Yellow Tang looking fuzzy

Brittany721 · Oct 30, 2020

This Tang started looking a little furry about 2 weeks ago. We haven't added anything new or done anything different besides starting kalkwasser. Any idea what this is? He's the only one afflicted.

Maritimer · Oct 30, 2020

My best guess would be some sort of bacterial infection ... but not one I've seen before. @Jay Hemdal is pretty much the top fish disease authority around these parts ... whatever he says . . . listen.

~Bruce

Jay Hemdal · Oct 31, 2020

Well, except I got nothing! This is the third yellow tang I've seen here in a month with similar symptoms. I've not seen this myself on any fish over the years, so I have no reference for having done a microscopic analysis to determine the causative agent.

How long have you had the tang? This white "plaque" could be viral or bacterial. If the former, nothing to do except see if it can ride it out (like fish with Lymphocystis do). If it is bacterial, your best option would be to move the fish to a treatment tank and dose with a gram negative, broad spectrum antibiotic, but I understand that is tough for folks to do.

Jay

Brittany721 · Oct 31, 2020

Jay Hemdal said:
Well, except I got nothing! This is the third yellow tang I've seen here in a month with similar symptoms. I've not seen this myself on any fish over the years, so I have no reference for having done a microscopic analysis to determine the causative agent.

How long have you had the tang? This white "plaque" could be viral or bacterial. If the former, nothing to do except see if it can ride it out (like fish with Lymphocystis do). If it is bacterial, your best option would be to move the fish to a treatment tank and dose with a gram negative, broad spectrum antibiotic, but I understand that is tough for folks to do.

Jay

Thank you for your reply. We've had the Tang for nearly a year now. It's acting and eating fine.
Is there any way to determine whether it's bacterial or viral without removing the fish and treating? Or is it kind of trial and error?

Jay Hemdal · Oct 31, 2020

No way that I know of. Even bacterial diseases are difficult to identify microscopically, usually they need to be cultured. One thing you could try: Seachem makes a product called focus. It is a binder that can be mixed with an antibiotic and some food and then fed to the fish. Sounds good except that the dose is totally uncontrolled - so you are just guessing on how much medication the fish is getting. If you do go that route, use their Kanaplex plus Focus.

Here is an article that I posted last month on medicated foods: https://www.reef2reef.com/ams/categories/fish-disease-and-treatment.11/

Jay

cc333 · Aug 28, 2023

Brittany721 said:
This Tang started looking a little furry about 2 weeks ago. We haven't added anything new or done anything different besides starting kalkwasser. Any idea what this is? He's the only one afflicted.

Not sure if your still active, but our tang recently started looking like this. Were you able to find out what it was? This is the only post I’ve seen that looks remotely close to ours.