Biota Yellow Tang Ich or Velvet

[Enad]

Hi all,

I recently got a Biota Yellow Tang just over two weeks ago. Arrived in great shape, he lived in a breeder box in my tank for 4 days before I let him loose and he has been very confident, active and happily eating since then. However, just today I noticed a bunch of white bumps on him. They're not so much dots, but look more like little salt crystals.

I'm constantly looking at my fish and even have some great pics of him from 2 days ago that show him being perfectly clear of any white bumps.

Right now, he's swimming around, eating and acting completely normal and I'm not sure if he has ich or velvet. Obviously, the latter would be far worse, so I want to try to act fast. I've been looking all over online to try to find good pictures of velvet vs ich on Tangs and I'm still just unsure. I'm going to attach some pictures and videos that I took just now.

I've just fed everyone and he's eating the same as always, very eager to eat and his belly has grown a lot since I've gotten him. I've never had any marine illness in the tank before, and I've not added any new fish in months.

Hoping to get some answers here so I can begin treatment asap. I have a QT tank I can get running if need be.

 

[Daniel92481]

Bump

 

[Bj’s Reef]

Following.

 

[Lavey29]

Possibly lymphocitis but I'm not an expert.

 

[littlefoxx]

@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @MnFish1 @fishguy242

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi all,

I recently got a Biota Yellow Tang just over two weeks ago. Arrived in great shape, he lived in a breeder box in my tank for 4 days before I let him loose and he has been very confident, active and happily eating since then. However, just today I noticed a bunch of white bumps on him. They're not so much dots, but look more like little salt crystals.

I'm constantly looking at my fish and even have some great pics of him from 2 days ago that show him being perfectly clear of any white bumps.

Right now, he's swimming around, eating and acting completely normal and I'm not sure if he has ich or velvet. Obviously, the latter would be far worse, so I want to try to act fast. I've been looking all over online to try to find good pictures of velvet vs ich on Tangs and I'm still just unsure. I'm going to attach some pictures and videos that I took just now.

I've just fed everyone and he's eating the same as always, very eager to eat and his belly has grown a lot since I've gotten him. I've never had any marine illness in the tank before, and I've not added any new fish in months.

Hoping to get some answers here so I can begin treatment asap. I have a QT tank I can get running if need be.

These are mucus plugs and may be due to skin irritation or mixed with ich. Fish will have to be treated in separate treatment tank. Because its a smaller tang, use coppersafe or Copper Power at therapeutic level 2.0-2.25 For a FULL 30 days (do not interrupt this 30 day period) monitored by a reliable Copper Test kit such as Hanna Brand- No API brand. Also monitor Ammonia levels while in quarantine with a reliable test kit and add aeration during treatment using an air stone.
The display tank will have to be kept fishless (FALLOW) for 6-8 weeks to assure the existing parasites go through their life cycle without a host fish and die off
A quarantine tank can be as simple as a tank from a second hand store or a starter kit from Walmart which most of the needed essentials.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I agree, this is not velvet, there seems to be a moderate ich infections here. However, the tang is acting really twitchy, and is breathing a bit fast, ich doesn’t cause that. The fish could have flukes as well.

Did you get the tang direct from Biota? I’ve not had any reports of their fish developing ich or flukes unless they were tanked in a dealer’s tank before the aquarist gets them.

Jay

 

[Enad]

Direct from Biota, yes. As mentioned, he's been perfectly healthy these last two weeks and eating great. As for his behavior being twitchy, he tends to do that when I'm sitting right in front of the glass. When I'm far from the tank, he sails through the water and around the rocks as you'd expect. In any case, I suppose it's possible my tank just has ich but the other fish have developed some sort of resistance - is that possible? Like I said, no other fish for months and none of the other fish have ever had ich or flukes.


I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I can catch every fish in this tank without completely destroying it I have gobies and grammas that live in the rocks, and I would feel terrible ripping the clowns away from their anemone when no one else is suffering from any illness. It may be silly to ask, but I'll ask anyway - If none of the other fish are actively infected, will ich continue to live on in the tank?

Additionally, I've heard people talk about their Tangs naturally recovering from Ich without copper treatment. Right now, the fish is acting normal and eating well. I'm inclined to try to avoid stressing him to death by attempting to catch him if there's another route I can take. Are there option options for potentially boosting his immune system or slime coat via vitamins/food? I understand the copper treatment is the clearest solution, I just thought I'd ask about other options anyway.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Direct from Biota, yes. As mentioned, he's been perfectly healthy these last two weeks and eating great. As for his behavior being twitchy, he tends to do that when I'm sitting right in front of the glass. When I'm far from the tank, he sails through the water and around the rocks as you'd expect. In any case, I suppose it's possible my tank just has ich but the other fish have developed some sort of resistance - is that possible? Like I said, no other fish for months and none of the other fish have ever had ich or flukes.


I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I can catch every fish in this tank without completely destroying it I have gobies and grammas that live in the rocks, and I would feel terrible ripping the clowns away from their anemone when no one else is suffering from any illness. It may be silly to ask, but I'll ask anyway - If none of the other fish are actively infected, will ich continue to live on in the tank?

Additionally, I've heard people talk about their Tangs naturally recovering from Ich without copper treatment. Right now, the fish is acting normal and eating well. I'm inclined to try to avoid stressing him to death by attempting to catch him if there's another route I can take. Are there option options for potentially boosting his immune system or slime coat via vitamins/food? I understand the copper treatment is the clearest solution, I just thought I'd ask about other options anyway.

