Kole Tang with Marine Lymphocystis

[BornToHula]

First some background: I have a Kole Tang that at first I thought had ich due to white spots and growths that appeared shortly after I brought him home. However, after asking around various forums it was suggested it actually had marine lymphocystis. I didn't think of asking for advice here at the time, but if anyone is curious, this is how the Kole Tang looked about a month ago: http://imgur.com/a/8g5Zt

The tang has been in quarantine in a 40 Breeder for about 8 weeks total. It has been about a week since all of the white growths have completely disappeared and overall he is looking quite healthy and eating well. My question is: how long should I wait to put him in my display tank? I am hoping to put him in soon since he as been in quarantine so long, but I don't want to risk my other fish's health at the same time.

Thanks in advance for any advice, I hope to make a thread about my main tank once I can take some good pictures.

[Timfish]

If there is no obvious signs it's probably ok to add your fish to your display tank. Unfortunately, since the virus can survive long periods dried out, it's seems reasonable to me to suspect it will survive on a fish as well for long periods of time even though there may not be any outward signs. If this helps the only times I have seen it show up is on stressed fish and I've never seen it spred to other fish in the same system even though by definition it is a comunicable disease. And unless the growths are extreme and cover the gills or mouth it's unlikely to be fatal.

[BornToHula]

Yes, I think the virus appeared shortly after we got him due to stress. The first couple of weeks he was not handling the quarantine tank well at all, I had to black out the sides of the tank so he would stop freaking out when I approached the tank to feed and check up on him.

I have been trying to find out more about the virus, but like you said, It seems that the fish may never be cured and the virus just goes into hiding and can always re-appear later if the fish gets stressed again.

Thanks for the advise, I think I am going to go forward in putting him in the display tank. I will keep the quarantine up and running in case the virus pops up its ugly head again.