Yellow tang sensitive to copper?

[jbow50]

Hi all. I have a yellow tang in quarantine right now with a powder blue, sailfin, convict, foxface, and two clowns due to an outbreak of velvet in my dt. They've been in there almost 2 weeks and were all doing fine. Now the yellow tang is not eating the best and is breathing rapidly. Last time he was in qt he developed hlle. I'm just worried for him. All the other fish are fine. Eating and swimming actively. How should I approach this without killing my tang?

 

[Crabs McJones]

Hi all. I have a yellow tang in quarantine right now with a powder blue, sailfin, convict, foxface, and two clowns due to an outbreak of velvet in my dt. They've been in there almost 2 weeks and were all doing fine. Now the yellow tang is not eating the best and is breathing rapidly. Last time he was in qt he developed hlle. I'm just worried for him. All the other fish are fine. Eating and swimming actively. How should I approach this without killing my tang?

#reefsquad What are you offering him for food? and how much copper are you dosing?

 

[jbow50]

I'm dosing cupramine 10 drops ed in 30 gallons of water. Right now I'm still lighter than 0.25ppm of copper on a salifert test kit.

 

[jbow50]

I'm offering nori and omega kelp pellets. I'm just starting to soak them in selcon.

 

[Crabs McJones]

Is he being bullied or stressed out by any of the other fish?

 

[jbow50]

Nope everyone gets along great. If anything the sailfin pics on the foxface. The reason I'm worried is the last time I had copper in the tank the tang developed HLLE but it immediately went away when I transferred him to the new tank.

 

[Smo]

That’s a lot of fish in only 30 gal. Are you sure you don’t have an ammonia issue?

 

[jbow50]

Ammonia detector says no issues

 

[jbow50]

These are all young fish in this 40 gallon. The yellow tang is the only one having issues. The big bag in the front has a liter of seachem denitrator that has been in the qt tank for 6 months or more. Plus polyfilter in a hangon that holds several gallons of water. He hides and has sores on his mouth. I'm wondering if I should just put him in his own tank and try a different treatment for velvet. Copper is the only thing I can think of that causes this. I've heard elsewhere that zebrasoma are particularly sensitive to copper.

 

[Maritimer]

I have heard of yellows having copper issues before, though not that they're generally sensitive.

If you can get some Chloroquine Phosphate, that might be the way to go with this fish, in a separate QT.

~Bruce

 

[jbow50]

Ok I'll try my best to get some. He did eat some nori for me tonight pretty well but he has red sores on his lips and a spot above his eye is reddish. I'm not sure I have much time though.