jlemoine2

I don't know. I'm sorry.

yeah im not sure looks like some kind of fungus or parasite to me, you should post this pic on reef central and see what they have to allow. thats a very pretty fish you have btw

Not looking any better today, but I was able to snap some better photos.







Zoomed in a little:

after being quite puzzled and a little research i think its Amyloodinium, i would quarantine him and treat the fish before it gets worse

I would guess black spot(velvet) not real common in sw. It is similar to clown fish disease, you can treat it with a fresh water dip with m blue added to the water. You can tell it been rubbing in the zoom shot which screams parasite . I think thats what joe is posting but my latin to english is crusty

Thanks for the reply joeogio and DJ. Based on my looking around, I just do see how it can be marine velvet (amyloodinium). The parasites that make up this disease are very fine and packed together to appear like a soft velvety coating (thus the name). In addition, a key symptom of velvet are respiratory problems. My tang has not experienced any breathing issues or lethargy.

However, I do believe a parasite to be at work here. I have a book titled "Diseases in Marine Aquarium Fish" by Gerald Bassleer. It describes internal parasites known as encapsulated digenetic trematodes or metaceraria that meet the general description I'm experiencing here. The book describes black spots on the skin and muscular tissue, and white spots on the fins (I have both). The photos in the book are terrible, but it's the closest match I could find for the symptoms. It also makes sense because my own quarantine procedures don't treat for internal parasites.

Doing some more digging around, it is common for parasitic infections to cause this type of marking, as it is a skin reaction to the immune system trying to block the parasites. I'm confident enough in my QT procedures that I don't have an external parasite. Also, on day 3 of this issue, this tang and a lyretail anthias were having white stringy poo... which is a key indicator of an internal parasite.

Since I could not immediately get a fish trap (and more than one fish appears exposed), I tried soaking some mysis and brine with PraziPro. Doing some quick searches showed that quite a few folks had trouble with this method (dead fish), but I'm convinced they were overdosing the PraziPro like this, since they provided no measurements. I did not want to simply dose it to the water as I'm not keen on running without carbon or a skimmer for several days.


Doing my own research, I was able to come up with a dosage of 0.07ml per 1 gram of food. It turns out that old Salifert calcium test kits have a perfect syringe for that type of measurement. I thawed out two cubes of frozen food, which is approximately 6.5 grams. With the thawed and rinsed food in a little cup, I squirted in ~0.45 ml of PraziPro, mixed it up good, and let it soak for 15 minutes. After that, I fed it to the tank with a turkey baster like I normally do. On this initial batch, the fish seemed to eat a little slower than they normally do... I figured the PraziPro may not have tasted good soaked into their food. I put in a couple drops of garlic extract to the food container. From there, they attacked the food more vigorously.


The next day (today) On Day 4, here is what my tang looked like:







Big improvement! On Day 2 some white splotches also appeared on the pectoral fins. Those are still there today, but they are either equal to or not as bad as yesterday. Since these showed up day 2, it's possible they will go away later than the brown splotches will.


This is the best picture I could get of the fin splotches, which are about 3mm in size.:





Given the size and shape of these, I'm about 90% sure it is not crypto. I'm sticking with the encapsulated trematodes or metaceraria theory. I'll continue dosing PraziPro soaked food for the week to see how things go.




I mentioned before all of my fish go through quarantine. I also treat the fish for external parasites regardless of whether they show symptoms or not. At one point, I used to dose PraziPro to the water (in QT) for internal parasites as well, but I did not like running without a skimmer on a little system that did not have any biological filtration. I also noticed the fish would often not eat at all, or at most very little. So I stopped using PraziPro. I think now that I may have a good method to give it to the fish orally, I will use this dosing method in my QT protocols as well.

Day 5 update...


The tang is still improving! Today was the third day of PraziPro soaked food. Yesterday, there were some brown spots between the eyes, which appear to be gone today. The white splotches on the fins are improved as well. I can barely see any white on one fin, and the other (which was worse) is much less noticeable, but I still can see a couple white splotches (as seen in the picture below).


Today's photo... he even looks to be smiling again! :lol:

Im glad you got it under control. just fyi marine velvet does not get fluffy apperance of the fw type. I am doing a article for a club site do you mind if I use your photos jlemione2

Hi DJ. I don't mind if you use the photos... but I would mention in your article that this might not be marine velvet since medication for internal parasites is what appears to be resolving this issue, there were no respiratory problems, gills were not inflamed, there was the presence of white stringy feces (first observed on day 2), and this animal was quarantined and treated for external parasites nearly a year prior to these symptoms (as are all other fishes in the same tank). I believe there are more indicators for internal parasite than external.

I hope you plan to share your article here as well, I would like to learn more about marine velvet, as well as other fish diseases.

Thanks, I will be sure to include all your findings on this.

glad you got it under control ! it seems it wasn't marine velvet after all but this article will be a great reference