Yellow tang with reddish areas

[ShagManOrg]

Hi all,

I have a yellow tang that's got a nagging reddish coat that's on his tailfin and parts of his torso. No other fish are affected (Coral Beauty angel, green damsels, clownfish). The tank (100G, 9 months old) is coming back from a nasty cucumber death (killed all featherdusters and LSB animals, doh!), and I recently removed the wet/dry (bioballs) in favor of a 20G sump. The basic chemicals(salinity, temp, PH, nitrates/nitrites, ammonia) are in the typical/good ranges, this tank is solid. I tried and tried to get a good picture, but this was the best I could come up with:

Thanks in advance for any responses.

 

[Anonymous]

two of the possibilities are:

light hemorrhage from a bacterial infection (bhs)-also diet,-i've seen yellow tangs take up quite abit of red color from eating red algae-what is it eating?

also fwiw-your tang looks a little bit thin around the head area (could be the pic)-start feeding it a bit more, maybe-the forehead and eye area should not be that thin.

hth

 

[ShagManOrg]

Either of those possibliities could be the problem; I've been overrun (currently recovering) from a brown algea problem, and the tang's been eating a lot of it; I've also slacked off on feeding him the dried seaweed strips that have been his diet in the past because it seemed he liked the brown algea. I'll start feeding him the strips again ASAP.

P.S. false alarm about the cucumber, he's still alive, I found him today. I don't know what caused my tank to "tank" over the past few months, but the algea bloom is subsiding, water's getting clearer... whatever it was killed all my featherdusters (small kind, 200+) and the sand is, best I can tell, dead, no amphipods anymore. The cucumber is alive and well, and the fighting conchs are loving the brown algea diet, very active.

Thanks for the answer!

 

[Anonymous]

fwiw-give him some nice meaty foods, too-chopped clam-and a high quality flake-(osi is good)-to help keep up his fat reserves where they should be

hth

 

[robertnb64]

Mine had the same thing. I did not see him scrape against any rocks, I thought they were scrapes. My lfs said not to worry, It would cause more stress trying to catch him and treat with antibiotics. I did nothing except feed my prime reef and seeweed soaked in vitaimins c and zoecon. Within 2 to 3 weeks it was gone and he is fine. Good Luck.