sick tang????

[pearlmaj]

i was hoping that i could maybe get some help/advice with my blue tang. I have two questions about him.
Heres the background - this is my first saltwater tank, its a 46 gallon fowlr and its been up and running for about 2 1/2 months. its fully cycled with pH @ 8.2 and everything else at or around 0.
Ive had my tang for about a week now and ive been noticing him rubbing on the rocks and yesterday for the first time i noticed some discoloration/staining on him. it almost looks like hes dirty. theres no white spots or anything, just a dark staining on his dorsal fin and then a little around his gills and tail. i did have a little bit of a purple colored algae bloom and was maybe thinking that he was discolored by that, but i just want to know if anyone could clue me in on this.
My second question has to do with my tang again, but this time with his behavior around my peppermint shrimp. I just added them yesterday and my tang keeps cornering them under rocks or in caves/crevices and changing colors. hes not aggressive towards them, but just puts on this display where he turns a dark color like he's hypoxic or something. i just wanted to know whether or not this is normal, or if theres anything i can do to help.

 

[beth]

Any chance that you can get a pic up of the problem areas on the tang? How is the fish eating, swimming? Is the tang trying to get the shrimps to clean him?

 

[pearlmaj]

yeah, thats what i was thinking he was doing. so i actually went and bought a skunk cleaner shrimp to maybe do the trick. cause im thinking that it may be some kind of fungal infection and he wants some help. other than that staining and harassing the shrimp, he's completely normal. he eats real well and is swimming fine. he occasionally rubs the rocks, but nothing too severe. i just added the cleaner shrimp yesterday, so i'll see what this does. hopefully it'll help. i'll try and get a picture of it, i just need to find someone with a digital camera first. thanks for your help, and if you have any other suggestions, please keep em comming.

 

[solrny]

did the skunk cleaner help? i too am having the same problem with my tang, he would rub himself on the rock losing some of his fins.

 

[beth]

solRNY, you must have been doing a search and responded to a dated thread.
Likely your fish has parasites [ick]. How long have you had him?

 

[solrny]

i just got him last week, it does not look to good now. i dont have a hospital tank, u think i can dose the whole entire tank with some ick remover and not have other problems? i have mostly LPS, zoos, pair of oscellaris clowns that is doing great.