ich on tang

[reefandt]

my purple tang developed some ich. i have a reef tank. i wonder if Kick-ich works? does anyone know anything esle i can do to get rid of the ich without harming my corals? thanks

[Skimmerking]

Catch the tang and put him into a QT tankwith copper in there.

Or add garlic to the tank to drop the ick spores.

Buy some garlic in capsule form and open the it squeeze out the garlic and then mix with flake food. But remeber the skimer sill shut down and not produce bubble for about 6-8 hrs ....

mike

[OCDP]

I second what Mike says.... try garlic first though.. and you may notice the ich goes away... keep water paramaters the best you can.. and yes feeding garlic will put your skimmer on the fritz for a few good hours.

[adidas]

i bought the same type of tang from the same tank at big als, i think they already had something, as mine is infected with something as well

[Chin_Lee]

I really don't like to use copper on tangs. i had a powder blue that died rather quickly after the first day of copper treatment and the first day was not at the full strength treatment. but then again pb are rather sensitive and purples are just dogs (ime) so it might work. But do try garlic first and maybe a neon goby (cleaner goby) to eat that ick off the tang.
Its really bad practice but i've recently acquired a cleaner wrasse (despite their poor reputation to survive long-term in captivity so back off cleaner wrasse police) to assist with parasites and ick on newly bought more "expensive" fish. (ie Achilles tang). Its more like a sacrificial lamb to help the tang get through the first couple weeks/months and its kinda more like an investment than a novelty. Also I've been feeding the tank with newly hatch bbs that the cleaner wrasse goes crazy on so I'm hoping the cleaner will survive more long-term than normal.

[danny zubot]

I went through this about 2 months ago in my 65 gallon tank. My regal tang gave everyone ick. I tried Kick Ick and can tell you honestly to save your money, it doesn't work.

Do yourself a favour and quarentine all of your fish and give them hyposalinity treatment. It is a painstaking process but you'll be glad you did it after when your fish are healthy. Garlic works well as a immunity booster and does a good job of preventing ick as a result, but it is not an ick treatment IMO.

[Chin_Lee]

thats probably the best suggestion yet Danny. I do have an issue with qt tanks in that they are usually smaller and they do not have the best water quality (ie no skimmer, less circulation=less o2 in water) which results in that i cannot get myself to put a good size fish in my qt tank because they look so stress in such a small tank. ie i just got a 5" achililes tang that i could not put into my 15g qt tank. it was already looking stress at the pet store in a 75g tank so I just threw it in my main tank (with the cleaner wrasse).
if only i had room for a 100g quarantine tank...... :biggrin:

[shadowboy]

IME QT tanks are death traps, I have lost 7 fish QT and have never lost a fish to ick. Anthony gave me the best advice, just let the fish deal with it and let them build a natural immunity to it. My fish were coveredd in ich, including a really badly infected blue tang. I fed them garlic, greens, 4 cleaner shrimp and high water quality. My fish got rid of the ich in 2 weeks and havent had any of it back. In the wild they obviously dont have copper or hyposalinity, so they relie on biological cleaners, such as shrimp, wrasses, gobies, and some types of angels, butterflys etc. Keep up water quality, dont QT him and feed lots of garlic and and a varied diet with lots of greens. JME

tristan

[christyf5]

They have sharknose gobies at J&L right now that should do the trick if the garlic isn't working :biggrin:

[Johnny Reefer]

IME QT tanks are death traps, I have lost 7 fish QT

Are you testing and changing your QT water?

Ammonia will spike almost immediately in a QT tank and eventually it will also cycle and you will get NO2 and NO3 spikes as well.

The best advice I was given, re: QT tanks, is test the water frequently (like every couple of days) and change the water alot. (25% water change every day).

I know it's alot of work, but it's worth it, IME.

BTW, Coppersafe is my QT med of choice. Just supplement on top of regular dose, to account for so much water changing.
(QT'ed a Powder Blue, and others, this way, no prob).

Cheers,

[danny zubot]

QTs do require more maintainence than your show tank for sure. But in the case of doing hyposalinty treament you will find that you are contantly changing water anyways, so for that purpose they aren't as bad. Size of course is always the issue.

[Johnny Reefer]

...hyposalinty treament...

Hey Danny,

I remember you mentioning hyposalinity treatment a few months back with your ich issue. What exactly is that?

Cheers,

[shadowboy]

hyposalinity is treatment for ich using water with a lower salainty level than regular saltwater. The ich parasites will drop from the fish, not able to survive in these conditions.I have tried this with tangs, tangs should never be exposed to copper IMO. It kills the helpful bateria in there digestive system, this also goes for angels and fish without scales, such as puffers, marine catfish... i think copper is effective but extremly harsh on the fish and there is too many things that can go wrong with it for me to use it.
Qt has never worked for me, i find the water volume to unstable, but i know other people use it with great sucess. Just find what works best for you

tristan

[OCDP]

I was beaten to it... well put ! :smile:

[danny zubot]

What he said. There is a specific way to do hyposalinity treatment to achive the results you need with minimal stress to the fish. I did loose my lionfish during this process only to find out later that they are extreamly sensitive to hyposalinity. All other fish are thriving now.

[reefandt]

lots of reply on this topic, thanks guys. just a update on my purple tang. i run a UV sterilizer last night, i did feed garlic to the fish - I just soaked frozen food with crushed garlic in water. I also have 1 cleaner shrimp and 3 fire shrimps in my tank. so far, the tang is doing well, it has lost half of the white spots. As for where it got the ick in the first place, i think it always had them. I got this tang 4 months ago, white spots appeared from time to time. i guess it is a reaction to poor water quality and stress. I bought some new fish from JLa few days ago, i think there was some fighting going on in the tank which stressed the tang. anyways, I dont think i will use the kick-ich because i have heard some poor feedback from others. i will continue to feed garlic to the fish, hopefully the ich will disappear soon. thanks everyone.

[danny zubot]

Tangs are definately ick magnets, good luck!