some pics with all whites and post?

It's got to be either injury or brook/velvet IMO. Pics in whites may help detrmine one or the other.

I keep 7 tangs. Size doesn't really matter when it comes to fighting in my tank. Purple tangs can be very aggressive. I wouldn't rule that out yet.

 

[saltyhog]

As fulminant as this was I would be worried about velvet for sure.

One other thought, I had a purple tang that killed a Gold Rim tang twice his size. Looking at all the vermited snails I wonder if he could have been chased by the purple into the rocks several times? Those snails are pretty sharp and hard.

 

[Tft12]

Definitely not saying this isn’t disease but just one little FYI anecdote. I’ve had tangs live together happily for an extended period and then one, a smaller yellow tang, absolutely shredded the fins pretty terribly of its tankmate (a larger black tang). I would expect that if something like that was happening though your chocolate tang wouldn’t be allowed out of a corner at the moment. How/what is the purple tang doing now?

 

[Taylor]

You do or you don't throw chemical's in when you don't see any signs? It seems to go both ways. A fish dies in QT during ick treatment "did you see ich on him?" " No". "Then that's why he died you treated 4 no reason". That argument can't be won. I don't believe I introduced anything in the tank.

I put fresh nori/selcon on the clip and he has been venturing to pick at it this evening. I am preparing a 20% water change rn.

 

[Taylor]

It is of my opinion Currently based on the marks on the body that it is damage from a fish or decor. Typically the purple tang dominates a cave and the chocolate tang dominates his space and usually when the mimic tang wants through, he gets what he wants. Normally those two tangs quarrel less than any other fish. The purple tang is cool as a cucumber at the moment even when sharing nori with the mimic. But my tank is on the edge of uncomfortable which is why I am moving fish out and replacing some reef saver with pukani to help open it up while providing territory.

 

[Taylor]

I was hoping for someone to agree but it's always right to the most serious disease. If that's the case then he is a gonner because there is no way he is being trapped anytime soon. It will know. I have a QT up and cycled but it will be of no use if it's a serious disease. and I hate those snails or feather duster which ever they are. They have given me to many pricks.

 

[Tft12]

Here are my thoughts on aggression vs disease from looking at your pictures:

In favor of disease:
Cloudy eyes (but could be from a physical eye injury only, or a physical eye injury followed by infection, or no eye injury and only infection).

In favor of physical damage from fighting:
Fins at the caudal end of the fish are damaged but pectorals look ok (tail slapping with another tang looks like this, but disease could always cause his too). Because the tattered fins look “clean” without inflammation I would lean towards physical damage, but I definitely wouldn’t say that infection isn’t a possibility here.
Body doesn’t appear to have a film on it.

Which is it? I don’t think anyone could tell you with certainty.

You mentioned something like “can’t win that argument” in your previous post. There’s a million situations like that in the hobby. In the end, develope your own philosophy based on logic and your experiences, because with many things people can get pretty vehement on both sides of a number of topics (I personally prefer prophylactic copper at a safe and measured dose in qt because that’s what my experiences have indicated is best, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to argue against it). Maybe this fish is about to die from an infection but it could be saved if you move it to qt. Maybe at this point it’s already very sick and the stress of moving it will polish it off. Maybe it just had one big fight and things will be nice and settled for a year.

A case could be made for doing nothing and a case could be made for taking action.

Lastly you mentioned not being able to catch it. For me it’s been really easy to catch fish by making the room completely dark and using a red led head lamp. I’ve actually had fish swim directly into a net. The only way I could see his not working is if your tank is full of large SPS colonies that you would break by moving a net around there.

Good luck.

 

[Taylor]

Well I just witnessed what may be the problem. He just absolutely went berserk when the dog went by. He is crammed now on a crevice I cant fully see him and I doubt he would normally try to fit. He banged the rocks a half dozen times in 2 seconds. Very unusual behavior I must say. I am very concerned. Sudden onset of shyness? Just finished 20%wc