My Dori Looks Sick....

Thanks for the reply and recommendation. She does have a few white specs on her body that look like you could flick them off, but I was more worried about the black spots on her face area. Here is a picture I took of her last week and a picture I took yesterday. They are of the same area and are also thumbnails. They should open to a larger picture when you click on them. If they aren't working, please let me know. Again, thank you!!!!!

 

I have read about everything there is to know on tangs...and they DO get black ich (persay)...its called Tang Disease as well...feel free to google it and see if the pics you find resemble what your little Dori is facing.

 

Ivy, for what it is worth, My Blue Tang went through this, almost looked like a cloud around him. eyes got white spots and black spots on face have always been there. Mine looked worse than yours. It lasted about 2-3 weeks. He cleared up after that and has been fine ever since. Keep feeding healthy. Good luck!!

 

great post rob. I think people try dumping too many chemicals in their tanks for the reef to mature and start looking nice. I also think that way too often we break our tanks down to catch a single fish just to drop it into a qt tank that is way too small just to stress it even more and kill it. I have 3 tangs, 2 of which I have had for 2 years or more and the third had the worst case of hole in the head disease that I have ever laid eyes on. None of my fish have ever been medicated in any way other than with some garlic in the food. Just a good stable enviornment with plenty of flow (tangs like water movement) and good food. My purple tang is the one that had hole in the head and all he has to show for it now is his scars.

 

It is tang turellarian disease, Black spot. Which is actually not a disease but rather a parasite-Paravortex flatworms. The best treatment is a cleaner shrimp, or in my case a blood red shrimp with cleaning behaviors. You can also use a dip, but I think it's kind of harsh when it can be done more natural.

 

Thanks again for the replies guys. I did a google search for tang disease and it looks to be it. She is still very active and eating well. She actually looks a little better today as well, but that could be deceiving. I have seen her swim up beside on of the two cleaner shrimp I have for a little cleaning. I think that one of my Clarkii clowns have bullied the shrimp to the point they are scared. I will keep you posted. I leave today and will be back on Sunday. I know that trying to catch her would really put a stress on her, so i am leaving that as an absolute last result. Thanks!!!!

Regards,
Ivy

 

Ivy...if she eats well and you want to QT her without the stress of catching her you can to what I did...you will need 5 pieces of plexiglass...cut it as to make a cube with no top (mine is 10"X10") silicone all the pieces together except one...so you will have a cube with no top and one side missing...take skinny strips on the plexiglass to make grooves for the last side to slide into.. TADA you have an AWESOME fish trap that is hardly stressful at all..if your fish is hungry just drop a few pellets in the box wait for her to go in...release the trap door and she has nowhere to go but into a net...mine works like a charm everytime i need it (which is hardly ever) but i did have a lemon butterfly i needed to get rid of the other day (coral eater) and my tank is 6 ft long with over 200lbs of live rock and coral..i didnt have to budge 1 rock and it took about 10 seconds to catch him.

 

My blue tang died a couple days ago and I think she also had the "tang disease" or "black ich" or whatever you want to call it. I didn't think too much of the black spots on her face as there were so few however I did notice something wasn't right with the black stripe on her, like sometimes her color looked very "light" when the light hit her just right. Well, the other day she died (I guess she died because she hasn't come out for food since then and I cant find her)...

Regardless, my cleaner shrimp now has a lot of black spots on it which are a lot bigger than the black spots on the tang and they are all over it's back, not in a localized place. It's acting totally normal and I was just wondering if anyone knows if skunk shrimps are also susceptible to this? The tank also has a picasso trigger, clarkii, maroon clown, sixline wrasse, royal gramma basslet, peppermint shrimp & a black cucumber and they all seem fine so far...

 

I'm going to go ahead and respond to my own post. Upon some more research I have found that it could be associated with molting, which he did do a couple days ago. If this is the case it is normal and should not cause any kind of problem. I have had this shrimp for about a year and haven't ever noticed this before, however that doesn't mean much I guess.

Maybe the tang with black ich that just died this past week was irony...?

 

its a wonder you've been able to keep a trigger with a shrimp for a year....lol