Sick purple tang

[Craiz]

I added a couple of new fish to my tank a couple of weeks ago. They died last week and now my purple tang is showing signs of some kind of disease or infection that I haven't seen before. I didn't notice any signs of disease or infection on the other fish which died. The other fish appeared healthy and then were just dead one morning.

The tang is still eating ok, not as aggressively as before, but still eating. The tang is currently in a quarantine tank I do notice it sometimes swimming directly in front of a powerhead. I suspect the problem is affecting its gills so it's doing this to get extra oxygen.

Does anyone have any thoughts on what the infection may be or how to treat it?

Here is a picture of the left side of the fish.

Here is a picture of the right side of the fish.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Will wait for Lee to give opinion but looks like a secondary infection probably caused from Ich. Tangs are quite susceptible to it and it does affect the gills besides others. Did you notice any other signs on any of the three sick fish before such as little white specs?

 

[Craiz]

I did notice some small specks on the tangs tail fin and on the fins of my six-line wrasse. I thought they had Ich, but it cleared up and then the white spots on the tang showed up. I don't see any signs of Ich on any of the fish now.

I did notice another strange behavior. The six-line wrasse was pecking at the left side of the purple tang. The tang didn't seem bothered by it and would swim next to the wrasse and hold still. It was almost like the behavior with cleaner shrimp.

 

[Herefishyfishy]

OK, that helps to know. Ich cycles through many stages, only one is visible to the eye yet all are still present and growing daily.
Your fish most likely died from Ich and that is what is troubling your tang. He is injuring himself rubbing on rocks and the tank trying to rid himself of the parasite. The rapid breathing is from his gills being infected.
You need to start the proper hypo-salinity treatment for all your fish ASAP!

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Here are the three threads to get you going with info on Ich, a proper hospital tank, and how to treat all your fish.

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27003

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showpost.php?p=294780&postcount=1

http://www.reeffrontiers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=27155

 

[Craiz]

So, any tips or tricks on how to get a 1.5" six-line wrasse out of a 210g tank? The best I can think of is to try to bait him into a net or bag with some food. This is how I got the purple tang out. It's just so painful to finally coax them into the trap and barely miss.

Would a wide mouth liter bottle work with the top cut of and inverted inside the body of the bottle?

 

[Herefishyfishy]

Yes, use the fish trap made from a 2 liter bottle trick. Can find it here using search tool
Cut the screw end off to widen the hole as needed