Yellow tang has eye problem...please help

[mooner]

All,

I found my Yellow Tang looking like this today. I got this shot which shows pretty well a comparison between his two eyes. As you can see, his Left eye (which is on the right of the pic) is hazy and white. There seems to be a film on it and its a bit swollen.

What shall I do? My water is very clean and all params are great. This fish was netted last week to move from one tank to another so I wonder if it may have been scratched then?

Please let me know what you think.

Thanks.

 

[mooner]

I also just noticed this fish has some sort of tan colored growth on several parts on his body. It looks like a filmy substance that has a "thickness" to it. It's mainly on his dorsal fin and around his head. You can see it in the pic along his fin.

When he turns just right I can see that this film is thick and sticks out a little bit from his body. Kind of like a gelatinous coverage. WTH is this stuff?

I hope to get some answers soon because I am about to QT him.

 

[Anonymous]

The eye is more than likely an injury. May or may not have been the netting. The "gelatinous" film I can't offer an idea on at this point. I really need to find my disease book!

 

[mooner]

The eye is more than likely an injury. May or may not have been the netting. The "gelatinous" film I can't offer an idea on at this point. I really need to find my disease book!

Seamaiden,

Thanks so much! I will hold off on the QT but I am prepping it now. I will get you some more detailed pics ASAP. I know you are good at this stuff so I will trust your judgment. My main concerns are of course the fish and the rest of my tank's health. I'd hate to let this spread if it has not already.

Posting pics very soon...

 

[mooner]

OK. These are the best I can get. I wonder if the brown dots around his eyes are normal or part of this stuff. I have never studied a fish so close so I cannot recall if it was already there or not. There is some stringy brownish stuff on several parts of his body now including his eye.

I can't get enough resolution to get the film in the pic clearly. It is somewhat transparent so its tough to see.

 

[mooner]

I felt I had too much to lose so I did the QT. I did a 10 gallon water change and used the old water for the QT tank and added new to the main tank and sump. Right now the QT has a heater set at 80 deg, a bubbler stone and a large shell for shelter.

He is in the QT now and I was wondering what to do as far as treatment. Should I just wait to see if it gets better or treat with copper or something else? I have some Coppersafe but that is for freshwater (its been around a while) so I guess its off to the LFS for me once I decide on how to treat.

 

[Garry thomas]

Apart from he has cloudy eye, he is rather thin! This may not be just a water problem, he does look like a good feed would'nt hurt him. Normally a healthy tang, would'nt be as susceptable to disease as a healthy fat specimen. Fresh water dips will clear this up, but please watch his health, in future with a proper diet.

 

[mooner]

Apart from he has cloudy eye, he is rather thin! This may not be just a water problem, he does look like a good feed would'nt hurt him. Normally a healthy tang, would'nt be as susceptable to disease as a healthy fat specimen. Fresh water dips will clear this up, but please watch his health, in future with a proper diet.

It eats normally but I will take that into consideration. Can you recommend the exact procedure for a freshwater dip? I have never had to do one before. Thanks.

 

[Garry thomas]

Firstly the fresh water you use must match your temp ph etc of your tank, not to cause to much stress. You then place the fish into the tank, he will loose orientation for a few seconds, then he will recover. You must watch this procedjure from start to finish. If the fish/tang is in no distress leave him in there for around a minute and half. But i repeat, only if it shows no stress. Plus it would hurt to put a few drops of iodine in the water. Which will also help with the eye. How long have you had the tang :?:

 

[mooner]

OK. Did the freshwater dip. I got the pH to within .1 using a few drops of kalkwasser and the temp was a match. I put in 1 drop of iodine as it was just a small container. He took it quite well and I left him in for 90 seconds then back into QT.

So now do I just monitor him?

I have had the fish for about 2 weeks.

 

[Anonymous]

Well, yes. However, as Garry has pointed out the fish is thin. In my opinion he's painfully thin, though.

Epsom salts can be used to treat exophthalmia, though as I said before I don't think that's what it is (usually presents in both eyes, not just one). I've always done freshwater dips for as long as the fish can take it, up to approximately 7 minutes. However, I also only do this for newly received fish and when dealing with parasitic infections--Cryptocaryons, Amyloodinium, Black Spot disease (quite common with tangs!), never for perceived bacterial infections.

I will gently chide you for not making use of q/t, please get in the habit. Then I would suggest getting some Selcon and nori (or other dried seaweed). If the fish is eating, STUFF him with as much Selcon-soaked seaweed as you can, he is in sore need and can't fight anything when he's in such condition. Maybe Garry or someone else has other ideas, I have also used romaine lettuce to keep tangs fat and healthy, but never with animals that appear to be in this condition. However, if he takes it, give it to him. Also, don't be afraid to give him some meaty foods, but AVOID brine shrimp!

 

[Garry thomas]

Sea maiden, he looks painfully thin to me, but i beat about the bush, as they say. No offence intended but tangs normally in this state when bought, rarely recover. but lets hope it will recover. These freshwater dips, will carry on daily, for at least a week to 10 days, if he is strong enough, it will do no harm to him. I also dip for a lot longer than suggested, but for a newbie to fresh water dipping it's better to underestimate the time than go over, i hope you understand. Food wise, lots of spirulina/nori seaweed based products. Mysis shrimp is great also. I am not aware of food ads over the sea, but vitamin sups etc would do fine. I genuinly feel for this fish and want it to recover, so mooner do your best my friend, on improving it's conditions. And again no offence intended, just a caring thought on bringing this fish back to health. I have 7 fat healthy yellow tangs in my tank, take a look at the colour differance between a surviving tang and some super happy ones. Good luck! try your best.........GT

 

[mooner]

