Shaking yellow tang

[guitarfish]

Hi folks,
My yellow tang has been in a QT tank for 2 weeks now. The first week was spent lowering the SG to 1.009, and he's been at 1.009 for 8 days now. He had a mild outbreak of ich, accompanied with frequent shimmying/shaking. I expected the shaking was because the ich was irritating him. Now that 8 days have passed and I haven't seen any visible signs of ich in a week, I'm starting to wonder if there's another problem I'm missing.
I can't watch him for more than 2-3 minutes without him shaking/wiggling his body for a second or so, and often he'll dart off after that. It seems that something is really bothering him, it's almost not pleasant to watch him because I know there's an irritation present.
I see no visible signs of any problem on his body, no red colors, no ich, etc. He eats voraciously - nori, flake, frozen, etc. He appears to be breathing normally and swims all around the tank.
I plan to keep him in hypo for at least 5 weeks, but if there's another problem that needs to be treated, I'd like to do that.
Anyone have any ideas about this?

 

[jarice1978]

I also have noticed this behavior with my maroon clown. I would like to know as well...

 

[oyam1]

sounds like your doing a good job, ICH is a real mess, he could still have it. look into antibiotics and kill off any other bugs he may have.

 

[sarah19802]

I agree with more antibiotics, your tang could have a parasite. How is the temperature in the tank? They will shake if they are cold.

 

[guitarfish]

Well, I believe the tang shaking problem was some lingering effects of ich. Only after two full weeks in hyposalinity did the tang finally stop this and start behaving normally. My temp is 80deg, btw.
I plan to do hypo for three more weeks (5 weeks total), I'm not taking any chances. The fish are eating, swimming, healthy and then QT tank is in great shape, so I'm just going to wait it out.

 

[beth]

What are you using to measure salinity/specfic gravity?
Keep in mind that even after the parasites drop off, there are still parsite wounds on the fish that need to heal up. You know how a wound continues to be irritated and itchy even after it starts healing. they same applies here.

 

[guitarfish]

The wounds may explain the itchy behavior then, I never thought of that, thanks. I'm using a RO-calibrated ATC refractometer to measure salinity, btw.

 

[guitarfish]

OK, now we're getting somewhere. Funny you mentioned bacterial infections jwtrojan44. I've noticed over the last couple days that there are some light tan colored spots that have appeared around the yellow tang's eyes, and she appears to be breathing heavy. Not good. She is eating well however.
I checked all water params - ammo/nitrite - 0; PH 8.2; Alk 9; SG still 1.009. I've had the tang for 10 weeks and haven't added any additional livestock since then, so I think if it were something like brooklynella or amyloodinium, I would have seen symptoms much sooner. Through process of elimination, my only conclusion was some kind of bacterial infection, so I dosed with Maracyn II last night. There hasn't been any change in 24hrs, which is no surprise.
As regards hypo, this is actually attempt number two I had the tang in hypo for EXACTLY 21 days the last time, but that wasn't long enough, because after bringing her out, she had more ich within 10 days. I didn't realize it was 21 days after symptoms are gone.
It is very difficult to see ich on this tang, she needs to get up under the light just right, and the light in the QT tank is lacking on top of it. So, it's been 21 days in hypo as of today, I figured a minimum of two more weeks.
Let me know what you think about what I described with the tan spots. I'd really like this fish to make it.