Weird red looking stain on tang

[acropora4u]

I have had 2 yellow tangs in my reef for 2 years. No issue. Today I see one of my tangs has this odd orangish red stain on its tail. It’s acting and eating fine as always . No idea what this could be.

 

[MnFish1]

Looks like a nice tank:

1. have you added anything new fish, coral?
2. Any bullying?
3. Any other condition changes (less maintenance, water parameters off, etc)
4. Any other trauma?
5. Other fish ?
6. is the coloration on both sides?
7. Is the redness on the pectoral fins always there?

From my experience - this can happen with parameter changes (sudden pH drop, etc etc) in yellow tangs. However probably more common - and more dangerous is a bacterial infection - that can come on quite insidiously - and then cause a big problem.

Will ask the rest of the team to give more opinions. Would be helpful if you answered the questions

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal @ fishguy242

 

[vetteguy53081]

its likely septicemia which affects yellow tangs for some reason. Often its due to poor water quality and/or diet leading to vitamin deficiency in these tangs.
Up your diet and assure water quality , in particular ammonia-nitrate-salinity and PH.
Ph below 7.8 constant will also cause this. If it would worsen, two things that will work and should be administered via their foods are Nitrofurazone or seachem Kanamycin. soak the foods in these before feeding.

What test kits are you using ?

Recommended tang diet:
-Spirulina brine shrimp
- LRS Herbivore diet
- mysis shrimp
- small plankton
- Nori seaweed basted with garlic extract
- Hikari Marine cuisine
- Formula 2 flake and frozen
- Hikari veggie marine

Add selcon vitamins to the foods 2-3X per week and on alternating days, garlic extract for stamina and immunity health

I feed mine much more than this and this is what yellow tangs should look like:

 

[acropora4u]

Looks like a nice tank:

1. have you added anything new fish, coral? Added a regal angel juvenile about 2 weeks ago.
2. Any bullying? None.
3. Any other condition changes (less maintenance, water parameters off, etc) I change 25 gallons of water every week in my 250 gallon system
4. Any other trauma? None
5. Other fish ? All the fish were added at the same time over two years ago except for the new regal
6. is the coloration on both sides? Yes
7. Is the redness on the pectoral fins always there? Not sure

From my experience - this can happen with parameter changes (sudden pH drop, etc etc) in yellow tangs. However probably more common - and more dangerous is a bacterial infection - that can come on quite insidiously - and then cause a big problem.

Will ask the rest of the team to give more opinions. Would be helpful if you answered the questions

@vetteguy53081 @Jay Hemdal @ fishguy242

 

[acropora4u]

I ordered some selecon and I will start adding that to the seaweed and hopefully this goes away. Thanks for everyone’s input

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I ordered some selecon and I will start adding that to the seaweed and hopefully this goes away. Thanks for everyone’s input

Is it just on one side of the fish? If so, do you have any anemones or stinging corals?
Jay

 

[acropora4u]

Is it just on one side of the fish? If so, do you have any anemones or stinging corals

its on both sides in same place

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

its on both sides in same place

Ok, I just wanted to rule that out…coral stings can look like that, but would be on just one side in m

Septicemia is the next option, pretty common in yellow tangs. It sometimes goes away on its own, but if it spreads, you would need to treat with antibiotics in a treatment tank.

Jay

 

[acropora4u]

Tangs all better. Selcon was used

 

[Pico bam]

This happened to two of my yellow's. I think it was due to nopox and a crummy skimmer/lack of wc's. At least I stop dosing nopox and the spots went away. I could do big water changes and they'd go away also but hard to keep up on. Just thought I'd add that for people that stumble on this thread in the coming years. Could easily be water quality aswell.