# Yellow tang with red rash on body



## Hannahmaysmom

I have a 6 yr 55 gal reef tank with 10 fish. No new fish have been added for 3 years. Over the last couple of days I have noticed my yellow tang (in 4 1/2 yrs) has a red rash on back area. What is going wrong? All tests within normal limit and all else healthy (fish, shrimp, hard & soft corals, etc). Love my tang is there anything I can do to help or cure her?


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## Pasfur

I would really need pictures to offer much assistance. When you say all readings are within normal limits, I would be concerned with pH, alkalinity, calcium, and nitrate. Are you testing for each of these?


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## onefish2fish

im interested in your exact parameters for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, ca, mag, alk, salinity, temp. 
and what fish do you have?

welcome to the forum.


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## Hannahmaysmom

*I will get current tank parameters tonight*

I just had a knee reconstr. so I will have to wait until I have help, but I will get exact water parameters tonight and post them. The fish currently in the aquarium are 3 osc.clowns(4yrs), 1 blue dev(6yrs), 3 pj cardinals (3yrs), 1 cole tank (4yrs) and my yellowtang - so i can't count i only have 9 fish  The rocks are covered in various hard and soft corals which the clowns love to use as surrogate anenomes. Various peppermint shrimp, blue leg hermits and turbo snails. No nuisance hair, green or red algaes. The rash looks like small areas of red raised sunburn. I could get a photo but I have no way to down load it to the web, i'm lucky if i can send them on my cell. Water changes are every Wed n Sun. Nitrates are always a little less then 10ppm Nitrites always 0. This is a beautiful, healthy tank that people love to watch. I accept fish loss as a part of life, but if something has changed that is adversely affecting my tang I would like to fix it. By-the-by, the only fish loss in the last 3 years was clown #4 who dove out of the tank during the night, so I had netting put across the back and that solved the problem. Thank you for your help. Be back later with tank parameters.


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## Hannahmaysmom

Pasfur & onefish2fish tank parameters are as follows as of 7:30 8 May, pH8.1/8.2, Calcium 380, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 10-15ppm, Ammonia 0, salinity 1.024, temp 77.8 (rages 77.8-78.5 daily and drops to 75.9 during a water change), Alkalinity I ran 2 diff. brand tests and test 1: 2.75 (ran twice), test 2: 4.5 (ran twice) which to believe and why? buying new test kit Sunday to solve problem. I have never tested for mag. I use a two part buffer system for alk/cal., add iodine 1tsp 1x/wk, stron.mix 1tsp 1x/wk they eat flake 2x/day, pellet 1-2x/week and frozen mysd.shrimp 2-3x/wk. please help if you can thank you


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## Pasfur

Describe the red rash in more detail. Is it a blotch? Is it a color change, or a growth? Is it elongated like a pencil or round like a nickle? What color red?.... deep red or pinkish? Is it clearly defined, or does it kind of fade away making it difficult to see the exact borders? Is the area around the rash white in color? Is the Yellow color of the Tang faded? Is there any discoloration around the eyes, or puffiness around the eyes? Gills? Pec fins?

Next, look closely at your Kohl Tang. Do you see any symptoms?


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## Hannahmaysmom

The rash is slightly raised bi-lateral blotchy pink/peachy area starting around and encompassing the area around the white tail spike and continuing, unevenly up the the sides to about mid body. It unevenly follows the lateral line, but is more highly concentrated around the tail area. The left side of the body has slightly less rash area than right. The yellow tang being about 5" from nose to tail, the rash on the left side would (total area) be less then a quartercoin in size, but (total area) 1 1/2 quarters (coin) total area on right. The areas are not round like coins, they are distinct blotchy areas, varying in size and extending up/down. The borders are exact and it appears to be SLIGHTLY raised, but VERY SLIGHT. The largest area being tail portion of right side with the area being the actual size of a dime. There is no puffiness or swelling anywhere else on the body and she is behaving and eating fine. It is not even enough for a color change and too spread out and uneven to be a growth. There is no color fading on her body, she's bright yellow. There are no white areas, ick, holes, open lacerations, etc. It simply looks like blotchy areas of pinkish rash that the fish appears totally unaware is even there. If this were to appear on the Kole, it would be undetectable for color (unless his color faded, etc in area of rash) and would only be detectable IF you caught sight of slightly raised rash area as he was swimming by at an angle. This could just be "one of those things" and I could let it play out, I was just hoping to help. Thank you for letting me pick your brain.


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## Pasfur

My personal approach to these situations is to agree with you. I would just let it play out. It is very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately diagnose a fish unless you have a microscope and some level of experience with such things. 

There is nothing here that sound like the beginning of a Crypto outbreak, so I would be inclined to watch it carefully for the next several weeks, unless new symptoms develop or other fish become infected. 

It certainly would not be a bad idea to begin feeding a garlic supplement, if you are not already doing so. I have personally become convinced of garlic's ability to boost the immunity of fish. Last year I had an ich outbreak on my Coral Beauty Angel and my only treatment was a daily feeding of garlic enhanced pellets. It was very effective and the fish has been ich free now for nearly 9 months. Ich (Crypto) tends to follow other infections easily, so I would suggest this as a preventative of sorts.

My instint on this situation is to watch your alkalinity carefully. Tangs are very sensitive to pH swings, so testing your levels in the morning and again at night, monitoring the swing, could provide information as to the cause. A pH probe would be a worthy investment. If your pH is swinging more than .2 from low to high during the day, then perhaps a more careful study of your alkalinity and dosing routine would prove helpful.

Finally, stray voltage in the aquarium is a consideration. Do you have any new equipment? If your heater glass? Perhaps it has a crack in the glass??


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## macotto

I would really need pictures to offer much assistance. When you say all readings are within normal limits, I would be concerned with pH, alkalinity, calcium,so I will have to wait until I have help, but I will get exact water parameters tonight and post them. The fish currently in the aquarium are 3 osc.clowns(4yrs), 1 blue dev(6yrs), 3 pj cardinals (3yrs), 1 cole tank (4yrs) and my yellowtang - so i can't count i only have 9 fish  The rocks are covered in various hard and soft corals which the clowns love to use as surrogate anenomes.


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