Help!!! Powdered Blue Tang has unknow disease!

[anthphun]

Hi everyone! I just got my Powdered Blue whose about 6 inches and started with some small white flake like protrusion on his head. He also has a white protrusion on one side of his body. I tried various treatments from API general cure to Kick Ich which hasn't work so far. It has now been a week and the tang has gotten worse. Can anyone identify this illness? Please help!!!!!

[rluix]

Hi everyone! I just got my Powdered Blue whose about 6 inches and started with some small white flake like protrusion on his head. He also has a white protrusion on one side of his body. I tried various treatments from API general cure to Kick Ich which hasn't work so far. It has now been a week and the tang has gotten worse. Can anyone identify this illness? Please help!!!!!

Ok, first, tell us what equipment you use, tank dimensions, how big is it, food you use, how long has the tank been running? did you cycle?
It doesn't look like anything i have seen before , but it will be easyr to tell if we get those informations first, as they could be an important factor.

[Parrothead]

Post a thread in marine fish care, leebca is our resident fish doctor here and he should be able to get you going in the right direction, I'll see if I can catch a mod, and get your thread moved there.

Welcome to reeflands

[zhenya]

Hi anthphun,



I moved your thread to more aproppriate forum that deal specifically with the problems of fish desease and finding solutions to problems like what you are having with your poweder blue surgeonfish. Hopefully
Lee checks in today and replies to your thread. He's online at least once a day as far as I know.

Good luck with your fish!

[anthphun]

Ok, first, tell us what equipment you use, tank dimensions, how big is it, food you use, how long has the tank been running? did you cycle?
It doesn't look like anything i have seen before , but it will be easyr to tell if we get those informations first, as they could be an important factor.

Hi, I have a 110 gallon tank that has a sump with skimmer and 200 mg ozonizer. The tank has about 300 lb of live rock that has been in the system for more than two years. It has fully cycled. I make about a 20 gallon water change each month with filtered Catalina Natural Salt water and therefore have not added any suppliments. During the medication phase, I had turned off my skimmer and ozonizer.

Just today I notice a couple of more white dots next to the bigger protrusion on the body.

[anthphun]

Hi anthphun,




I moved your thread to more aproppriate forum that deal specifically with the problems of fish desease and finding solutions to problems like what you are having with your poweder blue surgeonfish. Hopefully
Lee checks in today and replies to your thread. He's online at least once a day as far as I know.

Good luck with your fish!

Thank you Gene.

[anthphun]

Post a thread in marine fish care, leebca is our resident fish doctor here and he should be able to get you going in the right direction, I'll see if I can catch a mod, and get your thread moved there.

Welcome to reeflands

Thanks Robert.

[rluix]

Hi, I have a 110 gallon tank that has a sump with skimmer and 200 mg ozonizer. The tank has about 300 lb of live rock that has been in the system for more than two years. It has fully cycled. I make about a 20 gallon water change each month with filtered Catalina Natural Salt water and therefore have not added any suppliments. During the medication phase, I had turned off my skimmer and ozonizer.

Just today I notice a couple of more white dots next to the bigger protrusion on the body.

Monthly water change? that sounds a bit small,but that depends on your bio load other than that i see no other problems with your tank equipment, etc.

Hmmmm.... this is a difficult one, i never saw this disease

[leebca]

How did you 'just got' this fish? Did you acquire this fish through mail order or through a store, LFS? You should take it back to the place you got it from, or deal directly with them to get a new fish or a refund. If it was a gift because it was ill, the decision to take it was very wrong.

Curing this fish may not be possible and it will be very expensive. It will need to be handled by a veterinarian with access to prescription drugs and then, may not recover.

So, tell us more about where you obtained it and make arrangements for its return.

[anthphun]

How did you 'just got' this fish? Did you acquire this fish through mail order or through a store, LFS? You should take it back to the place you got it from, or deal directly with them to get a new fish or a refund. If it was a gift because it was ill, the decision to take it was very wrong.

Curing this fish may not be possible and it will be very expensive. It will need to be handled by a veterinarian with access to prescription drugs and then, may not recover.

So, tell us more about where you obtained it and make arrangements for its return.

Hi Lee,
I purchased this fish from someone who bought it directly from the wholesaler. I don't think returning it will be an option. I had already purchased more then $50 worth of medication for the fish. What are my options if I do not go to a veterinarian? Do I need to euthanize the fish?

[anthphun]

Hi Lee,
I purchased this fish from someone who bought it directly from the wholesaler. I don't think returning it will be an option. I had already purchased more then $50 worth of medication for the fish. What are my options if I do not go to a veterinarian? Do I need to euthanize the fish?

Currently, the fish swims freely without any struggle. Do you think this is a parasite or some type of fungus? Will it affect my other fish?

