Name this illness, please.

rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
I bought this Goldrim Tang just about 2 weeks ago and I have noticed that he has some small growths or sores around his mouth area. in the last 72 hours, the areas have spread and there are a few more popping up on his lower fins, and also on his left fin, both on the ******** side of the fin, as well as the exterior side.
He is active, eating well and does not seemed to be stressed by this, yet.
He was going to go into my 150 but I have him currently in a 60 reef until I can figure out what to do about this illness.
No other fish seem to have it, everyone seems healthy and fine. No history of illness in any fish/or that tank. I think it must have come home on him from the pest store.
I have started a course of Metronidazole because it's what I have and I figure it can't hurt, going on 3 days now. There is some in the water, as well as I have been dosing the food and covering it up with fresh garlic. He eats well.
Here are the best photos I could get of it, I am going to get out the DSLR later today and try to get some better pictures. I just need to know what to buy, what to do to cure this and make sure that my other fish are healthy.
I do not have a QT set up, as the 60 was going to be a QT because all the critters and rock/sand were supposed to go into the 150. 150 is set up but everyone is still in 60 because they will be hard to catch, if I need to, in the 150.
Params are all normal, keep the water at around 74-79 through out the day, roughly 1.025 reef crystals salt.
Regular 20ish gallon water changes every 2-3 weeks, I also skimmer but not heavily.
I make my own food and it contains some and more of the following:
vitachem
Vitamin E oil
amino acids
coral frenzy
reef roids
cyclopeeze
PE mysis shrimp
Mysis
Ova
Fresh garlic juice (lots) and whole chunk garlic
usually some ground up seaweed paste.
I also put nori in the water column daily.
Current stock is (roughly):
1 starry blenny
2 clown fish
1 3 inch foxface
1 randalls gody
1 dusky jawfish
1 fire shrimp
1 blue porcelain crab
Various soft corals
few montis
lot of acans
feather dusters
Large squamosa clam
2 maxi mini carpet nems
1 rose bubble nem.
open brain coral
mini fugia plates.
(just incase we needed to know what all is in the tank).



The sores on the mouth appear open but the ones on the body are either different or new. They almost appear like lymph or really LARGE ich spots.
I have never had to cure a fish of anything, I am new to diseases... Can someone lay this out for me?
Regards,
Rae
 
saban2013

saban2013

Member
It seems to be an parasitic issue to me. Best I can tell. I'm suprised you don't have a smaller QT. I would suggest setting one up and getting this one in there before tankmates contract this. I will do some more research in my library of fish books and get back with you on this. At the least, pick up a 20 gallon or so and get him in it. Hopefully you can get some clearer pics soon.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
That looks like aggression to me. Also, the 2nd picture there seems to be ich-like spots. Are those spots on the fish, or something else?
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
There is no aggression going on in the tank. The stock list is above and he is by FAR the biggest fish in the tank. The next biggest is like a 2-3 inch fish. Also, I would think that other fish would show signs of aggression. There is not. I am home all the time and watch the tank all day, no aggression. There are other growths starting on the tang... And he does not have any fin nips or anything else...
When I bought him, he already had a small spot on his face... I bought him with a VERY small spot on his face. He was in a medicated tank and I know the guy who owns the store. He had gone through a week and then some of medication. When I bought him, he looked like he was well healed. The small spot was the size of a pen head. It was not open and he was healthy and looked great... now not so much. It's my fault for risking it but it doesn't mean that I don't want to try to get him better.
I don't think it is a parasite. It doesn't look like one at all and if it were, I feel like the shrimp would clean him. He hangs out right next to the shrimp, who cleans every other fish, but the tang has not been cleaned once. Plus, as stated above, I have been giving courses of metronidazole which would cover any anaerobic parasites. If it were external, I feel like the shrimp would be on that.
Also, there are no signs of ich. I know what ich looks like, this is not ich. The spots on his face are not ich. They are just spots on the fish, in his complexion. They are smooth and grey, may just be abnormalities in his coloring, I do not think this is related to the disease. Either way, it's not ich.
After some research I am thinking that maybe it is a mouth fungus? It is heavily concentrated in the mouth area and seems to be spreading in the area. Also, mouth fungus is bacterial and it apparently spreads to other fleshy parts like fins- - ulcers can be gray in color and range from an ulcer to an open crater like wound. This is what is happening to him... I feel that this is more probable than just saying that it's something typical.
I don't mean to sounds like I'm being rude, clearly if I knew what I was talking about, I wouldn't be here. However, just saying that's it's the 3 typical things that we all see in most tanks... well, I know what that stuff looks like and I wouldn't waste anyones time (including mine) asking about this. It's called google and I could have found that myself. This is not a disease that I have ever seen. Whatever this is, it's not something that I can just find on google. I've tried.
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
I had already taken a look at those threads that are at the top of the disease area.
Lympho was the only thing that I could come up with out of those diseases/pictures.
I am just struggling with whether to leave him alone and not stress him, and hope he gets better.
if it's not lympho and I don't treat (thinking it's lympho), he will also get worse. I am not really able to determine whether it is or isn't.
 
beth

beth

Administrator
Staff member
Just ready your QT in the event that a transfer is need. See if you can locate Maracyn Two for Saltwater fish. This is an antibiotic, but only can be used if the fish is in a cycled QT.
If you have a shrimp that is cleaning this fish, he may have ripped off the diseased tissue around the mouth making this look more like a wound rather then what we usually see as lympho.
 
rlablan

rlablan

Active Member
It appears that whatever is going on, it is bacterial.
I have been using erythromycin as a food soak and it appears to be helping a LOT.
No negative effects as far as I can tell. The sore around the mouth has healed and is drastically smaller. The nodes on the side fin are not open but they have turned from grey to pink. I am not sure what that means.
Water quality is optimal, as I am doing water changes daily, of 5-10 gallons. I think today I may do 20 gallons just to be safe.
Since I did not have a QT properly set up, I did not want to risk killing or further stressing the fish by moving him and also putting him in poor quality water.
Instead, I opted to use the erythro as a food soak and treat the whole tank.
If, in fact, it was a bacterial infection, other members of the tank and the tank itself could be tainted.
After some delving into the internet, I have found that MATURE REEF tanks are able to dose erythro with luck and have little to no side effect. It's completely reef safe but for the fact that you will lose some of your beneficial bacteria. With this in mind, after you have rid the tank/fish of the disease, and a series of water changes, your bacteria population will grow back fairly quickly after a two week period, based on several university studies.
Thanks for all of the thoughts and responses to this thread. I will keep it updated so that it can be used as a record for those who are looking for documentation/pictures. (I had a hard time finding anything that remotely matched my searches...)
 
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