HELP! Powder blue tang gets spots!!

[phishead]

My Powder Blue tang that I have had for a couple of years has been very happy and healthy. I finally traded in a Royal Pseudochromis at my LFS and in return got a skunk cleaner shrimp. The tang and my flame angel love to be cleaned by the shrimp. They spend hours a day swimming up to him and treading water while the shrimp jumps all over them. The tang however seems to have hundreds of bumps all over his body now!!! He has never been sick and doesn't seem to be stressed. Over the course of a couple of weeks the bumps come and go. Some days he is totally clean and the next he has a few spots. Yesterday he had no noticable bumps and today he looks terrible!! I don't understand, he never had one bump before the shrimp. Is is "razor burn" is he not used to being cleaned? Is the shrimp being to aggressive? None of the other fish have a bump or spot on them.

I replaced my tank 6 months ago and added new fish then, but they were qt'd and have all shown no signs of being sick.

TIA

 

[roka64]

This sounds like ich, can you get a pic?
I would move him and your other fish to your QT and start hyposalinity. You will have to leave your tank fishless for 8 weeks, to starve out the ich.
I'm going to move this to the sick fish section.

 

[austinsdad]

The tang however seems to have hundreds of bumps all over his body now

Look up marine velvet too. Although spots coming and going sounds fishy (pun intended). Velvet kills fast, so you're probably safe there. How's the water parameters/reading? Just looking for a source of potential stress.

That pseudochromis (sp?) may have been the source of infection since you say all were healthy for years. I belive the're kinda prone. How long was it in the tank?

 

[phishead]

I know it sounds like ich or maring velvet, but every fish seemed to be healthy and this has been going on since Thanksgiving when I added the shrimp. and none of the other fish show one sign of getting sick. All the other fish have been in the tank for over six months. The pseudo was in there for years, I wanted to get rid of him but could not catch him till i completely emptied the old tank. I hesitate pulling out the fish, because I think it has to do with the shrimp. Plus, My 20 gallon QT tank is not going to hold all PBT let alone all the other fish. that would really stress them and they will all be sick.

 

[roka64]

Does the store where you bought him have diseased fish? Do you see spots on any of their fish?
Ich will not host inverts, it may be possible you got a few tomites from the LFS, swimming around in the bag they gave you.
Ich will fall off at night, generally where the fish is sleeping, once the cysts hatch (can be as many as 1000 baby ones) they will reattach to the fish and keep reproducing.
I would definitely remove the tang and treat with hyposalinity. Start soaking their frozen food in garlic extreme. That should help keep the fish's immune system boosted.

 

[melosu58]

The reason your PBT is getting it is probably because he`s stressed out. Lower immune systems will be the first to get attacked by the parasite. Read these articles

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-08/sp/index.php

http://www.reefkeeping.com/issues/2003-10/sp/feature/index.php

http://www.aquariumadvice.com/viewtopic.php?t=7

 

[phishead]

My Powder Blue shows his stress pretty well. He gets dark vertical stripes and goes crazy if something pisses him off. Anyway, He may be getting to large for the 90 gal I have him in, but he was in a 75 for 2 years and I just got the larger tank. I know that if he grows to adult size the 90 will be to small. Honestly he doesn't seem stressed.

What I was hoping to hear is that the skunk cleaner shrimp was somehow causing damage to his skin, but I guess nobody has experienced that. It seems that you all believe he has ick. It does not look like marine velvet. If I could somehow use the old 75 as a qt I would pull out all the fish for 8 weeks, but that's probably not going to happen because of space.

Because this has been going on for weeks, I am a little worried about all the fish. Has anybody used Kent MArine's product RxP? I used it before it the QT years ago, but am wondering if anyone used it around corals. It specifically says not to use it with an urchin which I will have to figure out a way to get out.

After keeping freshwater fish since childhood and this reef tank for three years now, I would use copper or hypo sal, but am VERY reluctant at putting this large fish in a 20 gal tank. That stress alone would probably kill him.

Any thoughts?

 

[austinsdad]

Can you get a picture?

 

[melosu58]

I dont believe he has velvet. I believe it`s the regular marine ick. Did you check out the articles. They have treatments on them.

 

[phishead]

Just to update you guys, I pulled the PBT out of the tank in put him in my QT. Had to remove a lot of the rock and broke off my brain coral. I didn't have any more epoxy so I propped him up in the rocks. Over the course of two days I was lowering the salinity in the QT and the PBT was starting to look better. Woke up New Years Morning and he was DEAD!!! He was the only one I removed and still 2 weeks later no spots or bumps on any of the other fish. I did put the UV back on my tank. I had removed it when I had moved and hadn't gotten a chance to put it back on. The owner at my LFS suggested old age. Says she has never heard of anyone keeping one longer than 18 months. I was coming up on 3 years, so I am hoping I was lucky after all.

Couple of days later the Brain fell over and I didn't realize it and now he has a necrosis spot and I hope I can bring it back.

I can't find my cleaner shrimp since saturday night either... Hope he is molting!

I haven't had to put this much time working on the tank in a while, and I didn't realize how easy it had become.

Since I got the qt going I am going to get it cycled and get a new fish or two. Maybe a Hippo tang and I've always wanted a school of chromis.

Anyway, thanks for all the opinions!!!

 

[roka64]

Ack! Sorry for your losses!