[leebca]

Sorry to hear of this. You have been given a bit of a bum rap being stuck with this fish. I'd say you were cheated. Please don't buy fish you haven't yourself picked out. If you must buy mail order fish, at least choose a reputable source that offers guarantees.

The fish is going to be deformed for a long time or life. Only you can decide if you want to keep this fish or not. I refer you to this post: Euthanasia -- Putting a Marine Down

The alternative is a combination copper, formalin, and FW dip which the fish might not live through. That is, the fish might not live through the treatment and even then will still be disfigured.

The condition is biological and can spread to other fish by fish-to-fish contact. Like all fishes, this fish should have been quarantined before being put into your display -- especially considering the source doesn't care about their health.

The procedure is to setup and get going a quarantine tank: A Fish Quarantine Process. Every day doing this increases the chances other fish will be infected or the condition on the fish will get worse. Using water from the display tank is okay to begin with, but from then on you'll need large and frequent water changes to control organic, ammonia, and nitrite wastes.

When that is ready, transfer the fish to the QT and on its way there, give the fish a FW bath. You'll follow these guidelines:
Freshwater Dip for Marine Fishes
and
It Was Acclimation, I know. . .

Once the fish is in the QT, you'll treat the water with Cupramine and test it for copper content daily using a Salifert or Seachem Copper Test Kit. You'll follow the directions that come with Cupramine.

Once the copper level is up in the range it should be, you'll then be doing Formalin baths on the fish. You take the fish out of the QT and put it into a bath of Formalin for the time indicated. Then you put the fish back into the QT. You repeat the Formalin treatment every other day for a total of 5 treatments. You'll follow these guidelines: Formalin Treatment - Marine Fishes

One last option is to do nothing. The fish might survive this, harm others in the tank that might also survive this. If the fish is properly nourished (which most hobbyists don't do).

The bottom line is that the identification of the problem should be done professionally. There are too many obscure conditions which display just as you see. With professional diagnosis, the cure is better and specific.

[anthphun]

Sorry to hear of this. You have been given a bit of a bum rap being stuck with this fish. I'd say you were cheated. Please don't buy fish you haven't yourself picked out. If you must buy mail order fish, at least choose a reputable source that offers guarantees.

The fish is going to be deformed for a long time or life. Only you can decide if you want to keep this fish or not. I refer you to this post: Euthanasia -- Putting a Marine Down

The alternative is a combination copper, formalin, and FW dip which the fish might not live through. That is, the fish might not live through the treatment and even then will still be disfigured.

The condition is biological and can spread to other fish by fish-to-fish contact. Like all fishes, this fish should have been quarantined before being put into your display -- especially considering the source doesn't care about their health.

The procedure is to setup and get going a quarantine tank: A Fish Quarantine Process. Every day doing this increases the chances other fish will be infected or the condition on the fish will get worse. Using water from the display tank is okay to begin with, but from then on you'll need large and frequent water changes to control organic, ammonia, and nitrite wastes.

When that is ready, transfer the fish to the QT and on its way there, give the fish a FW bath. You'll follow these guidelines:
Freshwater Dip for Marine Fishes
and
It Was Acclimation, I know. . .

Once the fish is in the QT, you'll treat the water with Cupramine and test it for copper content daily using a Salifert or Seachem Copper Test Kit. You'll follow the directions that come with Cupramine.

Once the copper level is up in the range it should be, you'll then be doing Formalin baths on the fish. You take the fish out of the QT and put it into a bath of Formalin for the time indicated. Then you put the fish back into the QT. You repeat the Formalin treatment every other day for a total of 5 treatments. You'll follow these guidelines: Formalin Treatment - Marine Fishes

One last option is to do nothing. The fish might survive this, harm others in the tank that might also survive this. If the fish is properly nourished (which most hobbyists don't do).

The bottom line is that the identification of the problem should be done professionally. There are too many obscure conditions which display just as you see. With professional diagnosis, the cure is better and specific.

Thank you Lee for your help. When I came home from work yesterday I had found the fish on the bottom of the tank. Lesson learned.

[leebca]

Very sorry.

I feel for you and your loss. I know how I feel.

One thing I'd like to add, but it isn't to make you feel worse, believe me. It's this. When a fish source gets to stick a hobbyists with a sick fish, they win -- they unloaded a 'bad fish.' This encourages them to accept sick fish from their exporter which in turn will accept sick fish from the collector, OR the exporter is just willing to send sick fish to the wholesaler that have gotten ill while in their holding tanks. In this scenario, you see, we all suffer.

As hobbyists we must refuse to accept poorly treated, injured, and/or sick fish. It sends a message backwards that they can't be sold or even given away. Please utilize the post which took me days to write up: Is The Fish Healthy?

I wish you good luck.