Naso Tang Sickness

[HisKid]

I have a small Naso tang with no apparent disease. It has no notable signs of sickness on its fins, gill covers, or skin; however, it is breathing fast, and it is in a constant state of stress. It was fine when I went to bed last night, but it was stressed out this morning and has not eaten all day. I called a guy at my LFS (whom I trust, because he has like 30 odd years experience as a reefer) and he suggested a fresh water dip. He said that sometimes the diseases are transparent until the fresh water hits them. Something about the parasite cant control the amount of intake on fresh water like it can in salt water. I typically believe him, so I dipped my Naso for 15 minutes.

Wouldn't you know that these little tiny white spot (almost looks like bubbles) started to form and fall off my Naso!! So, I left him in and it was like a string of pearls. Just coated in mucus, just a lot of little white dots in a mucus string!

Does anyone have any Idea what I am dealing with? If so, what is the proper treatment?

Needless to say, I quaranteed the little guy.

Please reply if you have any useful input.

 

[Mike612]

If you don't have a Cleaner Shrimp in your tank, you should get a couple. They are big stress relievers. Also, I don't understand what you mean by stressed. Was he hiding more than usual? Was he shaking? Also, tangs in general breathe faster than other fish so are you saying that he was breathing faster than usual?

 

[dadstank]

what do you mean that cleaner shrimp are "big stress realivers"?

 

[Mike612]

I've had a lot of luck using them to relieve my fish of stress. Some times my fish would start acting funny like they would start shaking weirdly, some times they change color, etc... When my shrimp starts to clean them, they are happy. Just recently I bought a Powder Blue Tang for my other reef that was nice and plump at the store and was eating frozen mysis shrimp. When I added him to the tank, he wasn't eating the first couple of days and he was shaking like he was scared and didn't know what was going on. That same day I saw him go up to my Cleaner Shrimp and the Cleaner Shrimp cleaned him up a bit and then the tang started to eat. By cleaning the parasites (whatever parasites the tang had because I couldn't see them very well), the fish felt relieved and happier. A Cleaner Shrimp would probably be able to clean up those parasites you were talking about. Fish can be very stressed out when they are covered in parasites. When the parasites are gone, they tend to get back to normal. That's my experience and opinion.

 

[HisKid]

First,

Thanks for the replys. Unfortunately a cleaner will not catch this particular issue as the infection is not caused by standard parasitic fare. My UV sterilizer seems to have done the trick for controlling the spread of the bacteria, but it is still too soon to tell for sure.

Update,

My fish has Brooklynella. For those of you who aren't familiar with this disease, it is a bactirial infection that attacks quickly and causes considerable damage to its host. Its common name is 'Turbidity of the skin'.

According to the Diseases in Marine Aquarium Fish book it shoud be treated with 37% formaldehyde in combination with malachite green and controlled fresh water dips. Then neomycin should be used to prevent a secondary infection. Total treatment time is about 2 weeks. The book goes on to say that chances of survival are poor, since the final stages include gill hemorrhagging.

I went out and bought all the medications and the stuff to set up another hospital tank, so I will keep you all posted (assuming anyone cares).

 

[HisKid]

Update,

Sorry I haven't been around for a while, but I am back.

Unfortunately, my Naso didn't survive. I live on the east coast and the snowstorm knocked out my power for 2 days. I had to go buy a generator to power my reef (and the rest of my house).

The power went out after we all went to bed, and was out all night. My O-tank is in my laundery room which doesn't have adiquate insulation as it is also a mud room. We woke up, dug out, and went to the hardware store to get a generator. My Naso was dead by the time I got home. I guess the temp change was too much stress for the little guy.

At least I was able to save everything else. My reef is looking great, aside from a diatom infestation; probably due to the temperature change from the power outage. I bought an Abalone to compress the cleanup time. So all should be good after a week or two.