Sick Fish

[Ben1]

Ok so I have a kole tang that has a problem. He has some type of skin issue where he keeps getting raw areas of scales, in patchs. He has had it for a few months now and everytime it looks to be healing over it shows up somewhere else. I am assuming it is bacterial is there any reef safe treatment for this, I tried some AP melafix but alls it seemed to do was cause my skimmer to overflow so bad I couldnt use it for weeks.

Do I need to catch him and QT? What treatment should I use in QT?

 

[Anonymous]

Unless your QT is set up as a tang habitat, this will more likely kill him than cure him. My guess is it is diet-related. What is available, in terms of greens, for your tang to eat? Is there any macroalgae for it to graze upon?

 

[Anonymous]

I really don't care for Melafix (I call it Melabroken), it's a tonic at best, and not very useful as far as I'm concerned. Personally, I would hospitalize the fish, and start with a broad spectrum antibiotic, since you don't know specifically what you're dealing with. But, I believe you're going on a trip soon, so right now wouldn't be the best time to hospitalize a fish that's been going through this for months, I'd wait until I returned if possible.

 

[Anonymous]

Ok so I have a kole tang that has a problem. He has some type of skin issue where he keeps getting raw areas of scales, in patchs. He has had it for a few months now and everytime it looks to be healing over it shows up somewhere else. I am assuming it is bacterial is there any reef safe treatment for this, I tried some AP melafix but alls it seemed to do was cause my skimmer to overflow so bad I couldnt use it for weeks.

Do I need to catch him and QT? What treatment should I use in QT?

Does the spot look grayish white?

Mine gets them from time to time. I just think that the fish catches itself on a rock where it sleeps or that spot is where it rests on the rock and the high flow makes it rub back and forth all night long scratching off the scales. My kole gets them in varios spots and they heal in a day or two.

 

[Ben1]

Nah its a pretty nasty looking deal. I took a picture and will post it here. As far as diet the kole does not go after any of the green or purple seaweed I put in the tank for the yellow tang. I feed heavy, recently I have been feeding about a 1.5" square of Rods food a day, along with the algae sheets, spirulina flake, and if I am up to it some other stuff like cubes of mysis. I skim heavy, do regular W/C and use prodibio so am able to overfeed pretty heavy. I dont think he is any immediate trouble, as he gets these spots that look nasty and then heal up by then end of the week and then re-appear somewhere else on him.

I can QT the fish, in a 40 breeder which isnt much different then the 58 he is in already. My new tank is basically done and I will have it ready within a month, since I have been curing live rock in bins for a few months already. He never stops moving and I just fed the spirulina flake so taking a pic was a challenge, but here it is.

 

[Anonymous]

OK, I agree. That's fscking disgusting.

Flesh-eating bacteria straight from the British hospital system to your aquarium.

 

[Anonymous]

The weird thing is that apart from that gaping wound, he looks perfectly healthy. So that heals completely in a week?

 

[Anonymous]

This is a total long-shot.

Do you have a grounding wire and a GFCI for everything supplying electrical current to the tank?

 

[Anonymous]

My Kole only likes red Seaweed Selects with garlic. It must be QTed with antibiotic. That is some bad skin infection.

 

[Anonymous]

he gets these spots that look nasty and then heal up by then end of the week and then re-appear somewhere else on him.

I think this is pretty strong evidence that this is NOT a bacterial infection. A wound like that, once infected, would not heal rapidly, and the infection would probably kill the fish.

This is really puzzling. The rest of the fish looks totally healthy. I think something is attacking it, or else its a really bad case of lateral line erosion.

 

[Anonymous]

There is nothing else about the presentation that resembles lateral line erosion, though.

 

[Ben1]

I do not have any grounding probe. I do have my hands in that tank a lot though and always have little cuts on my fingers but I dont feel any tingle. He will go over to my cleaner shrimp and the shrimp will pick at the scales a bit, I assume he is just eatting off dead tissue or whatever. When I switch my tank over I will put him in QT, I am going to be away next week but when I get home I can get him to QT. A few weeks ago the bnes were showing 1/2" out of him bottom fins, and as you can see that completely healed up. I could be wrong but I still think its something bacterial.

 

[Anonymous]

I agree that it is some sort of flesh eating bacteria.....Marine E.bola?

 

[Anonymous]

Or maybe he has something like marine HIV. Some sort of depressed immune system?

How long has this been happening for?

 

[Ben1]

Well its probably been 2-3 months. I would see it flare up and figure some good feeding would take care of it and then it would heal and I would think it was going away just to come back again somewhere else.

 

[Anonymous]

Any chance this is being done by another fish?

 

[Anonymous]

I would QT and try to find a medicated feed it will take. Not just treat the water. It may be environmental, but you'll never really be able to figure it out unless you start changing some conditions. Any chance of getting a close-up of that wound?

You know what? If it were a freshwater fish, such a goldfish or koi, especially at this time of year, I'd swear it was furunculosis. A quick Google shows that ulcerations do occur in marine fish (salmoniids is what I'm finding most immediately). Furazone is the treatment for freshies, along with changing specific gravity of the water (I used to use rock salt for the koi).

 

[Ben1]

Other fish in the tank are the yellow tang, a wrasse, a bangaii cardinal, and a pair of black occellaris. None of these are aggressive to each other.

I will just have to wait untill I get home from my trip, I am leaving this weekend and coming home at the end of the week so its just a short trip. Once i get home I might as well try to catch him. Its going to be a pain with out smashing up my acros, they are all small but all over the place and the tank has only 4 rocks in it, they are all boulders.

 

[Anonymous]

Sea Turtle has a magical wine carafe, used to be his wife's, he caught his Marshall Island flame angel with it FIRST TRY! You should get that carafe.

Have a great trip!

 

[Ben1]

Wow he caught that fish in one try? I am jealous I have never been so lucky. I am clumpy any usually find a way to know everything over and cause a huge mess, eventually tearing the tank apart cursing at the fush lol.