OH GREAT... NOW WHAT

[silverjfk]

Sorry to hear about your tang. Where did you purchase it from?

I bought a chevron around the same time and about 4 weeks ago it developed spots. I tried my best to use garlic guard and feed it so not to cause stress by moving it. Anyway, after a week or so and no signs of getting better I started evaluating options. Basically was ready to do something when it passed. Had it in a reef tank with a pair of Wyoming whites and a lawnmower blenny. While the tang had ich, the clowns and blenny showed no signs of ich. After the tang passed the clowns continued to be fine for half a week and then started to show signs. As soon as I noticed it on my clowns I set up a quarantine. To set up the quarantine I filled a 13 gallon tank with water from my main tank and added a heater, air stone, and small powerhead. I did the Calgary LFS loop and got every piece of advice under the sun. I ended up purchasing 4 things to try:

• New Life Spectrum Ick Guard Pellets: Tried to feed the pellets to my clowns in my reef tank. I only managed to get a single pellet in the female and after the first one they would no longer eat them. I read a lot people say the fish find them bitter. Anyway, tried soaking them in garlic guard, still nothing. They're supposed to contain chloroquine which is another ich method supposedly.

After trying such and failing, I purchased Cupramine, Polyplab Medic, and New Life Spectrum Ick Guard Powder:

• Cupramine: I basically purchased cupramine out of frustration because I heard so many miracle cures in the day and every other person disproving them. Finally, I decided I needed to do what people say works. When I added the cupramine I noticed a prominent change in my clowns. They became sluggish. I added it very slowly and I would stress if you choose to do so, add it as slow as possible. They took a little while to get used to it but after a bit started swimming again. I went to sleep extremely worried about them. Anyway, next day, they were still alive and swimming around, cut to ~8 hours later and they were no longer looking so hot. The boy was breathing heavy and laying in their clay pot. The female was much better than the boy, was swimming around, and was obsessed with the air stone. As I continued to watch them throughout the night it continued to get worse. The boy clown was breathing heavy and trying to dart to the top of the tank. He would come up and rest on the powerhead I had in the tank. In one final dart he missed the powerhead and floated to the bottom. At this point I put my hand in the tank to help him and he took his lat couple breaths sitting in my hand near the top of the tank. After such, I realized the girl clown was staying at the top of the tank as well so I decided enough was enough and did a 3 a.m. 50% water change. I know it isnt the best idea, i know it can be stressful but after seeing my boy clown suffer I had to do something. I completed the water change and she continued to swim around. Went to sleep and she was dead in the morning. In terms of cupramine, I wouldn't do it again. I think the copper treatment is too stressful. I would go with hyposalinity if I could do it again.

• Polyplab Medic: I heard about polyplab medic from one of the LFS's at the beginning of my ich advice day. The LFS assured me he uses it all the time, however the small 30 mL $45 bottle tells me that he most likely doesnt use it for his 10+ tanks regularly. Anyway, whether I was fooled or not, I bought it because it is reef safe and decided to make sure atleast my blenny was fine. I knew if my blenny got ich I would be screwed because he wont eat anything except for tank algae, so I wouldn't be able to quarantine him. Anyway, used it for 10 days as instructed, before 10 a.m. and after 10 p.m. After the 10 days, i noticed nothing different with my tank which is a good thing. Also my blenny seems to be spot free, though who knows if he was going to get it anyway. I would suggest this at the very least because it didn't negatively impact my tank and at least its a possibility it works. In my tank I had scolys, acans, zoas, plates, duncans, anemone's, snails, crabs, mysis, and cleaner shrimp. All were unaffected. In terms of using it, make sure to try and do a water change or two. My buddy Zoaelite is versed in chemistry and filled me in that the peroxide salts basically attack the cell membrane of the ich. To do so however, its good to have a lower DOC (Dissolved organic content) so that it will actually be able to target the parasites and not other things. Im not the best at explaining, if you wish to know more I can ask him again. Anyway, work or not, its something.

• New Life Spectrum Ick Guard Powder: I had to order online from BC so it took 3 or so days to get to me. By this time my fish were all dead. If you're any bit interested, I know denny at Concept Aquariums is now stocking at least one bottle after I spoke to him about it. I was interested to try it out as it has chloroquine, as with the pellets. I was kind of sad I didn't get to try this instead of the copper. I heard it may be less stressful. Anyway, its not reef safe so it requires quarantine, however it may be a viable option if anyones willing to try it. I was unable to find much information on people trying it. From what I could find, results were positive. Its a 21 day process.

Anyway, I hope for the best with your tang and other fish. I know my experience was hell. I hope you don't have to go through the same. Also, as mentioned earlier in the comments. If at all available and it starts to look even a bit better, try not to do anything. Stress is a big issue. Looking back I probably would've rather left my clowns in my tank.

[Trigger Man]

I had thought the same thing, but was talking to a LFS that seems to have great success with his newly received fish, and he has been following that regimen with no problems. I also searched on other large forums and found good success using both.
I tried it on my current new 4 fish in QT - blue tang, desjardini tang, flame angel and pakistani butterfly- and they all did fine. The biggest worry being that prazi can make fish less likely to feed. However I added S.E.L.C.O to the frozen food and pellets and the fish have continued to feed and fatten up. This is now week 4 on QT for the fish. Of note all of these fish are 3-3.75 inches so I can not say if smaller fish would have more problems.

Originally Posted by reefwars

Smart man , don't add prazi to cuprime in particular, it would not be good

[reef-keeper]

You should take three to four days to add the recommended dose of cupramine. Also buy a copper test to verify the correct dose. Testing every day at the same time of day.

[Skimmin]

Well thanks for the heads up. I believe if the fishes immune system is severly comprimised it is possible that they are more likely to succumb to the treatment. Ive been told copper is essentially the chemotherapy of fish medication. It kills the bad stuff but also takes its toll on the good stuff too. Essentially suppressing the immune system further and if the fish are too weak to begin with, may cause fatality. I hope everyone pulls through this. This previous Saturday when I removed my fish from the tank I added metroplex and melafix to my 30gal quarantine rubbermaid. Because Im away from home my girlfriend is going to dose the quarantine tub for me again tonight with metroplex and melafix. Hopefully that will get the removal and healing process going. If they are not too stressed and still alive by Saturday I am going to do a substantial water change and add the Cupramine to the water change water only very slowly and in low levels to hopefully keep the stress down. I'm going to go slow because my display tank isnt going to see fish for at least another 12 to 16 weeks just to be on the safe side. That gives me a lot of time to treat everyone. Unfortunately this is all I can do for now.