Injury, Parasite, . . .?

[fry_school101]

I have small yellow tang in quarantine and he has a spot on his side. It was very small when I first got him (a little over week ago) but it is getting larger. I couldn't get a pic from the front, but there seems to be a small hair? bone? parasite? something stick out or hanging on. I was getting ready to try copper, but my fish med book was saying not to use that if they had an open wound. I'm having trouble deciding what it is. Does anyone know what this might be?

 

 

 

[dakotasreef]

I am by no means an expert when it comes to marine fish sickness/disease. But I would guess because of its circular shape and the "hair" you described, I would say it might be a parasite. It is possible that the parasite could have caused an open wound. I would look for a parasite treatment and such.

 

Hopefully someone who knows more about fish treatment/parasites could chime in.

[Jon Lazar]

It's hard to tell without a clearer picture, but I realize it's hard to take a clear, focused picture of a sick fish in dim lighting. Good for you for not using using a medication with serious side effects when you don't have a good diagnosis of the problem. Sometimes an uninformed treatment is worse than doing nothing.

 

Could it be a scrape or sore that just isn't getting better yet, and you're seeing a bit of tissue hanging off? Otherwise the "hanging off" thing could be an external worm or fluke, for which I would consider using praziquantel. It's a pretty safe medication and effective for external parasites.

 

The redness in the tang's tail region might indicate a secondary infection or septicemia. Once the hole/hanging thing is fixed, you might need to use an antibiotic. The fish may recover just fine from an infection though without medication if you keep ammonia and nitrites at zero and the fish well feed with nutritious frozen food.

 

Finally, there's an excellent fish disease forum on Marine Depot here: Kelly Jedlicki's MD forum. I would spend some time reading through the posts and answers, and also post your question there.

 

Good luck,

Jon

[Coral Hind]

It could be an anchor worm. I had a hippo tang with one before and it was easy to kill. They are parasitic copepods so a simple short dip will kill them. I used Jungle's potassium permanganate with the directions from the algone site below. I have read posts of other people killing them with a freshwater or Formalin dips.

 

http://www.algone.com/aquarium-articles/fish-health/aquarium-worms

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/docs/health/potper.shtml

 

Warning - Do not mix formalin with potassium permanganate for a combined dip. The two mixed together can cause a fire.

[fry_school101]

Looking at images on google, that's exactly what it looks like! Kind of like a bone through the skin with some irritation around it.

 

I don't think I have any potassium permanganate. I'll see if I can pick some up tonight. Thank you all for the replies!

[Coral Hind]

Most brands will market potassium permanganate as a water clarifier. It also works great as a dip for monti eating nubies.