HELP!! Sick Tang!!

[Mutz]

I came home from work today and found my yellow tang had a reddish rash all over the rear of his body and he's swimming kinda funny. He just keeps darting back and forth and then hiding. This morning when I left he was fine and had all of his bright color - now he's pale and rashy. Nothing has changed in my tank - no new additions in the past month or so, and the tang was added about 2 or so months ago. All of the rest of my fish are fine. I last tested the water a week ago and everything was perfect. It was also about a week ago when I did my last water change. I'll test the water again in a few minutes. I have attached a photo....what can I do to help him?!?!?!

 

[Mutz]

A few hours later, the tang is swimming normally and eating fine. He's showing no symptoms of being stressed or sick by his actions....other than the fact that he's got the nasty "rash".

 

[steve-s]

The red "rash" area is most likley a mild bacterial infection. These can often be cleared up by a few decent water changes. I would do about 3-4 10-15% changes over the next 2 weeks. The tang also looks like it may have the onset of HLLE (although it does look plump ) so make sure you fortify it's food with some Selcon and ensure it gets lots of spurlina based herbavor foods.

If the red streaking does not improve after a few water changes and the inproved feedings you may need to quarantine and treat with an antibiotic. Be sure not to use antibiotics in the main tank. You will destroy the bio filter.

Cheers
Steve

 

[roblikesfish]

aww poor tang // I hope he gets better

 

[Mutz]

OK the first water change is scheduled for tonight and I'll also go out and buy some selcon.

Do you know if HLLE is contagious? I can't find any info. indicating that it is. Just wondering if I have to worry about the rest of my fish.

 

[Hara]

it is not contagious as far as I know. Just an end product of an incorrect diet and some feel, stray voltage.

 

[Guest]

Totally agree with Hara and Steve-S on this one... I don't know if you are feeding quality greens or not, but you may want to see if your LFS has some Caulerpa for sale and feed it to the tang, to get it on track to a healthy diet. Then purchase some good NORI to supplement the diet... I hope it gets better...

 

[Mutz]

The only voltage near my tank is the light fixture which sits on top of the tank - there are no wires near the water....and also my 2 heaters. Wouldn't he have shown signs of this earlier (a few months ago) if stray voltage were the cause? Is there anything I can do to detect whether this is the cause?

I feed him two kinds of flakes (TetraMarine Marine Flakes and Ocean Nutrition Formula 2), brine shrimp, romaine lettuce and seaweed. Can you guys reccomend specific foods that you think I could use other than these? He eats lots and lots of lettuce and seaweed every day. I will go to my LFS tonight and find some Selcon...but other than that - got any suggestions?

 

[steve-s]

The foods you list are actually not that bad. I would skip the brine completely as it is not very nutritional and adds nothing but problems to the water quality. With the water changes and addition of the Selcon, you should see possitive results soon.

As far as stray voltage is concerned, any electrical fixture that comes in contact or within a few inches of the tank can be a source. Believe it or not, lights are usually the biggest culprit if only a few inches from the water line.

Cheers
Steve