White Fuzz on Kole Tang After Graze

[RollaJase]

What do you guys make of this? This white patch has appeared on my Kole Tang. I believe it grazed itself along the rock as it slept on its first night after introduction to the system. The first picture shows the graze along the lower edge of its body. This was larger and whiter and has considerably shrunk over the course of this past week. It's obviously been healing as the patch has shrunk and the colour is returning. The picture over exaggerates how white it is due to the editing.

This morning however, I noticed that some white fuzz has formed. This was immediately over the two areas that look to have been grazed the hardest/deepest. The Tang is swimming and eating fine, shows no signs of distress. To be honest, I'm slightly concerned as up until now I thought it was just a graze, I believe it to be getting infected now. I don't believe this is Crypto or HLLE, just a bacterial infection on the exposed/damaged flesh. Here is a close up of the two small fluffy patches.

The Tang gets fed a variety of different foods. It eats some fleshy foods when I feed the rest of the tank and it gets algae wafers, spirulina pellets and I am trying to get it onto sheets of Nori. When I feed the veggie based foods I allow them to soak in tank water with some garlic power for at least 15mins before adding them to the tank. I have some Seachem Garlic Guard on its way to make this a bit easier.

 

Should I let this run its course assuming its a bacterial infection and allow the immune system to fight it off or should I be more concerned?

[Newstead]

White fuzz usually signals fungal infections. Never had a Tang, so can't advise you on best treatment, but Furex-2 is often used - but in a QT only, I believe.

[RollaJase]

White fuzz usually signals fungal infections. Never had a Tang, so can't advise you on best treatment, but Furex-2 is often used - but in a QT only, I believe.

 

Thanks for the input. I agree, it definitely looks like it is a fungal infection. I have some Melafix and Fromalin on hand and if need be I can also get Cupermine and Pimafix locally.

 

 

Update on the Kole Tang. The discoloration of that area is mostly back to normal with the exception of the two slightly fluffy patches that I am fairly convinced are getting smaller. Taking a close look at the fish last night I think the patches look worse than they really are as they are on the very edge of the fish where the body curves and indents before attaching to the lower fins. The discoloration really makes it look like the patches are popping off the body but when you get a look at them from the front or the rear of the fish they are only slightly raised. When I went to pick up my NSW and RODI on Saturday I chatted to the guys at the LFS and they suggested Pimafix which I am very reluctant to try, particularly in the tank as catching this guy will be near impossible. They also suggested letting nature take its course and only look at QT and treatment if things take a turn for the worse. I also called the LFS I got the fish from and had a good chat to them about what happened and the symptoms. They highly recommended leaving the fish in the tank, particularly if it is still acting normal. Their rationale was that trying to catch the fish would cause it much more stress and seeing as the graze is healing itself they are fairly confident the Tang will fight this off on its own. When I told them the fish had put on a lot of weight in such a small period of time and had really coloured up they agreed that the fish would appear to be quite healthy.

 

So, I have left the Tang be for now. He has been getting fed with a variety of pellet and frozen foods, all soaked in tank water with garlic powder. If things start to look bad I'll attempt to catch the fish and isolate it in a separate QT tank.