Blue Eyed Tang Injury or Disease?

[dropsofjupiter]

Our Blue Eyed Tang just passed away after only 6 days. Originally he was happily pecking away, eating nori, etc. He enjoyed finding every hole in the rock to swim through or hide in. Today he quickly became lethargic, not pecking at anything and laying down in the rockwork and soon passed away. Hoping to identify what is on him and if it caused his passing.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Not much can be seen in dead fish photos, but some additional background information might help us sleuth it out:

When it was lethargic, was it also breathing fast?

What other animals are in this tank?

What are the current water quality parameters?

Jay

 

[dropsofjupiter]

He was swimming and pecking this morning. I want to say it was about 3-4hours of going downhill. He was breathing very fast.

2 Clowns
1 White Tail Bristletooth
1 Half Black Mimic
1 Yellow Watchman Goby
All 3 Tangs we’re introduced at the same time and we saw no concerning or continuous aggression.

Husband is eating some food and then he’ll test water parameters.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Our Blue Eyed Tang just passed away after only 6 days. Originally he was happily pecking away, eating nori, etc. He enjoyed finding every hole in the rock to swim through or hide in. Today he quickly became lethargic, not pecking at anything and laying down in the rockwork and soon passed away. Hoping to identify what is on him and if it caused his passing. View attachment 3038906 View attachment 3038907

Agree hard to tell post death especially after a couple of hours. I see discoloration around the gills but can be associated with death or infected area but a mere guess

 

[dropsofjupiter]

Here’s a couple of photos I snagged in the hour before he passed.

 

[RedNekReef’n]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Not much can be seen in dead fish photos, but some additional background information might help us sleuth it out:

When it was lethargic, was it also breathing fast?

What other animals are in this tank?

What are the current water quality parameters?

Jay

Good afternoon,

I’m her husband. The current parameters are as follows:

ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0.00
Nitrate - 15.0
Salinity - 1.025
Temp - 77F.
System was cycled on the 11th of January with no ammonia preset on the 22nd of January. Only occupants prior to the three tangs were two clowns and a yellow watchman goby as well as a multitude of snails.
I do weekly 15 gallon waterchanges (system is 135 gallon total). We don’t dose anything. I put a new sheet of nori in M/W/F and on these days they receive some frozen mysis and spirula brine shrimp. On the other days they receive Hikari marine pellets and Ocean Nutrition prime reef flakes.

 

[RedNekReef’n]

Hi, welcome to Reef2Reef!

Not much can be seen in dead fish photos, but some additional background information might help us sleuth it out:

When it was lethargic, was it also breathing fast?

What other animals are in this tank?

What are the current water quality parameters?

Jay

 

[Uncle99]

Ick?
I think it may have spots.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

View attachment 3038970

O.K., this helps. The lesion on the dead fish picture could have been a post mortem artifact (very common) but seeing the same lesions on the living fish point to injury + bacterial infection or Uronema.
Jay

 

[dropsofjupiter]

O.K., this helps. The lesion on the dead fish picture could have been a post mortem artifact (very common) but seeing the same lesions on the living fish point to injury + bacterial infection or Uronema.
Jay

Thank you so much for this! Should we just keep an eye on everyone else in the tank or do you think there’s anything preventative that we should do?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Thank you so much for this! Should we just keep an eye on everyone else in the tank or do you think there’s anything preventative that we should do?

Always watch the fish closely every day - but I can’t think of any preventative treatment to try bless you see specific symptoms.
Jay