Disease ID on my emperor angel

[maury]

Picked up a healthy appearing, adult emperor angel last week. About 4 days ago he started with these white spot/splotch breakout. Have been feeding garlic soaked seaweed selects, but he looks a little worse each morning. Initially thought this was ich, but the large blotchy pattern has me thinking otherwise. The fish appears in no distress, and he eats ANYTHING I put in front of him. Eats right out of my hand. I have never seen a fish, in this short of a time period have no fear of my hand, and eat this well. (Feeding flakes, seaweed select, mysis shrimp, and bloodworms for now, he loves them all) I would hate to lose him. Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[irenicus]

Are you feeding him sponge/

 

[maury]

Sorry, I don't have to manually feed him sponge, as I have a largre assortment living in the tank for him to eat. He nibbles away on them a bit each day.
Like I said, he does not appear in any distress at all. Take away the splotches, and he's a perfect fish. Just wish I knew what this was, and what I can do (short of pulling and QT him with meds) to help him beat this.

 

[beth]

Is any part of his body peeling off?
Do you have a hospital tank. If so, move him to it, and begin treatment with antibiotics. Maracyn2.

 

[maury]

No, nothing is peeling off, just the hypopigmented patches on the body. I am pretty sure he has a concurrent infection with Ick, and I'm using garlic soaked foods to help there. And no, no hospital tank, though I might be setting one up tomorrow! Have an old fluval 404 I could use. For a hospital tank, it's all bare glass, right? And critters in there in LR or LS would be killed by the antibiotics/antifungals/antiparsitics, right?

 

[maury]

OK, Beth. I have set up a hospital tank, and have moved him to it. I was SHOCKED at how easy it was to catch him. I said he was a very mild mannered fish (the wife has named him 'dude' due to his laid-back attitude!), but I truly expected a major production getting this fish out of a 210 reef with 350lbs+LR and lots of fragile, stony corals. Nope, just put my finger in the tank, and the pig that he his came looking for food, and just scooped him out with the net! If it could always be this easy!!
Anyway, I have begun treatment with Maracyn-2. I am going to treat the ick with hyposalinity. So, the question, when should I make the first water change to start lowering the salinity? I figure do a small one now, another in the morning, another tomorrow afternoon, and another Tuesday morning to bring it down to 1.09 (is this the correct target?) From then on, I'll just be doing regular, iso-osmotic changed twice daily, as this is a tank with NO biofiltration, and a 6-inch fish in a 20-gallon space. It'll get dirty FAST!
Also, I also picked up some regular Maracyn. Is there any benefit to dosing this as well along with the maracyn-2?
Any other tips here would be much appreciated.

 

[maury]

Well, I don't think he's going to make it He's been in the hospital tank since Sunday, and have slowly dropped the SG to 1.009. He looked well, and was even eating earlier today. The whit patches, and the ick spots had been receding. When I got home from work today, he's on his side on the bottom. HE get ups and will swim if stimulated, but I'm trying to keep that to a minimum. The a/n/n have been near all zero for the past 48 due to the water changes, I guess he's just too sick. I hate learning a lesson on a fish that had the temperament of this one. It'll be a while until I see one like this again at the LFS. Thanks Beth for the help, you can bet I'm going to go ahead and set this tank up as a quarantine tank from now on, but I only plan to add one, maybe two more fish to my 210. This was going to be that last fish.
On a brighter note, 'lucky' the purple tang, is recovering well, the mean little

[hr]
. But like we say in the medical profession, "you can't kill crabgrass"

 

[beth]

Use the M2 at DOUBLE the dose recommended on the packaage. For 20 gal, that is 2 tabs. Hopefully, you got the M2 for SW fish, as this one has the vitB complex.
Hypo is 1.009 not, 1.09. What are you using to measure salinity? A swing arm hydrometer is not precise enough. You can use a glass hydrometer.
The fact that you were able to catch this fish so easily suggests that it was pretty sick. That temperment you assume is mild manneredness, is likely just sickness. I commonly can have sick fish laying in my hands, or trying to accept food out of my hand. Who knows, maybe they have some cognizance that we are their only hope.
The FAQ section in this Forum gives you a pretty good low down on QT. Consider this a vital part of being a marine hobbyists. I find QT actually an enjoyable part of the hobby. Not dealing with sick fish, but kind of a "getting to know your fish" period one on one...the fish gets to know you too. It is not the pain that most people precieve it to be. And the joys of success with your fish is greatly enhanced by employing QT practices.

 

[xxvietxjustinxx]

dang.. so sorry, its a beauti... i had a very nice very nice archillies tang and it looks like it has the same thing.. its like a webbing sort of thing around the body, is that what u had..?