# yellow tang suddenly sick



## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

woke up today to find my yellow tang laying on his side gasping at the bottom of the tank, looks totally healthy was eating like a champ the night before. I hear they can choke on food pretty easily, ive looked into its mouth but cant see any blockage. Levels are all normal other than my calcium being a little high and all other fish doing well, any ideas?


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Sorry to hear that.

Elevated Ca should be of concern.

Eliminating water quality and ability to eat, you have to do a dissection to investigate further. Visible internal issues would be fatty depostis in the abdominal cavity and a pale liver. I'll upload a pic later when I get home to better show you/everyone. and a his is one of the reasons why it's strongly suggested that tangs be put in 90+ gal systems. They need the space to swim and burn off the "calories" that is generally fed in a captive system.


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## mrobson (Mar 5, 2011)

Ca isnt off the charts just a bit higher than recommended i have quite a few inverts and a decent amount of coral so i figured they would soak it up rather than chemically reducing it. As for swimming space he wasnt very big i got him when he was abut the size of a toonie and my rock work is stacked to maximize swim space. I do have a few different types of chalice, hammers and frog spawn but i dont think they would be big enough to bring down a tang.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Judging by the shading on the front of the chin/breast/keel leading edge...he looks to be slightly on the thin side to me. The silvery undertone in the abdomen is the tissue that lines the abdominal cavity (peritoneum), should have an even appearance for a healthy fish.

Most likely is has been carrying something for quite sometime, ie intestinal parasite.


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## Tim (Dec 11, 2011)

wtac said:


> Most likely is has been carrying something for quite sometime, ie intestinal parasite.


mrobson sorry for your loss 

Sorry a bit off topic, 
Wtac, will prazipro treat ALL intestinal parasites? I treat mine with prazi while in quarantine but I am always afraid it will miss something.


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Praziquatel is best suited for tapeworms and flukes. They are generally the main culprit but there are others internal parasites that it won't or take a longer treatment time.

Other meds to consider if Prazi doesn't work but ideally one should use a few "meds" to broaden the spectrum of killing as generally speaking, the window of opportunity is quite small before the fish succumbs to effect of parasite load or weakened too much to deal with the effects of the meds.

Metronidazole: protozoas

Chloroquine Phospate: flagellated/cilliated single cell organisms

Fenbendazole or Flubendazole: GI parasites

Levamisole or Ivermectin: general dewormers

JME/2C


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## Tim (Dec 11, 2011)

wtac

Is there a site that lists how to figure out which parasite the fish has? I would hate to have to go through that entire list of meds before figuring out what the fish has. Considering how fast some of these fish succumb to these parasites, I don't think you would even have time.


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## Flexin5 (Nov 12, 2011)

how long did you have the yellow tang for?


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## wtac (Mar 17, 2006)

Sorry, been awhile that I have free time on the computer with work and family.

Getting the meds is the tricky part as there are regulatory controls to get it legally.

IMHO/E in QT treatment, it's the external nasties that you have to treat first as they cause more problems initially and quickly. After that, it's internal treatment.

www.chucksaddiction.com/disease.html covers it well with pics.


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