Sea maiden, he looks painfully thin to me, but i beat about the bush, as they say. No offence intended but tangs normally in this state when bought, rarely recover. but lets hope it will recover. These freshwater dips, will carry on daily, for at least a week to 10 days, if he is strong enough, it will do no harm to him. I also dip for a lot longer than suggested, but for a newbie to fresh water dipping it's better to underestimate the time than go over, i hope you understand. Food wise, lots of spirulina/nori seaweed based products. Mysis shrimp is great also. I am not aware of food ads over the sea, but vitamin sups etc would do fine. I genuinly feel for this fish and want it to recover, so mooner do your best my friend, on improving it's conditions. And again no offence intended, just a caring thought on bringing this fish back to health. I have 7 fat healthy yellow tangs in my tank, take a look at the colour differance between a surviving tang and some super happy ones. Good luck! try your best.........GT

GT,

Don't worry about offending me, I need the advice. I will try for a bit longer on the next dip. The fish looks pretty bad off agreed. I just thought it was a "young" one when I bought it and so I didn't see the thinness as a sign of poor health. This was my first tang so I suppose we live and learn.

I called my LFS and they went on the defensive right away and all I was calling them for was to enquire about other tangs that might have come in with this one. They had very little to say other than it was not their fault. Whatever. I don't care about the $ I spent I nor do I want to point fingers, I just want to save this fish.

The fresh dips will continue starting tomorrow and I will try to feed the recommended foods. So far it is refusing all food.

All help is VERY appreciated and I will keep this thread as active as is needed.

 

[cdeakle]

hey mooner,

Sorry to see the trouble your going through. Two things, I this guy could have possible been cyanide caught. I had a mandarin that looked skinny like that and i later found out that he was probably caught with cyanide. He ate and ate but still got really skinny and eventually died =(.


Second, I had a friend with a 100 gallon tank that got ick and all of his fish eventually perished. The last to go was a Foxface Lo that he had. I took him and tried to nurse him back but he didnt make it. What was odd is that both of his eyes look EXACTLY liek yours does. I mean exactly, but you only have it in one eye. In the foxface case it was ick and I think in the process he might have damaged his eye by bumping into a rock.

It could be one of the following:

1)ick
2)cyanide poisining
3)damaged eye

 

[Garry thomas]

I can assure you that what this fish has is not ich, cloudy eye is a bacterial infection, brought on by stress, or bad water conditions or both. Ich is a totally differant parasite, not a bacterial infection. Although the same treatment, can be used for both ailments.

 

[mooner]

Yeah, I don't believe it's ich. No white dots, etc I will treat this as a bacterial infection foing forward with freshwater dips. Unless something else happens that points to some specific disease I'll treat it in a more generic way.

420puff, thanks for the info tho. Everything counts at this stage. BTW, my urchin started cranking it out about 30 minutes ago! Took 6 days. That's some good news for the day...

 

[cdeakle]

Took about that long or a little longer for me. Man this skimmer rocks!!

Does anyone else think this fish might be cyanide caught? Because of how skinny he is he looks very similar to the mandarin that I had. He was really skinny and at times I also thought he had a bacterial infection as well.......

 

[Garry thomas]

Catching fish with Cyanide, is still practised , i believe in some parts. But most reliable exporter/fish holding stations know that this is bad business nowadays. If a fish is caught with cyanide, it is not going to be like a stick insect overnight, although long term these fish will eventually perish. Hopefully the diver who caught them as well 8O. Sorry to be a pain 420 puff, but it's better to point something out, than let you carry on with this thing about skinny fish, all being caught with cyanide. Because it is not correct. :roll: Before any fish is sent, it is actually not fed, not to soil it's normally small amount of water. It could be in the holding station for some time, which is not uncommon. So when they get to there destination, wether it be stateside or even worse britain. They are in that water a long time. The losses are still quite high, a lot of stress is placed on the animal. It's still not fed straight away, needs to be aclimatised etc. Some fish never start eating and simply perish, over a small period of time,. And nothing to do with cyanide. Mooning was this tang eating at the LFS? How is it today, my friend

 

[naesco]

Mooner everyone is being polite.
Your fish is emaciated. It should be plump. Your fish is starving.
Start feeding that fish spirulina foods immediately and often.
Soak the food in selcon.
Also buy some caulerpa or other live algae from the LFS or online like www.seacrop.com
Use neomycin or Maracyn 2 in your QT to clear up the infection.

 

[naesco]

Catching fish with Cyanide, is still practised , i believe in some parts. But most reliable exporter/fish holding stations know that this is bad business nowadays. If a fish is caught with cyanide, it is not going to be like a stick insect overnight, although long term these fish will eventually perish. Hopefully the diver who caught them as well 8O. Sorry to be a pain 420 puff, but it's better to point something out, than let you carry on with this thing about skinny fish, all being caught with cyanide. Because it is not correct. :roll: Before any fish is sent, it is actually not fed, not to soil it's normally small amount of water. It could be in the holding station for some time, which is not uncommon. So when they get to there destination, wether it be stateside or even worse britain. They are in that water a long time. The losses are still quite high, a lot of stress is placed on the animal. It's still not fed straight away, needs to be aclimatised etc. Some fish never start eating and simply perish, over a small period of time,. And nothing to do with cyanide. Mooning was this tang eating at the LFS? How is it today, my friend

Gary yellow tangs sold in the US come from Hawaii where cyanide is not used.
But, you need to know that the use of cyanide is prevalent in both Philippines and Indonesia where by far the majority of the fish sold in the US come from. Cheap cyanide fish come in by the tonnes but there are many other sources for fish other than these two countries.
(Not a flame) How did your MI's fare? You can PM me.