Red blotches on yellow tang.

[kenny]

My yellow tang gets this a couple of time s a year. No other fish have any problem. My water tests fine. Temp is 80. It's a red area on his side on the rear half of it's body but It will show up as red streaks and spots elsewhere if I allow it to continue untreated. I usually Q/T and treat with MARACYN-TWO and in about 5 days he's ready to go again. My question is: Is there something I can do to prevent this problem, and am I treating it correctly. Thanks

 

[beth]

I've seen this a lot on yellow tangs; and it may be common to tangs in general but it is noted more on the yellows because of their solid light color. You are doing the right thing.
What type of tank do you have and what are the water readings? It has been my observation that tangs have very low tolerance of nitrate in the water. What is your nitrate level?When your tang gets this problem, you might try doing a water change first, before going to the M2 treatment.

 

[kenny]

It's a tall 90 gal. tank. I just did a carbon and floss change yeterday and my water was at zero nitrate. I've been useing tap water till recently but have changed over to D/I water now. Thanks for replying!

 

[kenny]

Thanks Terry,
The PH was at 8.2 yesterday. Is that marginally low and how can I keep it in range? As for disolved organics,perhaps thats it.
I use a red sea eclipse protein skimmer that hangs on the back of the tank with a tube extending about 3 inches below the surface for water pick-up. I believe the problem with this type of skimmer is that it relies on the power heads to mix the proteins that accumulate on the surface into the water so that the submerged pickup tube can cycle them thru the the skimmer....Anyway, it seems to work correctly if the power heads stir the surface enough.
I Dont have any "cleaning crew" nowand perhaps that would help with the organics problem?
As for diet they eat frozen food mostly shrimp and I am going to start adding "Omega one" flake which has omega 3 &6 HUFA's
I'm not preparing aged, ariated water for water changes at this time as I add about half a gallon of de-ionized water a day as make-up water. Do you still feel that I need to do water changes?

 

[beth]

Originally posted by Kenny
As for diet they eat frozen food mostly shrimp and I am going to start adding "Omega one" flake which has omega 3 &6 HUFA's

This diet is not sufficient for most fish, let a lone a tang. Tangs need a varied diet that is highly vegetarian. They also need to be able to graze most of the day.

 

[kenny]

Thanks for all the help! I have gotten most of my bad habits from my lfs but it has been lacking it seems.... I need some good reference books. Can you recommend any that would be helpful? Thank you.
Ken

 

[beth]

Robert Fenner's, "The Conscientious Marine Aquarist". Great book. Great pics.

 

[kenny]

Thank you,
I'll get a copy. Why does the envelope icon on my posts have a black dot over the flap?