Any ideas?

[lynxpilot]

Moved all livestock to hospital tank due to blue tangs having ich. Initially moderately low salinity with chelated copper treatment. Later diluted with PWC's (daily) to get rid of copper and switch to hyposalinity. Hospital tank currently at 1.010 SG. I don't monitor any other chemistry because I'm doing PWC's so often.

Flame angel went into hospital with no symptoms. Developed small white spot on head just above eye which progressed to what you can see in the photos.

Any idea what it is? I don't see any parasites. No reason to believe it was injured in the move either. Currently no other companions in hospital tank.

I'm baffled.

 

[melosu58]

First things first. Either treat your fish with copper or hypo but you can not do both. That`s a disaster waiting to happen. Kudos for moving to a QT. Best way to treat them. I would go with hypo for a tang. I really dont think they react to copper that good.
As far as the viral problem on the flame angel Read this

Lymphocystis Disease of Fishes, by Dr. Adrian Lawler

Anybody else think any different? It maybe could be fungal. LA says about fungal infections "True fungal infections appear as whitish tufts of cottony material, usually secondary to other infections."

 

[Innovator]

Does look to be lymphocystis. Is it hard? What is the texture? There is no active cure for lympho except maintaining high water quality, feed a varied and nutritious diet, and it should eventually wither away.

 

[lynxpilot]

Copper killed the tangs. That's why I was switching over to hypo.

I wish I could've provided a better photo, but those two are the best of about 10 I tried. Might be a camera limitation or maybe photographer limitation. The injured area itself looks like the exit wound of a gunshot. The scales and skin are more or less exploded out and it appears to be quite invasive. I'd seen photos of nasty isopods munching away on fish, but on this I couldn't see any riders. The angel is still in the QT. If I need to get it back to the DT, please let me know, otherwise I'll just try to feed it as best as possible and ride it out.

 

[Innovator]

Scroll down to lympho here and see if this matches: Marine Fish Diseases and Parasites

 

[lynxpilot]

I'd already seen that link and yes, it's the closest thing they show there, but there's still some ambiguity. If it clears itself after a while, I'll be more than pleased. I actually like this little guy. He has been a good tank mate to the other ones and is a beautiful species to boot. Hope he clears up.

thanks for the points.