Yellow Tang sick - white looking worm in mouth

R33f_Hacker · Jan 31, 2021

Hello everyone!

First post on r2r!! Got into reefing about 7 months ago and I'm hooked

. Thanks in advance for your help.

I have a 40b mixed reef (fish and corals) which as been running great for 7 months. Please don't beat me up on having a tang in smaller tank. Unknowingly I followed the recommendations to buy him from a old LFS before I knew better. In process of upgrading to a 90g. Live and learn but he has been a happy camper always.

I noticed a few days ago my YT wasn't eating much. Since yesterday he has not eating anything. I feed my tank daily w green algae paper w/ garlic and my mysis/ brine. I add garlic guard to the mysis/brine and just started using a few drops selcon as well. YT has been super happy in my tank for months. I noticed yesterday that he has a worm looking white thing flicking in and out of his mouth when he breathes. His mouth has always been a lll red. I figured it was from pecking at rock etc. IDK if normal

He has always had a little white around his eyes and some white haze around back of him which could only really be noticed in blue light. Didn't seem like the pictures of ich I saw online. he was always eating and happy so I didn't worry to much.

My water pm are good. I don't have any bristle worms. I recently found 3 aiptasia . waiting on aiptasia-x to arrive to get rid of them. All my other fish and corals are very health.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Pics below. U can see the "white worm thing" coming out of his mouth and you can see the white haze / dry skin looking area around his back. I do not have a QT tank but have been reading up on how to make one just in case. THANKS!

ph 8.1 (api test)
kh 9 (Red Sea test)
cal 420 (Red Sea test)
mag 1300. (Red Sea test)
ammonia btwn .5 - .10 (api test)
nitrite 0 (api test)
nitrate 12 ppm (red sea kit)

gentlefish · Jan 31, 2021

Welcome. Started myself ( not knowing better) with a YT. 11 years later doing well in 750 L. The redness impresses as inflammation with associated mucus. I do not perceive that there is a specific therapy. Myself, I feed the spirolina brine shrimps. The nori should be dried not toasted to retain vitamins. Best of luck!

ca1ore · Jan 31, 2021

Don’t think it’s a worm. Looks like either sloughing skin or mucus. I’d get it into a hospital tank with a broad spectrum antibiotic.

If you cannot treat it, find a local reefer who can? YT have become precious.

R33f_Hacker · Jan 31, 2021

gentlefish said:
Welcome. Started myself ( not knowing better) with a YT. 11 years later doing well in 750 L. The redness impresses as inflammation with associated mucus. I do not perceive that there is a specific therapy. Myself, I feed the spirolina brine shrimps. The nori should be dried not toasted to retain vitamins. Best of luck!

Thanks for the reply and the info. Going to look into what type of nori I’m using. Thanks

R33f_Hacker · Jan 31, 2021

gentlefish said:
Welcome. Started myself ( not knowing better) with a YT. 11 years later doing well in 750 L. The redness impresses as inflammation with associated mucus. I do not perceive that there is a specific therapy. Myself, I feed the spirolina brine shrimps. The nori should be dried not toasted to retain vitamins. Best of luck!

I’ll look into that. My nori didn’t say it. Thanks!

R33f_Hacker · Jan 31, 2021

ca1ore said:
Don’t think it’s a worm. Looks like either sloughing skin or mucus. I’d get it into a hospital tank with a broad spectrum antibiotic.

If you cannot treat it, find a local reefer who can? YT have become precious.

Yeah gonna grab a small tank 10 gal and make a QT. Thinking of transferring 10 gal from main tank to the qt and move a small hob filter to it. Is it that simple? Heading to a lfs now to get meds. And put a Plan together. And yes I heard they are hard to come by now. Ty!

Jay Hemdal · Jan 31, 2021

R33f_Hacker said:
Hello everyone!

First post on r2r!! Got into reefing about 7 months ago and I'm hooked . Thanks in advance for your help.

I have a 40b mixed reef (fish and corals) which as been running great for 7 months. Please don't beat me up on having a tang in smaller tank. Unknowingly I followed the recommendations to buy him from a old LFS before I knew better. In process of upgrading to a 90g. Live and learn but he has been a happy camper always.

I noticed a few days ago my YT wasn't eating much. Since yesterday he has not eating anything. I feed my tank daily w green algae paper w/ garlic and my mysis/ brine. I add garlic guard to the mysis/brine and just started using a few drops selcon as well. YT has been super happy in my tank for months. I noticed yesterday that he has a worm looking white thing flicking in and out of his mouth when he breathes. His mouth has always been a lll red. I figured it was from pecking at rock etc. IDK if normal

He has always had a little white around his eyes and some white haze around back of him which could only really be noticed in blue light. Didn't seem like the pictures of ich I saw online. he was always eating and happy so I didn't worry to much.

My water pm are good. I don't have any bristle worms. I recently found 3 aiptasia . waiting on aiptasia-x to arrive to get rid of them. All my other fish and corals are very health.

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Pics below. U can see the "white worm thing" coming out of his mouth and you can see the white haze / dry skin looking area around his back. I do not have a QT tank but have been reading up on how to make one just in case. THANKS!

ph 8.1 (api test)
kh 9 (Red Sea test)
cal 420 (Red Sea test)
mag 1300. (Red Sea test)
ammonia btwn .5 - .10 (api test)
nitrite 0 (api test)
nitrate 12 ppm (red sea kit)

The tang has a little bit of epithelial thinning, but that is really just cosmetic.
The stringy thing looks like mucus/skin hanging out of the mouth. That combined with the redness leads me to think t injured itself by running into something. Moving it to a treatment tank and dosing with antibiotics would be a good idea. Trouble is, a ten gallon tank is pretty small, and could lead to additional injury.
Jay

R33f_Hacker · Jan 31, 2021

Thanks Jay. I do have access to a 29 gal tank. Will take a lil more to clean up but I see the value to keep him well.
Any suggested products, type of treatment or any do or don’t. My First time treating a fish
Ty!