Black Spots (Ick) on Yellow Tang

[bhamzookeeper]

Hey Folks,

Today, I noticed black spots on my Yellow Tang. So, I did some online researching and found that Tangity Tang (yeah, I was made to name it), has what looks like Black Ick. One suggested treatment is a Fresh Water regiment followed by a formalin treatment.

One website talks about leaving the main tank void of any fish for about 4 weeks, so that the worms can go through their life cycle without being able to have a host fish.

They speak about a QT and another two containers for a FW dip and second for the formalin.

In my tank, I have pulsing xenia, 3 green star polyps, green cromis and 1 yellow tail blue damsel and the yellow tang. My tank is 29 gal.

Is there a treatment that I can do within my current tank? Any suggestions?

Thanks,

Billy

 

[Tomoko Schum]

Sorry to hear about the parasite infestation. A fw dip and a Formalin or Dylox dip seem to be the treatment of choice for that, but you cannot use Formalin or Dylox in the display tank.

Marine biologist Terry Fairfield suggests the use of a diatom filter on the display tank to capture the worms if the infestation is very light.

By the way, a 29 gallon tank is really too small for a yellow tang.

Tomoko

 

[bhamzookeeper]

Oh, its a small Tang (2in) which I would eventually move to a 55.

How could ick come into my tank? I just added the green polyps one week ago. And 4 wks ago, I did a total water change, cleaned the substrate and live rock, as my nitrates were sustaining at high levels.

 

[Tomoko Schum]

It might have been on your tang to start with. This is simply a speculation, but it might have finally shown up when a high nitrate level stressed the immune system of the fish.

Tomoko