Tangs do not naturally recover in fact are more susceptible to ich that other genus of marine fish. Ich requires a host fish and with other fish present, they are at risk of contracting the parasite, if they have not already. Vitamins boost immune system but does not make fish immune.

 

[KrisReef]

If you can't catch them all then perhaps a UV sterilizer could be added to your tank until the storm passes.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Direct from Biota, yes. As mentioned, he's been perfectly healthy these last two weeks and eating great. As for his behavior being twitchy, he tends to do that when I'm sitting right in front of the glass. When I'm far from the tank, he sails through the water and around the rocks as you'd expect. In any case, I suppose it's possible my tank just has ich but the other fish have developed some sort of resistance - is that possible? Like I said, no other fish for months and none of the other fish have ever had ich or flukes.


I'm gonna be honest, I don't think I can catch every fish in this tank without completely destroying it I have gobies and grammas that live in the rocks, and I would feel terrible ripping the clowns away from their anemone when no one else is suffering from any illness. It may be silly to ask, but I'll ask anyway - If none of the other fish are actively infected, will ich continue to live on in the tank?

Additionally, I've heard people talk about their Tangs naturally recovering from Ich without copper treatment. Right now, the fish is acting normal and eating well. I'm inclined to try to avoid stressing him to death by attempting to catch him if there's another route I can take. Are there option options for potentially boosting his immune system or slime coat via vitamins/food? I understand the copper treatment is the clearest solution, I just thought I'd ask about other options anyway.

Here is my protocol for ich management. Please understand that I am NOT presenting this as an optimum method for controlling ich, just putting it out there because you indicated that you need to try it. Also, do not pick and choose which items you want to follow - you need to go with all guns blazing and use them all.

“Ich Management” Because many aquarists mix fish and invertebrates, they are ill-prepared to then treat for marine ich, as the two best treatments, amine-based copper or hyposalinity, cannot be used with invertebrates. A popular technique has then arisen, “ich management”. It is popular not because it works well, but because it is an easier alternative. Be forewarned, it often fails if applied during moderate infections. The reason that it exists as a technique at all is because people find themselves in situations like this and are desperate to try anything.

The basic idea is to reduce the infective propagules (tomites/theront) of the ich parasite to the point where the fish's acquired immunity can fight the infection off. This is done through a series of techniques for stress reduction and tomite limiting. Unfortunately, the ich theronts themselves cause stress to the fish, so if the fish have more than 30 or so trophonts on them, the method often fails.

1) Install a powerful UV sterilizer on the aquarium.
2) Ensure that the fish's diet and water quality are the best you can make them.
3) Keep the water temperature close to 78 degrees F.
4) Siphon off the tank floor nightly to remove as many tomonts as possible.
5) Employ strong filtration to trap as many theronts as possible.
6) Try a proprietary "reef safe" marine ich medication. These rarely cure ich infections on their own, but some may have benefit when combined with other management methods. Avoid the herbal remedies, focus on those that contain peroxide salts. There is, however, some evidence that using peroxides with UV does not work, as the UV can break down the peroxides.

Jay

 

[Enad]

Thank you for all the advice, Jay.

In an effort to not stress the Tang, or any of my other fish, more - I opted to just try feeding vitamin enriched food. Whether this was the catalyst or not, I'm unsure but basically all the spots have left his body, and he is eating just as well as ever, as well as swimming around as confident as ever.

I understand Ich is still very much present in my system, but I guess that was the case before hand too. I plan on taking a Paul B approach to nutrition going forward, trying to focus on feeding live foods with oil to encourage natural immunity to the parasite.

I simply don't believe it's my best option right now to effectively break down the tank in order to catch my 10 fish and keep all of them in a 25g(my next biggest tank) for ~4 months while the parasites die out in the main tank. I think that would cause a lot of unneeded stress right now when none of the other fish have ever been afflicted by Ich, despite it being in my system.

I appreciate all the information that was given in this thread though, it'll very useful going forward now that I've had my first brush with Ich. Hoping I can successfully manage it in the future with the tips I've gotten here.

Thanks again!

 

[KrisReef]

Thank you for all the advice, Jay.

In an effort to not stress the Tang, or any of my other fish, more - I opted to just try feeding vitamin enriched food. Whether this was the catalyst or not, I'm unsure but basically all the spots have left his body, and he is eating just as well as ever, as well as swimming around as confident as ever.

I understand Ich is still very much present in my system, but I guess that was the case before hand too. I plan on taking a Paul B approach to nutrition going forward, trying to focus on feeding live foods with oil to encourage natural immunity to the parasite.

I simply don't believe it's my best option right now to effectively break down the tank in order to catch my 10 fish and keep all of them in a 25g(my next biggest tank) for ~4 months while the parasites die out in the main tank. I think that would cause a lot of unneeded stress right now when none of the other fish have ever been afflicted by Ich, despite it being in my system.

I appreciate all the information that was given in this thread though, it'll very useful going forward now that I've had my first brush with Ich. Hoping I can successfully manage it in the future with the tips I've gotten here.

Thanks again!

Keep us posted with status update.

 

[Yang’s Blue Paradise]

Were you able to keep the yellow tang healthy?

 

[Enad]

Yeah, everything went back to normal a day or two after I posted this. I actually ended up bringing my guy back to the shop as I decided my tank was too small for him long term. He now lives in a 700g tank so I'm happy he was able to get his home upgraded.