HELP! Yellow Tang with red mouth HELP!

[puffbaby]

I have a 40 gallon salt that has been set up for over a year. It has 2 yellow tangs, 1 Scopas tang, a Coral Beauty, a Filefish, 2 brittle stars & various other inverts in it. One of my yellow tangs has developed a problem lately. It starts with a reddening of the mouth /lips & there are reddish streaks in his face. Within a few days, it goes away & then there is a distinct swelling behind one eye. This pushes his eye way out of place & he has a hard time "Seeing" where the food is~especially when it is floating flakes. The swelling resolved itself once before, but it appears that it is happening to him again. Any ideas as to what this could be? (We have checked the ammonia level & it is fine~also, no one else in the tank is affected). As I have many other fish & inverts that are healthy I am leery of adding chemicals to the tank. Also, when we have isolated him in the past, he bacame very upset & stressed when he could not see the other 2 Tangs. Any insight is appreciated as we have looked everywhere & can't even seem to find a description of this disease.
Thanks!

 

[Anonymous]

Hello, puffbaby, welcome to reefs.org.

I'm afraid that you may have hit your bioload limit with a tank as small as 40 gallons, and the result appears to be disease. It sounds as though your tang has a bacterial infection, and it won't clear up on its own.

Because of the incredible bioload you have in your tank, ammonia isn't the only issue with which to be concerned, nitrites and nitrates are only two of the others which we can easily test for that would be factors in disease. I don't mean to be harsh, but your tank is terribly overcrowded.

You must remove this tang, and in my very honest opinion you should remove at least one other as well, permanently. If you can swing a larger tank, I strongly recommend it.

Put this tang into a quarantine tank, bare-bottomed, with basic filtration and some pieces of PVC for him to hide in. Get him started on Spectrogram RIGHT AWAY, as this will NOT rectify itself on its own. There are other broad spectrum antibiotics, I go with what the LBAOP (Long Beach Aquarium) uses with great success.

 

[Anonymous]

Put a mirror up against one side of the container for him, this should help, or you could even put the other yellow tang in there with him.

However, I strongly suggest either going with a larger system for all these fish (your bioload would be better suited to a 75 gallon tank w/sump or refugium), they'll all do far better in the long run.

Also, please see our library here http://www.reefs.org/library and be sure to check out Advanced Aquarist and utilize that database as well. I will also steer you towards another good site, http://www.wetwebmedia.com with which I am also associated. Go to the Aquarium science or marine articles links to look up diseases. Does the fish look anything like this...?

 

[puffbaby]

Thanks for your info. We are in the process of setting up a 125 Gallon. In the meantime, I'll move him to a 10 gallon quarantine tank. An suggestions for an antibacterial (antibiotic) agent?

 

[Anonymous]

I like Spectrogram, broad spectrum for both gram pos and gram neg bacteria. It's also what the LBAOP uses, on fishes and some inverts. Other folks like Maracyn (including II) and Melafix.

I'll also suggest you start feeding the fish nori and spirulina soaked in Selcon, it's a pretty good supplement, gotta give 'em all the help we can, yeah?

 

[Terry B]

If I read your description right then your fish is suffering from what is referred to as “Red Pest”. The Yellow tang in the photo has HLLE which is an entirely different condition. Red pest is caused by stressful water conditions which make the fish susceptible to vibrio bacteria that are normally not a problem but probably always present in marine aquariums. The red you see is actually hemorrhaging caused by this bacterial infection.
The good news is that “Red Pest” usually responds well to LARGE water changes with well mixed (at least 24 hours) and aerated water. This is very common in Yellow tangs. Check your pH because anything below 8.0 can be enough to make the fish symptomatic.
I would make two water changes (one each day) and see how the fish responds. If the water changes alone do not do the trick (usually works) then you may have to treat with an antibiotic. Furacyn (nitrofurazone) and Maracyn-Two are great choices. Spectogram can work well also but I would prefer the one of the other two.
The others are right about your aquarium being too small for the fish that you keep. Tangs do need a much larger tank, even if you only had one.
Terry B