Yellow tang with red lips. Breathing fast

[reefz]

So my gorgeous yellow tang has had this weird bacterial infection for a whole week. His lips are stuck open and are very red. He’s breathing pretty fast too. I have actually had this problem before with another tang, and I treated my whole system with melafix and it went away almost immediately. Ive now been treating him with melafix for over a week and he’s only getting worse. All my other tangs have 0 problems. I don’t know what to do other then what I’m already doing. I cant lose this fish ): I love him to much. Can someone help?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Oh wow - your yellow tang has some major systemic problem going on, Melafix won't help with that. The rapid breathing is a sign of serious gill disease or anemia. The fish also looked a bit thin to me, but then, when it turned sidewise I could see that it is severely emaciated, possibly to the point of no return. What happens is that fish begin using their liver for energy when they get really thin. At some point, the liver damage is just too great for them to survive.

Is it still feeding?
Are all of the other fish in the tank breathing normally and have good weight?
How long have you had this tang?

Jay

 

[reefz]

Oh wow - your yellow tang has some major systemic problem going on, Melafix won't help with that. The rapid breathing is a sign of serious gill disease or anemia. The fish also looked a bit thin to me, but then, when it turned sidewise I could see that it is severely emaciated, possibly to the point of no return. What happens is that fish begin using their liver for energy when they get really thin. At some point, the liver damage is just too great for them to survive.

Is it still feeding?
Are all of the other fish in the tank breathing normally and have good weight?
How long have you had this tang?

Jay

So what do I do? What’s the treatment?
He was eating yesterday but isn’t eating today which makes me worried. Every other fish in the tank is doing very good, no one is breathing fast. I have about 30 gallons of rodi that I can do a water change if that helps. Seriously what should I do…

 

[reefz]

Oh wow - your yellow tang has some major systemic problem going on, Melafix won't help with that. The rapid breathing is a sign of serious gill disease or anemia. The fish also looked a bit thin to me, but then, when it turned sidewise I could see that it is severely emaciated, possibly to the point of no return. What happens is that fish begin using their liver for energy when they get really thin. At some point, the liver damage is just too great for them to survive.

Is it still feeding?
Are all of the other fish in the tank breathing normally and have good weight?
How long have you had this tang?

Jay

Also to answer your other question, I’ve had this yellow tang for about 6 months. He’s done great until now

 

[reefz]

Kinda still need help

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

So what do I do? What’s the treatment?
He was eating yesterday but isn’t eating today which makes me worried. Every other fish in the tank is doing very good, no one is breathing fast. I have about 30 gallons of rodi that I can do a water change if that helps. Seriously what should I do…

Well, unfortunately, if I’m correct in my assessment of liver damage, just like in people, there is no real way to treat it (aside from transplants).

The diseases we can best treat are ones that involve external infectious organisms…and this doesn’t have the symptoms of that, very sorry.

Jay

 

[reefz]

Thought I’d come back and update this thread on the yellow tang. He has now fully recovered and is healthy as ever. I really don’t know what caused it in the first place but am glad it’s gone now. I really couldn’t find anything online with other people that have had the same problem. So I kind of had to use my imagination to cure him. What I did was move him to an separate 60 gallon system that I always have running in case of an emergency, without copper. He was alone so I could medicate. I did some research on different meds that could cure something similar to what he had. Everyone said to use melafix, which I did for over 2 weeks but had 0 success with. I ended up buying seachem metroplex and kanaplex. I did the recommended dose. I combined these two every dose. And within 2 days he began eating again. He would not touch any flakes or nori I would give him, so I bought rods foods, and soaked it in vitachem for a very nutritious frozen food. He ate like a pig after I started feeding him that combo. After 2-3 weeks of treatment, he was back to his healthy normal. Hopefully someone can find this if they have a similar problem with their tang.