Diseased Tang

[angel]

Today my jewel tang was covered from head to tail with white fuzz, and long strands of cobwebby material. It is not eating. There have been no recent additions to the tank, which is a 75g containing a Banggai cardinal fish and a needle-nosed hawkfish, a blue Linckia, and live rock.

Alk = 9.6
pH= 8.0
Ammonia=0
Nitrite=0
Nitrate=less than 5

Please advise as to suspected illness and recommended treatment.

Thanks.

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Say...do you see little worms sticking outside of the fish's body ? If it is, then it is most likely to be flukes. They are parasites and they can be removed by a fresh water dip. You may need to pull the worms out with tweezers if they don't die or they are too big.

The other one that sounds similar is velvet and fungi disease. Velvet looks like specks on its body...like velvet covering its entire body. This can be removed by using copper sulphate.

Fungi disease causes the who fish to be covered with a cotton ball material. I think this can be treated with copper sulphate.

BTW, how big is your tang and do you have a picture ?

- Victor.

[Daniel Schubert]

Hi.
Just be careful with adding anything to a reef tank. The majority of medication like copper will kill your life rock. The best is if you have a hospital tank that can be medicated

[angel]

The whole fish was covered with a cotton ball material. I placed it in a quarantine tank with Cupramine, but it died overnight. I really think it was a fungus infectioin.

[Dman]

Ouch, sorry about your loss. Wish I coulda helped
Dman
:spin:

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Sorry about your loss...I really didn't know what a Jewel Tang looked like until this posting and did a search for it. Very nice fish...wish I had room for one.

I would agree that copper sulfate is not something you want to add to a reef tank. Thanks for the reminder.

I am a bit worried because fungus is usually a secondary infection. In other words, something happened before the fungus took over. IMHO, I would check the water conditions and check on the other tank mates.

As a precaution, I would either borrow a UV unit and run it in the tank for a week or so. Or do some water changes and run some fresh carbon to ensure good water conditions.

- Victor.

[angel]

Victor:

Thanks for your reply - yes, the demise of the jewel tang was a real loss.

I feel terrible because I have learned that a fungus infection is the result of poor husbandry, and I am not one to neglect my tanks.

This particular tank, a 75g, housed only one Banggai cardinal, one long-nosed hawkfish, and the tang. It has live rock in it, a sump, and a good protein skimmer. I do regular testing and water changes.

Now I have observed that the Banggai cardinal has what looks like the same infection, and it is not eating. It is enough to make one consider giving up the hobby - it's so discouraging - I hate to see my fish suffer.

The only changes to the tank were the removal of the trickle filter, and the substitution of a seeded Emperor 280 filter from a healthy tank. Also, I may have fed a bit more than previously, because the tang was a bit thin; and I used Vita-Chem as well as Selcon and Kent Extreme Garlic added to the food, which I had not done before, but it is hard to tell exactly what led to the fungus infection.

I have a UV steriliser in use on another tank, but am not sure if it would be effective against fungus - I am in the process of trying to find out what works with fungus - some have said topical application of some agent - it is not easy to treat fish - although it is an essential part of fish keeping.

I have carried out a 25% water change, reduced feeding, and am running an activated carbon filter in the Emperor filter. As well, I am contacting some message boards for advice on how to deal with this problem.

Again, thanks for your input and concern.

[Aaron]

Kent sells a product, I believe is called RX Parasite, I have used it with good success in reef tanks. One thing that should not be in the tank treated with this remedy are starfish or cucumbers. Other than that I like it alot.
Good Luck
Aaron

[reefburnaby]

Hi,

Don't give up yet ! Hey...everybody has problems and the problem is probably something that you haven't considered yet.

Since this problem is spreading, its time to move all of the fish in to QT. Here's some detailed info on fungus. It seems that its a disease that most don't quite understand, but it is really interesting stuff. It also has some possible way to resolve the problem...at least treat the fish.

http://www.petsforum.com/cis-fishnet/afm/G29112.htm

Since the fungus is transmitted through spurs, the UV should wipe the transmission. The fungus is known to live on decaying matter, so it is probably in your tank. You'll need to either treat the whole tank or clean up the tank. Are you using crush coral or very coarse gravel and you haven't clean your gravel in a long time...well, that's probably one problem. Dead matter in the sand bed can cause problems.

One thing to note is that when you remove the trickle filter and added the emporer filter, your tank's biological filter may have reset and started a small cycle. This may be enough to stress the fish.

The other thing that I would suggest using is poly-filter. It is designed to soak up metals and other bad chemicals in the water.

- Victor.