yellow tang has cloudy eyes! help please

[vince]

I've done searching on the forum and so far I've found some really good answers like,
use Maracyn, melafix and feed antibiotic flakes.
But I thought that I probably should post a topic just to make sure the safety of my yellow tang.
Right now, I am planning to move him/her to a quarantine tank and treat with copper.
What would be the best medicine to use? would copper take care of the eye cloud?
the eye cloud started today, I am very positive about that. Today, I found him trapped under the rocks!

 

[beth]

No! Don't use copper. Copper is for parasites. Unless you can make a parasite diagnosis, then the copper is not going to be appropriate. Now, with a yellow tang, detecting parasites, like ick, could be tricky due to the light solid yellow color. Give your fish a good look [using a magnifying glass] to see if you can detect parasites. With ick you can usually see the salty looking ick on the clear fins.
If you can't make a positive ID for parasites, then the eye problem could be due to an eye injury or a bacterial infection. Move the fish to a QT and keep an eye on him over the next 24 hrs to see if he improves. If he worsens, treat with Maracyn2. Sometimes cloudy eye is a prelude to ick, so do keep one eye out for this, but I would not treat with copper unless you can positively say you have a parasite problem.

 

[vince]

I can see his pectoral fins are white at the tip. Would that count as having ICH?

 

[beth]

Ick will look like salt on the fish. What you're looking at, I believe, is normal on the yellow tang.
To play it safe, feed your fish garlic soaked food over the next week or so. This can only benefit the fish, as garlic not only assists to some extent with ick, it is also a natural immune boaster. So, it is a win-win situation using garlic.
As I said, don't use cooper unless you can confirm a parasite problem. Copper is a toxin and is harmful to fish as it is to parasites, more so to the parasitie which is why we use it in the hobby.
If this problem continues or worsens over the next day, and you still do not see a parasite problem, then do as I suggested: QT and dose with Maracyn2.

 

[vince]

Thank you so much for the wonderful replies/help Beth. I will go QT him right now.
Can cloudy eye spread to other fish as well?

 

[beth]

If you are actually dealing with a disease process rather than an eye injury it could spread to other fish. So keep an eye on everyone else. It wouldn't hurt to feed all your fish the garlic I suggested.

 

[vince]

I understand. Thanks for the help Beth.