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That Powder Blue Tang


rossco

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My thinking: -

Looking back, I introduced fish that brought the whitespot with them (obviously) - I saw suspicious spots that appeared to clear up. They were on some of my first fish - the damsels. They have lovingly cultured the WS ever since making it 'endemic' in the tank. Subsequent fish haven't been as susceptible as the recent tang who only started to demonstrate WS in my main tank (not in quarantine with different water).

I would have pulled him out of main tank to quarantine and treat for Ws but what then when he was right again? I am sure he was liable to be reinfected as soon as we put him back in the main tank.

The only real effective option will be to remove ALL of the fish out of my main tank, treat with hyposalinity for 6+ weeks, and then return to Whitespotless main tank. Any further additions to tank would be treated by way of hyposalinity for 6 weeks.

With all the drama, and risk involved in shifting fish, I am trying to put off until yup we do get a bigger tank and can combine both actions.

One thing I do know, you can have a further severe case of Ws in a tank, over several weeks, without obvious signs on other resident fish who previously had whitespot. A variety of fish species MUST be able to develop a high degree of resistance/immunity to a WS attack.

Yup, know I am playing with fire but some people I know do that for a career...! :wink:

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Your onto it Ross, got it sussed.

Cracker has a PBT which has had white spot for quite a while but must be slowly getting immune. One thing to bear in mind if you have such a fish in the tank it will be putting more stress on the other fish as large numbers of new white spot are continously being produced by the infected fish. However it is clear all your aother fish must be immune, so should be OK provided you don't have a stress event such as overheating.

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Well team this is the PBT about a week ago. Had by this stage showing signs of WS for about 2 weeks. Irritated some days more than others but still eating well and getting regularly cleaned by shrimps.

ef90b40b.jpg

This week, he has still been reasonably happy although WS coverage seemed to have increased. Most cysts kept very small though. Over the last few days we have been thinking about hauling him out as its been over 3 weeks and now sign of WS getting less.

This morning he decided for us when we woke up to find him looking like this and definitely 'off-colour' behaviour wise!

0cf75be2.jpg

There isn't actually a lot of sign of WS but what looks awfully crap in the photo (taken in quarantine tank after catching him) is what I think is the damaged/dead skin sloughing (peeling) off him.

After a battle of man brain versus fish brain and reflex he ended up in the QT without too much stress on him. Dunked in freshwater for 10 minutes and now starting copper treatment.

He actually looked worse in the main tank than what photo shows as its after FW treatment.

Now getting geared up to remove all remaining fish form main tank and do hyposalinity treatment on them in the next few days (plan 53C).

I'm gonna kill this WS out of my tank even if it kills me.... :cry:

Can you guys rub those fishy talismans again....

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I tried hyposalinity and it works, but there is a drawback, you just have to slip up ONCE during the 6 weeks by letting salinity go over 1.009. and the whitespot will return, and you have to start over. ( This happened to me).

Now I'm going copper, harder on the fish, but also harder to screw up.

But for your PBT, along with whatever other treatment you give him, lowering salinity to say 1.020, or even 1.017, will help him while he is full of holes, he won't have to work as hard to maintain osmotic balance. The fishes own osmotic pressure is 1.007, so he has to work to maintain the difference and when they are sick if you can relieve them of some of this burden, they have a better chance at survival.

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:cry:

Afraid it tipped over yesterday.

The WS seemed to have made too much of an impact on his skin and immune system as once he started to deteriorate he just got worse.

Right up until he started to 'peel' he was eating well and behaving as though he was reasonably comfortable.

Its a real lesson for me to not underestimate this WS threat and that there is real FINE line between the road to recovery and the road to dead.

I'm still proceeding with hyposalinity for the rest of fish so I at least 'know' that WS has been eliminated from my tank and I can then try to keep it that way!

I'm gonna have a real neat tank one day.... :(

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Thanks guys for your support. Its only salties like yourselves that truly do know how it feels to lose a 'stupid fish' (that I'm sure used to smile whenever I walked into the room :( )

So also know how it feels to want to beat 'it' so we can better enjoy a neat part of our lives! So understand why the next fish I get is going to be another PBT when I have got things more sussed... :roll:

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hey rossco im a freshy and i fully understand where you are coming from and i am very sorry for you. we too have 'stupid fish' that we spend lots of money on and absolutely adore. trust me, we know how you feel.im sure you will get another PBT just as beautiful as this one and hope you have succes in your fish keeping in the future.

Regards

**Evil**

:bounce:

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I would advise ALL reefers to read up about PBT's in the WET WEB MEDIA site hosted by Bob Fenner.

Powder Blue tangs are not recommended because of there difficulty.

If you do have one, (Like myself), you are taking the risk of killing it.

They are not meant to be in captivity.

Only the odd one will adapt.

I might be a lucky one, Im still not sure. Ive already lost one prior to this one. Its still not ideal for the poor fish though.

However the importers still bring them here, so if we dont take them, they will only die in the importers tanks i guess, and that happens regularly as far as I'm aware.

Just food for thought!

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However the importers still bring them here, so if we dont take them, they will only die in the importers tanks i guess, and that happens regularly as far as I'm aware.

Thats one way to look at it. Another way to look at it would be that the only reason they bring them in is because people buy them... But i've been wrong before.

Pie

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They are not meant to be in captivity.

You could say the same for copper bands, Achilles tangs, powder browns, leopard wrasse, morish idols, etc.

What happens to all the fish that come in. over 1000 fish a month come in and we have less than 200 hobbyist. Most fish die. even the basic coral beauties.

Powder blues, Achilles tangs, powder brown don’t have any scales so they get white spot easy.

Problem is that most powder blues might have been cyanided.

I think if you have a well matured tank they should be ok.

Water quality is the key to success.

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