tang has bacterial infection, what to do

[blazehok68]

well i was doing a water change on my 120 today and i saw brown spots on my yellow tang. looked on the sticky on this forum and discovered it was a bacterial infection. what should i do? i really dont want to take him out of the tank. it is a reef and there are other inhabitants including a hippo tang. i dont want all of them to get infected, so what would be my best course of action?

 

[drtash]

sounds like brown ich.....QT

 

[beth]

Brown spots? Can you be specific? Were they tiny speaks like salt size? Or brown blotches on the skin?
If salt size, that sounds like black ich. Formalin baths are the correct treatment. You can find out how to do the treatment by going to the FAQ Thread.

 

[blazehok68]

they were blotches on the skin. and they were only towards the back half of the tang, on both sides of his body. they were probably less than half the size of a dime, about 4 or 5 on each side.

 

[blazehok68]

Bump

 

[sepulatian]

Do you have corals? Take a look at Hyper-melaninization in the Diseased fish FAQ. Can you post a picture for us? How is he eating and acting?

 

[blazehok68]

i have lots of corals and inverts. he is acting normal. eating like a pig, doing his normal patrol around the tank and even bullying my hippo tang. nothing out of the ordinary. i will try to get a pic later when i get home, but he is hard to get a clear pic of.
also, i have had a bad outbreak of hair algae? could that hae something to do with it? i have been doing frequent water changes and dosing algae magic to combat the hair.

 

[blazehok68]

I Am Trying To Get Pics Posted But, My New Laptop Does Not Have A Photo Editor So I Cant Resize The Pics. I Will Get Them Up Soon Though.

 

[kornele23]

are you saure its brown and not red? Our tang had a bacterial infection but the blotches/streaks were more red than brown.

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/2471831
i have lots of corals and inverts. he is acting normal. eating like a pig, doing his normal patrol around the tank and even bullying my hippo tang. nothing out of the ordinary. i will try to get a pic later when i get home, but he is hard to get a clear pic of.
also, i have had a bad outbreak of hair algae? could that hae something to do with it? i have been doing frequent water changes and dosing algae magic to combat the hair.
Did you look at Beth's pics for Hyper-melaninization? If he seems great otherwise then it could be that.

 

[dav9175]

it might be brown jelly desease and you ncan get a product called algone that will clear up any kind of algae prob known to man

 

[blazehok68]

finally able to post pics..... got worse within a couple days. went to lfs and talked with a guy that really knows his stuff, he gave me some reef safe medicine. maracyn.....hope it helps.
the splotches are more red than brown. if you see any white spots, its not on the fish its a little bit of salt and schtuff opn the glass.

 

[sepulatian]

That is a bacterial infection. Maracyn 2 for saltwater is the correct treatment. You cannot use it in the display. Set up a quarantine tank, if you do not have one already.

 

[blazehok68]

well great......i used one dose of regular maracyn already and put it deirectly in the display tank. that kinda makes sense why my anemone curled up in a ball and dissapeared when i put it in. well i guess im doingf a but load of water changes when i get home and setting up a hospital tank.
do you think using that one dose will affect everything in the long run?

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/2477350
well great......i used one dose of regular maracyn already and put it deirectly in the display tank. that kinda makes sense why my anemone curled up in a ball and dissapeared when i put it in. well i guess im doingf a but load of water changes when i get home and setting up a hospital tank.
do you think using that one dose will affect everything in the long run?
In the long run, no, but it could very well affect the inverts in there now. Do a water change and run some fresh carbon in the tank.

 

[beth]

That is definitely a very serious bacterial infection. You can only treat this in a quarantine tank with Maracyn Two for SW fish. And, without a well cycled quarantine, the odds really are against success.
It looks like your tank is having some problems, such as the cyanobacteria. Usually fish do not get this type of problem unless there is a husbandry and even a nutrition problem.

 

[blazehok68]

well i got him out. put him in a 10 gallon with some tank water. put in some maracyn 2. we will see what happens. today before i got him out though, he already started to look a little bit better. anyway, we will see.
oh yeah i did a big water change today, gonna do another one in a couple of days.

 

[kornele23]

Good Luck! My yellow tang got a bacterial infection and was really bad, like yours. This medicine works wonders!! Just follow the directions carefully and your tang should pull through just fine!!

 

[sepulatian]

Originally Posted by BLAZEHOK68
http:///forum/post/2478444
well i got him out. put him in a 10 gallon with some tank water. put in some maracyn 2. we will see what happens. today before i got him out though, he already started to look a little bit better. anyway, we will see.
oh yeah i did a big water change today, gonna do another one in a couple of days.
Be sure that you have plenty of flow in the ten gallon. Keep us posted.

 

[blazehok68]

i have a power head in there that pushes about 300gph. we will see.