Yellow tank and possibly flukes?

[JustinMN18]

Long story short, my yellow tang suddenly stopped eating and swimming out in the open, had some redness, and also was flashing. I quarantined it in copper and antibiotics for about 10 days, and the entire time in QT it seemed fine (wouldn't eat though). No flashing, healed from the red spots, and as soon as I put it back into DT, it seemed perfect.

Flash forward about a month, and it's eating perfectly, and swimming actively, but has a white face and redness all over.

None of my other fish or inverts have any issues (bristletooth tang, foxface, 2 clowns, melenarus wrasse, mccoskers wrasse, gramma, 2x fire fish, goby, starfish, nems, urchins, etc) at all. All eat and swim perfectly, no flashing or spots or any issue at all.

I'm running UV, and had previously been running BRS ROX carbon. I stopped the carbon, and doesn't seem to make a difference. It seems to be getting worse.

It was mentioned to me it could be flukes. I did do a freshwater dip in QT, and didn't notice flukes in the container, but I know it can be hard to see and there's no guarantee a FW dip will expose them. I have attached pictures, and wondering what people might think the issue is.

I have copper power, kanaplex, metroplex, and prazipro available, as well as an empty QT tank running. I was told maybe try prazipro in DT because it could be flukes.

Any thoughts on what could be happening?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Flukes typically cause flashing/scratching, and gill flukes can cause rapid breathing. Only one species of fluke is large enough to see in a dip.
Some of what I see looks like how YT show HLLE…but that doesn’t account for all the symptoms. It is fairly common to have fish with multiple problems.
How long after you moved the fish back to the DT did the redness return?
Jay

 

[JustinMN18]

Flukes typically cause flashing/scratching, and gill flukes can cause rapid breathing. Only one species of fluke is large enough to see in a dip.
Some of what I see looks like how YT show HLLE…but that doesn’t account for all the symptoms. It is fairly common to have fish with multiple problems.
How long after you moved the fish back to the DT did the redness return?
Jay

I would say it took about 1-2 weeks after moving back to DT, before I saw the redness.

My biggest concern with following what you said before, is "nothing else seems impacted". So I put together a QT tank today with water from my dt (after water change) in case i just absolutely have to take it out again. I feel bad for it lol.

From a hlle perspective, I stopped carbon. My tank params are

Ammonia 0
Nitrate 5
Phosphate 0.20 (working on this with nopox)
Alk 9.0
Calcium 500
pH 8.0

I do have a grounding probe.... Worth plugging in? Worth doing QT again with prazi? If prazi works, then treat the DT? If prazi doesn't work..... Maybe bacterial? I have no clue haha. Thanks Jay

Justin

 

[Daddydecoy]

I know this is a few months old, but how is the tang? I'm having a similar issue and just posted it. Our tang is the only one showing symptoms of an infection. It's still acting normal but can see white spots on it. Did any of the medications you use clear it up?

 

[JustinMN18]

I know this is a few months old, but how is the tang? I'm having a similar issue and just posted it. Our tang is the only one showing symptoms of an infection. It's still acting normal but can see white spots on it. Did any of the medications you use clear it up?

I never saw white spots. I had what looked like HLLE on the yellow tang, flashing (scratching), hiding, and swimming in flow.

I believe it was flukes. I ended up doing 2 rounds of prazi pro in my display tank and that seemed to help. Still some visible white around the face, but appears to be getting better.

If you can take some pictures of what your guy looks like, I can try to help.

 

[Daddydecoy]

I never saw white spots. I had what looked like HLLE on the yellow tang, flashing (scratching), hiding, and swimming in flow.

I believe it was flukes. I ended up doing 2 rounds of prazi pro in my display tank and that seemed to help. Still some visible white around the face, but appears to be getting better.

If you can take some pictures of what your guy looks like, I can try to help.

You can see thr raised white spots in the photo without the marks on it. The marks show the location.

 

[JustinMN18]

You can see thr raised white spots in the photo without the marks on it. The marks show the location.

You could try a freshwater dip to see if anything falls off. I'm not really sure what your fish might be going through. Is it scratching against surfaces and stuff?

 

[Daddydecoy]

You could try a freshwater dip to see if anything falls off. I'm not really sure what your fish might be going through. Is it scratching against surfaces and stuff?

No it's not, which is weird... so I'm pretty stumped

 

[NEM Aquatics]

Was this ever resolved for sure? My yellow tang I've had for over a year started hiding and going through hunger strikes in February, and has progressed to the point where most of its body is white and faded. Recently lost an otherwise healthy and eating Fox Face quite suddenly, like went from swimming and eating to convulsing and dying in 20 minutes. Noticed my Kole Tang being sort of a jerk, so maybe tank aggression? Still...some of the symptoms sound like yours. It is the only fish seemingly affected. Besides the now-dead FF obviously.

 

[JustinMN18]

Was this ever resolved for sure? My yellow tang I've had for over a year started hiding and going through hunger strikes in February, and has progressed to the point where most of its body is white and faded. Recently lost an otherwise healthy and eating Fox Face quite suddenly, like went from swimming and eating to convulsing and dying in 20 minutes. Noticed my Kole Tang being sort of a jerk, so maybe tank aggression? Still...some of the symptoms sound like yours. It is the only fish seemingly affected. Besides the now-dead FF obviously.

Sorry to hear you're going through this. It sucks when this stuff happens.

Do you see any white spots like ich or velvet?

I truly think Prazipro was the answer. I did a freshwater dip and couldn't see flukes, but after doing that, everything has been getting better. The fish is yellow, and the dorsal fin is slowly growing back.

I'd check for stray voltage, just to make sure you don't have something like that messing with the tank.

I dosed prazipro in qt, the tang got seemingly better and eating more. Then back into DT, and it started coming back. So just dosed two rounds in DT, and everyone has been perfectly fine.

I strongly suggest combing through and posting on humblefish. Good luck man, let me know how things go for you.

Prazipro is reef safe btw. Just follow the directions.

 

[NEM Aquatics]

Sorry to hear you're going through this. It sucks when this stuff happens.

Do you see any white spots like ich or velvet?

I truly think Prazipro was the answer. I did a freshwater dip and couldn't see flukes, but after doing that, everything has been getting better. The fish is yellow, and the dorsal fin is slowly growing back.

I'd check for stray voltage, just to make sure you don't have something like that messing with the tank.

I dosed prazipro in qt, the tang got seemingly better and eating more. Then back into DT, and it started coming back. So just dosed two rounds in DT, and everyone has been perfectly fine.

I strongly suggest combing through and posting on humblefish. Good luck man, let me know how things go for you.

Prazipro is reef safe btw. Just follow the directions.

Sorry for the super super late reply here. A lot happened between May and now; tank crash, sump cracked, dosed prazi, etc. Honestly, nothing I did ended up helping my YT. However, it seemed to randomly recover soon after replacing my cracked sump. It has been months and months since then, and it seems to have fully recovered with no re-occurrences. Can confirm there is 100% no velvet or ich in the tank due to my QT procedure. Seems like another one of those reefing mysteries, but luckily it worked out in my favor for a change!