ID Help: Tang with brown spots and discolored, clown now showing signs of Brook?

[certain_code]

Details are below but over the last week, both my Tang and Clownfish have shown signs of what might be different issues but I am guessing may be related. The tang started showing signs nearly a week after being added to the tank. My tank is newly cycled and after 3 months, I added the Tang and 2 clowns while keeping an eye on the crucial parameters daily. My tank is also set up for automated water changes at roughly 15 gallons a week spread out over each day. I have also done 3 50% water changes since the end of the cycle to keep everything in check.

Neither fish were quarantined before going into the DT (I know, bad move, but limited on space). Neither has been treated with anything to date and water params are stable overall.

The tang has black spots in various areas on its body, top fin, bottom fins, and tail fin, as shown in the photo. It is eating and swimming fine and does not seem to be very stressed with the exception of what seems to be heavier breathing than I would expect but not consider labored. It has since also lost a fairly significant amount of color on its body. Photo is attached below. This has been the situation now for nearly 2 weeks and the spots do not seem to be getting larger or smaller in any way.

This morning, my larger clownfish has a bit of a flaky head but it not showing signs of stress otherwise and is eating. My initial thought based on the look of it was Brooklynella but I am not sure since it may be something related to the Tangs issue. Photo attached below. The second clown as of now is fine and shows no signs of an issue.

Aquarium Parameters:
Aquarium type: Fish-only
Aquarium water volume: 65 gal total, 50 gal display
Filtration type: Sump with filter socks and skimmer
Lighting: Neptune SKY - 5% intensity AB+
How long has the aquarium been established: 4 months since end of cycle
Digital image of the aquarium under white light: Attached below

Water quality (be sure to indicate what measurement units you are using)
Temperature: 77.98 avg, 77.7min 78.3 max over last 3 weeks
pH: 8.2 - 8.6. 8.5 avg over last 3 weeks
Salinity / specific gravity: 1.026
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 20-30
Phosphorus: Unknown
Copper: Unknown
Other: Unknown

In-depth information:
Have you lost any fish to this problem yet? No
Are any invertebrates affected? Few snail deaths, unsure if realted
Respiration rate of affected fish: Clownfish slow and normal in appearance. Tang seems to be laboured but difficult to tell.
Are the affected fish still feeding? Yes
What remedies have you tried so far? None
Digital image of the fish with the health issue, taken under white light: See below




Any recommendations on what either or both issues could be and the proposed treatment? Ideally, I'd need a bath solution as I am limited on space and cannot run a QT for long periods of time currently. If needed I can likely get a 5gal bucket going for treatment but hoping that is a last-ditch effort at this point. Thank you for your help!

 

[fishguy242]

best wishes...
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081

 

[certain_code]

Forgot to include this but my initial thought was that the Tang was showing signs of a bacterial infection. Initial plan was to feed some medicated food but now I am wondering if this is all just Brook showing in different ways. Now I might have that infection and Brook going on which may be pointing to a much much larger problem. Hoping to have some experts chime in and see what sort of treatment I have as options.

I have Metroplex, Ruby Reef Rally, and Super Ick Cure ready if needed. Selcon and Garlic Guard to boost immune systems where I can as well and hopefully keep everything eating until a treatment plan becomes clearer.

 

[vetteguy53081]

This is one of those toss-up occurrences. Referred to as thumb print infection, ive seen it come and then suddenly vanish. Then ive seen it present and responded to metroplex. Neoplex would likely work as well.
For now keep an eye on it to see if it vanished in the next 24 hours.
If no change, you can then treat in in a quarantine tank.
Another option would be ruby Rally Pro starting with a 60 minute bath followed by treatment

 

[vetteguy53081]

Forgot to include this but my initial thought was that the Tang was showing signs of a bacterial infection. Initial plan was to feed some medicated food but now I am wondering if this is all just Brook showing in different ways. Now I might have that infection and Brook going on which may be pointing to a much much larger problem. Hoping to have some experts chime in and see what sort of treatment I have as options.

I have Metroplex, Ruby Reef Rally, and Super Ick Cure ready if needed. Selcon and Garlic Guard to boost immune systems where I can as well and hopefully keep everything eating until a treatment plan becomes clearer.

