ick on hippo blue tang

[fishguy007]

ick on hippo blue tang
my hippo blue tang had ick and it is getting worse by the day. what causes this and is there a way to rid of it quickly.

someone at the store said dip the fish in fresh water for 5 minutes?


any suggestions. i dont want to loose the fish.

[deano]

You will need to quarantine all of your fish in a hyposalinty quarantine (1.009) for at least 2 weeks. Then slowly raise the salinity to your regular level over another period of 2 weeks. You need to quarantine all you fish because they are likely hosting the ich, but not showing any signs.

I'm not sure if this is enough time for the ich to die off in your display tank. Someone else may be able to chime in here.

Did you quarantine the tang before you added it to your display tank?

[naesco]

Deano asked some good questions

Go to a health food store and buy some garlic extract or get some garlic extreme made by Kent from a lfs.
Take some dry food and using the dropper soak the food for 5 minutes and put it in the tank. Feed a little 6 times a day. The ich will come off but don't stop as it is part of the ich cycle. Keep up the 'often feeding'.

Good luck

[mark]

If the tank's a reef (or ever planning on being one) you'll need to treat the Tang and any other fish outside the current tank.

Not a reef and other fish that are not copper sensitive can treat with in-place with copper.

[Trigger Man]

Try No Sick Fish Ick medication. It's a little pricy but it has worked well for me. I have used it in my reef display tank with no problems.

[Aquattro]

If the fish is otherwise in good shape, it's just stress related and I've always used garlic as described by Naesco above. Make sure the tank is clean, lots of hiding places and nobody is picking on it. Healthy fish can get rid of ich without too much trouble.
Removing, quarantining or dipping in FW are all going to cause additional stress.

[Leah]

I have had a lot of luck with using selcon just soak the food in it and feed. And I often
soak my algae in it, I just attach the clip, set in a dish and squirt, let it soak and put it
in the tank, easy sqwezzy! I don't remove anyone, as I have never been able to magically transport fish out of my reef, never seem to cooperate.
lol, Leah
________
buy extreme q (http://vaporizers.net/extreme-vaporizer)

[mark]

sort of two positions here
-get rid of it
-manager it.

Though I guess I'm of the latter, but seems the only way to get rid of it, is to break the ich's life cycle through quarantine or nuke it with copper. Issue with just leaving in the tank is though maybe not visible is it still stressing the fish where it can't be seen (gills)?

[Aquattro]

Mark, I think my point is let the fish manage it. Healthy stress-free fish can do this all by themselves. The trick is to keep the fish healthy and stress free. Every tang I ever added got ich for day or two, then went away. In my last tank, "went away" meant for years.

New additions often get ich. If the whole tank of fish get ich, then there is something wrong with the tank, and wiping out this indicator with chemicals isn't fixing the root cause.

Help the new addition with added nutrition (with garlic) and they'll settle in fine.

[mark]

Mark, I think my point is let the fish manage it. Healthy stress-free fish can do this all by themselves. The trick is to keep the fish healthy and stress free. Every tang I ever added got ich for day or two, then went away. In my last tank, "went away" meant for years.

New additions often get ich. If the whole tank of fish get ich, then there is something wrong with the tank, and wiping out this indicator with chemicals isn't fixing the root cause.

Help the new addition with added nutrition (with garlic) and they'll settle in fine.

Brad, totally understand what your saying, got a Regal that showed a couple spots last year. Was considering setting up a long term QT for all my fish, ripping apart the display to catch them, but then after the spots disappearing after a day or so and nothing since never bothered.

Not to bait Naesco but back to the OP, what size of tank and how long you had the fish?

[naesco]

I have had a lot of luck with using selcon just soak the food in it and feed. And I often
soak my algae in it, I just attach the clip, set in a dish and squirt, let it soak and put it
in the tank, easy sqwezzy! I don't remove anyone, as I have never been able to magically transport fish out of my reef, never seem to cooperate.
lol, Leah

Yes, I forgot to add that I use some selcon in the garlic once a day to give the fish a little boost.

[ron101]

Do you have any cleaner shrimp? I just had an outbreak and my sailfin tang was smart enough to avail himself of the skunk cleaner shrimp cleaning station.

[fishguy007]

i am using garlic. looks like the ick goes away and then comes right back. been going on for about a week. i just want it to go away for good.

[Der_Iron_Chef]

There have been some good suggestions here already. In order to get rid of the parasite permanently, the fish (all of them) will need to be removed to quarantine and treated (as already mentioned, so I won't bother going into detail).

Having said that, and like it's already been mentioned, that's not necessarily necessary. I have had several fish which seemed to have very minor cases of ich, but with a healthy, varied diet, as well as fostering a community of fish that complement each other (not placing extremely aggressive species with more docile, "community" species, etc.), these symptoms should not continue to reappear.

What are all the other inhabitants in your aquarium? And can you give some more details of your system?

[naesco]

i am using garlic. looks like the ick goes away and then comes right back. been going on for about a week. i just want it to go away for good.

Are you stopping the garlic treatment after you see the ich go away?
You must continue the garlic treatment until the ich does not return.
As mentioned add selcon from time to time and buying a cleaner shrimp is good as well.