Weird Fish Disease?

[Pauley]

Howdy,
I could use some help with a disease ID. I currently have 4 fish in a QT (2 clowns, a tuskfish, and a purple tang). After treating with prazipro (2 doses 7 days apart), I observed the fish. After about a week, the tang and tuskfish developed ich. I’ve been treating that for 2 weeks with copper power (1 week ramp up followed by 1 week at a therapeutic level-2.15ppm per a Hanna checker).

All fish are asymptomatic with the exception of the tang, which 2 days ago developed weird stringy white strands. It looks like he has a fuzzy white beard. He’s still eating/breathing normally, but it is getting worse. It doesn’t look like any brook I’ve ever seen. Any ideas on what/how to treat this are appreciated!

 

[Humblefish]

The infamous "mystery disease". Could be viral or bacterial, although a "skin rash" of some sort is also possible because it most often shows up after copper treatment.

It oftentimes self corrects, but some have claimed success clearing it with Metroplex + Kanaplex.

 

[Pauley]

Thank you sir. I figured it is probably just God sending a fish plague to smite yet another of my tangs.

 

[JumboShrimp]

Beautiful fish— hope you have good news for us down the road that it has healed and is doing fine

 

[Pauley]

Just a follow up (in case anyone else gets this weirdness). I treated with the metroplex/kanaplex combo for a week. Visually, the symptoms were greatly reduced. However, the tang and one of the clowns had slowly lost appetite, probably due to the copper more than anything. At that point, I had completed 2 weeks of copper at therapeutic levels, and decided to roll the dice. I didn't feel comfortable extending the quarantine given their lack of feeding. So, everyone got a formalin dip and transfer into a med-free tank. I'm continuing to feed metroplex/focus, but within a day of relocating to the new tank, everyone has an appetite again, and appears to be behaving normally. The funk on the tang is almost completely gone. I'm not sure if it was the metro/kana, or it just self-resolved. In any case, I'll update the thread if everything suddenly goes south on me.

 

[Pauley]

Okay, spoke too fast on the tang. The weird stringlike strands on the tang sorta resolved into white powdery dots, with the exception of a couple strings. Based on the appearance, I’d bet money that the tang has velvet, except that seems unlikely given that:
All other fish are totally asymptomatic
The tang eats and breathes normally
The powdery appearance has been there almost two weeks
The tank was fallow prior to introducing these fish

Besides the above completed treatment, I’ve been treating food with metro/ focus every other day. So far, it doesn’t seem to have an effect. I know when I’m beat. Any new ideas as to what this is and how to treat?