Very good to see what you have on hand.
Ruby is my first choice as it tends to be mild
Increase aeration when treating

 

[certain_code]

This is one of those toss-up occurrences. Referred to as thumb print infection, ive seen it come and then suddenly vanish. Then ive seen it present and responded to metroplex. Neoplex would likely work as well.
For now keep an eye on it to see if it vanished in the next 24 hours.
If no change, you can then treat in in a quarantine tank.
Another option would be ruby Rally Pro starting with a 60 minute bath followed by treatment

Yeah, I had read about this as well but was weighing treatment options since I was not sure and wanted to get opinions here. It has been almost a week with no change so I think at this point some sort of treatment is needed even though it's seemingly progressing. Not having a QT tank is the biggest issue currently so I'd prefer DT options since I only have a few snails currently or doing some baths with something like Rally Pro (comes in tomorrow)

Very good to see what you have on hand.
Ruby is my first choice as it tends to be mild
Increase aeration when treating

Ruby seems to be a safe option for dosing in the DT but is that what you are suggesting here? Given I dont have a QT that would be ideal but I could likely get a bucket going for a rough QT for something like this too.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yeah, I had read about this as well but was weighing treatment options since I was not sure and wanted to get opinions here. It has been almost a week with no change so I think at this point some sort of treatment is needed even though it's seemingly progressing. Not having a QT tank is the biggest issue currently so I'd prefer DT options since I only have a few snails currently or doing some baths with something like Rally Pro (comes in tomorrow)



Ruby seems to be a safe option for dosing in the DT but is that what you are suggesting here? Given I dont have a QT that would be ideal but I could likely get a bucket going for a rough QT for something like this too.

Ruby rally will be your guy
Dose at 85% of recommended

 

[certain_code]

Ruby rally will be your guy
Dose at 85% of recommended

Will give it a go once it comes in tomorrow. I purchased it over 2 weeks ago but it was out of stock so while it could have been better timing, I am glad it's coming in tomorrow. Appreciate your help!

 

[certain_code]

Well, after two days of dosing Ruby Reef Pro into the tank, per the instructions at 85% of the dose, the larger clown did not make it as of this morning. Looking closer, other than some discoloration I could not see any visible issues.

My smaller clown and tang seem to be doing okay. The tang still has brown spotting on the body but the clown otherwise seems fine. Both are eating here and there but not feasting by any means. I will probably stick with another day or two of Ruby Reef before moving to something more extreme to try for treatment. Such a bummer given this is a newer tank and otherwise seems to be doing well.

Any additional advice would be appreciated

 

[certain_code]

As a follow-up here for posterity.

Ruby Reef Pro was seemingly not doing anything after 6 days of treatment. In fact, my Tang seemed to only be getting worse and I had lost one of my Clownfish (no visual signs of an issue with this Clownfish).

After doing more reading and research, a last-ditch effort was made via a multi-approach treatment. So far, things seem to be turning around well and healing seems to be happening across the board.

The treatment approach:
1. I stopped using Ruby Reef Pro as it seemed to not be bettering the situation.
2. I started dosing the appropriate amounts of Seachem Kanaplex and Seachem Metroplex per the instructions, every other day. This was assuming that the issue was some kind of infection, likely bacterial.
3. I dosed half the recommended doses of Seachem Paraguard since this is generally a similar treatment to what Metroplex provides. Mainly this was a cautious attempt to not overdose medication but diversify treatment.
4. I dosed 1.5 times to recommended dosage of Seachem Prime. Thought here was I did start to see some trace Nitrite creep up and have Nitrate high as well even after large water changes. The tank is still new and the biofilter is likely still getting up to speed. Prime as a way to detoxify Nitrite even if not likely the problem just felt like a safe bet. I also still am not fully sure about Chlorine or Chloramines in my water and need to do some testing. My water is running through RO/DI but this might still be a factor.
5. Each week, timed before the next dose of Metro and Kana, I did a 55% water change with RO/DI mixed saltwater. Figuring this would never really hurt the situation and would maintain a safety net if anything was a bit overdone in any of the dosing.
6. Likely not a problem but I was starting to see some red algae from having my lights on 15% power. I dropped that down to 5%, for now, to reduce stress on the fish but also to kill off that growth. No more algae growth is never bad in my opinion but I hope the fish benefitted as well from this smaller change.

Note that I did this all in the display tank since I only have a few CUC currently and no coral. This felt like a safe bet given the treatment used all claim to be safe in a display without inverts and coral. I did not notice any CUC die-off.

All-in-all I am still closely monitoring the situation but the coloring on my Tang is much much better and it has only minimal visual damage that seems to be healing fairly quickly. My remaining Clownfish is doing well. Both have gone back to what seems like a normal appetite again and the Tang especially seems to be exploring much more of the tank than before. Breathing remains normal from what I can see.

I am going to dose for about another week on the above schedule, eventually taking out the Metroplex in favor of just the Paraguard and Kanaplex while remaining on the Prime doses until I can get a full water test to rule anything out there. After about a month I am going to pick up, quarantine, and introduce a replacement Clownfish to make a pair again and see how things go. At this point, I hope to have an ICP water test and not need anything else medication-wise before getting back on track with stocking the tank and starting with some coral.

Thanks all for the guidance here. I hope the above can help anyone else that starts to see similarities on their somewhat new tank.