Yellow Tang - Black ich?

William Glazer · Oct 3, 2017

After much reading I believe black ich is what my Tang has obtained. Any agree? Only had it for 3 days. The spots showed up sometime Monday. Was none there Monday morning. Pic is attached. It is super stressed and constantly hides. Still eating seaweed and swimming when noone is in the room.

William Glazer · Oct 3, 2017

Big G · Oct 3, 2017

Welcome to R2R! Hard to tell from the pictures. Are the little black spots "raised" and not under the skin? If "raised" probably black ich. A 5 minute Freshwater Dip to confirm the worms are present and then treatment with Prazipro is suggested by most. Watch for signs of HLLE from the stress. Feed with some vitamins like Selcon, etc.

Big G · Oct 3, 2017

Here's a link by Humblefish on Black Ich: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/black-ich-turbellarians.259912/#post-3081874

justinm · Oct 3, 2017

He looks very unhealthy. It also looks to be a bacterial infection. The second pic in your second post is concerning.

I have never personally dealt with black ich, but from the pictures I have seen, there aren't as many spots. You have so many I couldn't count.

The pictures are blurry but if it were me, I would pull the fish and place in a qt and treat with metro, kanaplex, and furan 2.

azbigjohn · Oct 3, 2017

lets see if we can get the experts in here... @Humblefish #reefsquad

Humblefish · Oct 3, 2017

First thing you need to do is FW dip him for 5 mins: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

If most of the black dots are gone following the FW dip, that means they were turbellarians and you would next treat with Prazipro: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prazipro.247598/

But as mentioned above, I suspect this fish has other problems - a secondary bacterial infection seems likely. However, for now let's address one problem at a time and reassess his condition following the FW dip. I.E. Take more photos of him post FW dip.

William Glazer · Oct 4, 2017

Big G said:
Welcome to R2R! Hard to tell from the pictures. Are the little black spots "raised" and not under the skin? If "raised" probably black ich. A 5 minute Freshwater Dip to confirm the worms are present and then treatment with Prazipro is suggested by most. Watch for signs of HLLE from the stress. Feed with some vitamins like Selcon, etc.

They are definitely raised. Almost looks "dirty". Performed the 5 min dip last night. Will provide update pics here soon.

justinm said:
He looks very unhealthy. It also looks to be a bacterial infection. The second pic in your second post is concerning.

I have never personally dealt with black ich, but from the pictures I have seen, there aren't as many spots. You have so many I couldn't count.

The pictures are blurry but if it were me, I would pull the fish and place in a qt and treat with metro, kanaplex, and furan 2.

I thought the same thing about the number of spots and especially how quickly they came up. I mean within hours.

Humblefish said:
First thing you need to do is FW dip him for 5 mins: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/freshwater-dip.248898/

If most of the black dots are gone following the FW dip, that means they were turbellarians and you would next treat with Prazipro: https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/prazipro.247598/

But as mentioned above, I suspect this fish has other problems - a secondary bacterial infection seems likely. However, for now let's address one problem at a time and reassess his condition following the FW dip. I.E. Take more photos of him post FW dip.

I had the Prazipro and salt water ready to go yesterday but decided to do the freshwater bath last night. Will provide an update with pics here in a bit.

William Glazer · Oct 4, 2017

So I have not been able to get a good picture due to the fish being stubborn and hiding. But, here is what I have observed. Right before removing the tang from the tank my coral banded shrimp was for sure picking stuff off of it. We did the dip for 5 minutes and put it back in the tank. Initially after the freshwater dip there seemed to be no progress, and there were just as many black dots on as before. I did notice before putting the fish back in the tank that with a little brushing of my finger some of it was coming off, and put it back in the tank. Today there are hardly any black dots at all. Some black still but if I could get a good view it may be possible to even count this time. But now it looks like I would suspect normal Ich to look like. I still have the mixed salt water and Prazipro so I am thinking I should go ahead and treat the tank today.