Sick 10" Mata Tang. Help!

Not that it eats the flesh but a fish that loses its slime coat is HIGHLY subseptible to every other disease bacteria etc. Is he rapidly breathing because the parasite really attacks the gills to point can't breath. So no oxygen, highly stressed, no slime coat. Not good. My coral beauty angel lost all fins in a day think it got fun Rot from the lack of coat. So sorry again

 

This tang was the last fish I added and came from an individual's 300 gallon tank. The first night I put him in QT I saw crypto like cysts that I didn't see in the owners tank but the water was a little dirty and green.

 

And yes had been rapidly breathing for the last 4 days. I started cupramine Thursday morning because I assumed it was Velvet that I mistakenly identified as crypto. I've never dealt with brook. The areas that are now covered in this peeling coating I mistook for black ich because it started as black salt like spots so I treated prazi pro

 

This seems to always be the case.. The big guy looks horrible.. Brook is a terrible disease; I hope he makes it, but there's not a high success rate. I remember watching my clowns go through it with my girlfriend in tears as they suffered and eventually passed on to the big tank in the sky.

 

Ok guys, I can't believe it but the guy is a fighter. I want to do everything I can to help him.

I found him on his side this morning breathing rapidly. I assumed he would be gone within a couple hours but just had the girlfriend check on him and he's out swimming. He clearly has some erosion and looks like some areas where flesh is showing through. The only thing that has changed since yesterday is dosing Oxytetracyclin (had to use the cattle version from farm and fleet) last night and then I did a water change shortly after because he seemed to be having adverse reactions to it however some is still in the water. I did the water change and got the salinity down to around 1.010. I'm stopping by the LFS soon and am going to get a good antibiotic.

I'm assuming because the flesh is showing, he couldn't take a formalin bath and I assume that anything containing formalin would be out?

I just took a video, you can clearly see the skin being eaten away exposing flesh. I'm really leaning towards something bacterial at this point!

Also, I apologize for my son, he's 2 and I correct him constantly for trying to hit the tanks. I told the GF to shut the light back off and stay out for now.

 

Hey, keep doing what your doing. He does look good swimming around. Remember there is no way we can absolutely diagnose what it is especially through computers. We can only take educated guesses. I agree formalin would probably do more damage and an antibotic would help more at this point anyway on the open sores. Hoping for the best. Definitely let us know how it turns out, You may have found another treatment option with the cattle pills LOL

 

Well I stopped into the LFS and showed the owner and he named off a bacterial disease that he said it looked like. He's older and been in the business for decades. He gave me triple sulfa and says it was a good broad range antibiotic, I'm starting it today.

 

good luck! in the pictures he looks awful but the video suggests a good chance - he is definitely a fighter. I'm not knowledgeable about diseases at all but it sounds like you're on the right track with a broad antibiotic! please keep us updated! that is a beautiful fish

 

Well this morning has been very positive! He looks horrible but I went downstairs to find him swimming around without stopping to lay in the bottom and rest. The antibiotics are definitely working. I stopped again last night and picked up erythromycin to combine with the triple sulfa and have gram negative and gram positive antibiotics in there. I attempted a little food this morning and he wasn't interested but I know it's early.

Also the previous owners had named him Rick and is being huge fans of the Walking Dead feel that he is living up to the name.. lol

Now going forward, I've never treated s fish that had lost skin, will it grow back? Will it take a long time? And will I need to keep meds in the water throughout to keep him from being re-infected? I plan to keep the salinity low around 1.010 to help keep other parasites at bay.

 

Pics from this morning