Diagnosis on Dead Powder Blue Tang

[Resu]

Hi there,

Unfortunately, my Powder Blue Tang had just passed from what I think is ich. It was in a quarantine tank at a copper therapeutic level of 2.08ppm.

Can anyone confirm this death to be from ich? Thank you.

 

[twhit030]

Sadly that does look like ich

 

[Resu]

Yeah, figured. Thanks for your input!

 

[twhit030]

They are so tough sometimes it’s like if you can get them to live those first 2 months they will live forever but that first two months is a hard battle. My local fish store told me once to just start dozing ich medicine after 2 weeks no matter if he looked good or not. Maybe he was just trying to up sell me tho idk lol.

 

[Miami Reef]

Hi there,

Unfortunately, my Powder Blue Tang had just passed from what I think is ich. It was in a quarantine tank at a copper therapeutic level of 2.08ppm.

Can anyone confirm this death to be from ich? Thank you.

View attachment 2554562

How long was it in copper for?

 

[Resu]

How long was it in copper for?

The tang was in copper for less than a week, I purchased it from the LFS after observing it eating and actively swimming for 2 weeks prior to purchase. Not sure if the stress of having to acclimate to a new quarantine tank finally revealed the ich and caused its death.

 

[Miami Reef]

I am not seeing ich spots on this fish on the picture, but it looks like a lot of stress spots.

Copper takes about 7 days to almost fully rid the fish of ich that is feeding on the fish. Copper prevents the ich from reinfecting the fish, so it’s not very likely the ich directly killed the fish, as the longer the fish is in copper the less ich it has.

But I’m seeing brown discoloration/patchiness which is often a sign of a bacterial infection (which unfortunately happens when fish are infected with ich, since the parasites leave microscopic holes which make fish susceptible to the bacteria in the water column).

For bacteria infections, it really helps to know what gram bacteria is infecting the fish, but hobbiests rarely have access to microscope and gram staining bacteria.

The blanket trifecta usually consists of Nitrofurazone, Kanamycin, and metronidazole which should cover most cases.

I do not intend to diagnose this fish with anything. It’s very very difficult to diagnose an already deceased fish.

 

[Resu]

I am not seeing ich spots on this fish on the picture, but it looks like a lot of stress spots.

Copper takes about 7 days to almost fully rid the fish of ich that is feeding on the fish. Copper prevents the ich from reinfecting the fish, so it’s not very likely the ich directly killed the fish, as the longer the fish is in copper the less ich it has.

But I’m seeing brown discoloration/patchiness which is often a sign of a bacterial infection (which unfortunately happens when fish are infected with ich, since the parasites leave microscopic holes which make fish susceptible to the bacteria in the water column).

For bacteria infections, it really helps to know what gram bacteria is infecting the fish, but hobbiests rarely have access to microscope and gram staining bacteria.

The blanket trifecta usually consists of Nitrofurazone, Kanamycin, and metronidazole which should cover most cases.

I do not intend to diagnose this fish with anything. It’s very very difficult to diagnose an already deceased fish.

I appreciate your thorough input towards this discussion. It was eating fine in the quarantine tank, but I assume that once the ich had directly impacted the tang it cause a lot of stress spots as well as the black/brown bacterial infection

 

[Unitylover]

Im sorry for your loss. Fish death is never easy. I think Its ich

 

[N.Sreefer]

Do you think it might have been dead for a couple hours before being found? To me it looks like discolouration that occurs after death.

 

[Resu]

Do you think it might have been dead for a couple hours before being found? To me it looks like discolouration that occurs after death.

It was alive before I stepped out the house for less than an hour. When I got back home it sadly passed